manny
09-27-2004, 08:23 AM
REMEMBERING DAN SNYDER: ONE YEAR LATER
Thrasher's legacy lives on
'We try to remember the good that Dan always did,' mom says
By JOHN MANASSO (jmanasso@<hidden>)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/24/04
Elmira, Ontario — A lady in California sent a check.
A couple in Dan Snyder's hometown informed guests they were donating money instead of providing wedding favors.
http://www.ajc.com/shared-local/images/1pix_trans.gif
As time unfolds, the gestures keep coming. More than 2,000 cards and letters in all.
Wednesday marks one year since the car crash involving Snyder and Thrashers' teammate Dany Heatley. Six days later, Snyder died in Grady Hospital's Intensive Care Unit of an infection - his neurosurgeon believes Snyder would have survived his head injuries.
Graham and LuAnn Snyder, Dan's parents, have received pictures of their son with people from his travels in North America: His junior team in Owen Sound, Ontario, his IHL team in Orlando, his AHL team in Chicago, his NHL team in Atlanta.
Some cards came with money. There were fund-raisers: pins sold with his No. 37; a golf tournament; a charity auction organized by the NHL Players Association.
In all, nearly $350,000 (Canadian) has been raised for a variety of charities. The charities are part of Snyder's legacy: a self-sustaining fund that will provide four scholarships for youth in his home province, a rink and community center his family hopes to help build in his name and a chair endowed at Emory University's department of neurology.
Snyder's legacy is felt more deeply in the relationships he left behind - the people who recall a remarkable life that ended at age 25.
"Even though it's hard, so much good has come out of this," said LuAnn, tears coming to her eyes. "We try to remember the good that Dan always did and that he keeps doing from the grave. For me, being the kind of person he was, it didn't surprise me."
Said Dan Marr, the Thrashers scout who convinced the team to sign Snyder: "I don't spend as much time with players as I did with Snydes. All the contact I had with Dan, he relayed everything I said through to his parents. By extension, that keeps my relationship with Dan going.
"They're going through all these different stages. Like every time they see the barbecue: That was Dan's job. They're going through all these emotions. You feel for them."
A tragedy strikes
LuAnn Snyder recently reached into a kitchen cabinet for the medicine her son Dan was taking from a surgical procedure about a year ago. She can't remember if it was dental surgery to fix a notorious gap-toothed smile or the ankle surgery that sidelined him during training camp, which concluded with the news that Snyder had made the team.
Despite the ankle injury, Snyder - who was staying with Heatley - had just been told by the team's general manager Don Waddell to find a place of his own. It was Waddell's way of telling Snyder he was a Thrasher. Heatley and Snyder were on their way home from dinner on the night of the Sept. 29 crash.
Hospital workers could not find a number to locate Snyder's parents. He was in need of surgery after being thrown from Heatley's Ferrari some time after 10 p.m. The hospital needed the parents' permission to operate to relieve a depressed skull fracture.
Using Snyder's cell phone, hospital workers called the home of Snyder's best friend, whose parents put them in touch with Graham and LuAnn at about 1:30 a.m.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta was on-call and got to the hospital at about 2 a.m. He said the operation to repair the skull fracture took an hour and a half. Snyder was medicated to remain in a coma for healing.
According to Gupta, Snyder was doing well several days later. When Graham asked if it was OK to return home to tend to some business, Gupta seemed to think it was safe.
Once the infection took hold, however, Snyder succumbed quickly. Graham was forced to learn the news by phone from his wife.
"I think he would have lived," Gupta said. "I don't know what his neurological status would've been. People always ask me, 'Would he have been able to play hockey?' No way, I can't tell you that. When he died of the infection, we were pretty confident he wouldn't die of his head injury at that point."
Snyder's cause of death on the coroner's report was originally listed as head trauma. But LuAnn, a nurse, remembered the 104-degree temperature. She said she couldn't understand why she met with resistance when she asked for her son's organs to be donated.
"They kind of poo-poo-ed," she said. " 'We can't use his organs.' Well, why can't you use his organs? 'Well, we'll see.' For a young healthy person, that didn't seem normal."
So she asked for an autopsy that ultimately changed the cause of death from head trauma to septic shock.
"I, not demanded, but insisted on an autopsy," she said. "They were a little reluctant. At that point, I could feel myself separated, the medical side from the parent's side, and some of the things I saw weren't being addressed, medically."
It still upsets LuAnn Snyder that her son's organs were too toxic to be donated.
Dr. Gupta said after Snyder's death he consulted with the other doctors involved to determine how the infection might have taken hold.
"He had an operation on his abdomen because of the nature of his injuries we wanted to see if there was organ damage there," he said. "He had sinus fractures in his face. He was given medications that might keep his blood pressure up but make constrict, which is a higher risk for infection. There are lots of different possible ways."
LuAnn Snyder said she cannot allow herself the possibility that were it not for the infection, her son might have survived.
"I can't go there," she said. "You can go there. But I've gone there and it's too hard."
[b]Coping
The first time Graham and LuAnn met Murray and Karin Heatley, Dany Heatley's parents, was the morning of Sept. 30 at Grady Hospital. Since then, they have grown close, as have their sons, Dany and Jake.
Jake Snyder stayed with Dany Heatley for about a week last season. They vacationed together this summer in California on a trip Dan was supposed to be a part of.
Sitting in his parents living room wearing a Boston Red Sox hat - "I pull for the underdog," he said, making reference to his brother - Jake Snyder said he thinks the relationship helps both heal.
"I think so," he said. "Him as much as me, too."
At a charity golf tournament in July - just days before Heatley was indicted on charges of first- and second-degree vehicular homicide - Dany, his parents and his brother Mark stayed at the Snyders' home in Elmira.
The Snyders also attended Canada's World Cup of Hockey games, as Dany played for team Canada, in Toronto with the Heatleys.
Graham Snyder was asked if the relationship was awkward.
"I don't think so at all," he said. "They've been good to us. We try to be good to them."
LuAnn recalled how their community treated Heatley as one of their own. The night after the golf tournament, members of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip played along with Jake Snyder. LuAnn said Heatley was just one of about 500 people in the crowd.
"He was just a person there," she said.
Throughout Heatley's legal ordeal, the Snyders have voiced their opposition to the Fulton County District Attorney's office.
"We suffer with Dany," LuAnn said. "My heart aches for him, too."
While their relationship with the Heatleys has been a salve on their wounds, the public nature of their grieving has not. The day Heatley was indicted, media camped outside the Snyders' house and television reporters knocked on their door.
"That's the hard part," LuAnn said.
"Certainly, it changes the dynamics of the grieving process," Graham said. "We don't have time for normal - whatever the normal way most people do it is."
Honoring Dan's memory
Graham and LuAnn described their son as irate when he learned that a study commissioned by his hometown did not call for the building of a new ice rink for 13 years - 13 years too late, they said.
Graham spoke critically at a public meeting about the plan. Dan decided to help the crusade by using his connections with other NHL players to raise funds.
So when he wasn't there to carry on, his family made it their mission. The Dan Snyder Memorial Fund now takes up a good deal of Graham Snyder's time. It is overseen by a board, including Snyder's former agent and a local banker.
Graham has had to quit his role as general manager of the local junior hockey team because of the new endeavors.
The Dan Snyder Memorial Fund is where nearly $250,000 of that money sits while the family attempts to begin the project. They need the support of a small, rural township (about 18,000 people) whose officials don't want to go into debt.
The Snyders hope if they raise one-third, one-third will come from local funds and the rest will come from government grants. They project the entire cost at between $10 and $15 million and hope to have enough money in a few years.
While most of the year the Snyders can dedicate their energies to fund-raising and the like, the coming week will be different. The Snyders say they have been portrayed as stoic, but that is their public face, not their private one. They have made no special plans for Oct. 5, the day Dan died.
That day will be for reflection.
"It'll be a difficult period, I'm sure," Graham said.
Thrasher's legacy lives on
'We try to remember the good that Dan always did,' mom says
By JOHN MANASSO (jmanasso@<hidden>)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/24/04
Elmira, Ontario — A lady in California sent a check.
A couple in Dan Snyder's hometown informed guests they were donating money instead of providing wedding favors.
http://www.ajc.com/shared-local/images/1pix_trans.gif
As time unfolds, the gestures keep coming. More than 2,000 cards and letters in all.
Wednesday marks one year since the car crash involving Snyder and Thrashers' teammate Dany Heatley. Six days later, Snyder died in Grady Hospital's Intensive Care Unit of an infection - his neurosurgeon believes Snyder would have survived his head injuries.
Graham and LuAnn Snyder, Dan's parents, have received pictures of their son with people from his travels in North America: His junior team in Owen Sound, Ontario, his IHL team in Orlando, his AHL team in Chicago, his NHL team in Atlanta.
Some cards came with money. There were fund-raisers: pins sold with his No. 37; a golf tournament; a charity auction organized by the NHL Players Association.
In all, nearly $350,000 (Canadian) has been raised for a variety of charities. The charities are part of Snyder's legacy: a self-sustaining fund that will provide four scholarships for youth in his home province, a rink and community center his family hopes to help build in his name and a chair endowed at Emory University's department of neurology.
Snyder's legacy is felt more deeply in the relationships he left behind - the people who recall a remarkable life that ended at age 25.
"Even though it's hard, so much good has come out of this," said LuAnn, tears coming to her eyes. "We try to remember the good that Dan always did and that he keeps doing from the grave. For me, being the kind of person he was, it didn't surprise me."
Said Dan Marr, the Thrashers scout who convinced the team to sign Snyder: "I don't spend as much time with players as I did with Snydes. All the contact I had with Dan, he relayed everything I said through to his parents. By extension, that keeps my relationship with Dan going.
"They're going through all these different stages. Like every time they see the barbecue: That was Dan's job. They're going through all these emotions. You feel for them."
A tragedy strikes
LuAnn Snyder recently reached into a kitchen cabinet for the medicine her son Dan was taking from a surgical procedure about a year ago. She can't remember if it was dental surgery to fix a notorious gap-toothed smile or the ankle surgery that sidelined him during training camp, which concluded with the news that Snyder had made the team.
Despite the ankle injury, Snyder - who was staying with Heatley - had just been told by the team's general manager Don Waddell to find a place of his own. It was Waddell's way of telling Snyder he was a Thrasher. Heatley and Snyder were on their way home from dinner on the night of the Sept. 29 crash.
Hospital workers could not find a number to locate Snyder's parents. He was in need of surgery after being thrown from Heatley's Ferrari some time after 10 p.m. The hospital needed the parents' permission to operate to relieve a depressed skull fracture.
Using Snyder's cell phone, hospital workers called the home of Snyder's best friend, whose parents put them in touch with Graham and LuAnn at about 1:30 a.m.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta was on-call and got to the hospital at about 2 a.m. He said the operation to repair the skull fracture took an hour and a half. Snyder was medicated to remain in a coma for healing.
According to Gupta, Snyder was doing well several days later. When Graham asked if it was OK to return home to tend to some business, Gupta seemed to think it was safe.
Once the infection took hold, however, Snyder succumbed quickly. Graham was forced to learn the news by phone from his wife.
"I think he would have lived," Gupta said. "I don't know what his neurological status would've been. People always ask me, 'Would he have been able to play hockey?' No way, I can't tell you that. When he died of the infection, we were pretty confident he wouldn't die of his head injury at that point."
Snyder's cause of death on the coroner's report was originally listed as head trauma. But LuAnn, a nurse, remembered the 104-degree temperature. She said she couldn't understand why she met with resistance when she asked for her son's organs to be donated.
"They kind of poo-poo-ed," she said. " 'We can't use his organs.' Well, why can't you use his organs? 'Well, we'll see.' For a young healthy person, that didn't seem normal."
So she asked for an autopsy that ultimately changed the cause of death from head trauma to septic shock.
"I, not demanded, but insisted on an autopsy," she said. "They were a little reluctant. At that point, I could feel myself separated, the medical side from the parent's side, and some of the things I saw weren't being addressed, medically."
It still upsets LuAnn Snyder that her son's organs were too toxic to be donated.
Dr. Gupta said after Snyder's death he consulted with the other doctors involved to determine how the infection might have taken hold.
"He had an operation on his abdomen because of the nature of his injuries we wanted to see if there was organ damage there," he said. "He had sinus fractures in his face. He was given medications that might keep his blood pressure up but make constrict, which is a higher risk for infection. There are lots of different possible ways."
LuAnn Snyder said she cannot allow herself the possibility that were it not for the infection, her son might have survived.
"I can't go there," she said. "You can go there. But I've gone there and it's too hard."
[b]Coping
The first time Graham and LuAnn met Murray and Karin Heatley, Dany Heatley's parents, was the morning of Sept. 30 at Grady Hospital. Since then, they have grown close, as have their sons, Dany and Jake.
Jake Snyder stayed with Dany Heatley for about a week last season. They vacationed together this summer in California on a trip Dan was supposed to be a part of.
Sitting in his parents living room wearing a Boston Red Sox hat - "I pull for the underdog," he said, making reference to his brother - Jake Snyder said he thinks the relationship helps both heal.
"I think so," he said. "Him as much as me, too."
At a charity golf tournament in July - just days before Heatley was indicted on charges of first- and second-degree vehicular homicide - Dany, his parents and his brother Mark stayed at the Snyders' home in Elmira.
The Snyders also attended Canada's World Cup of Hockey games, as Dany played for team Canada, in Toronto with the Heatleys.
Graham Snyder was asked if the relationship was awkward.
"I don't think so at all," he said. "They've been good to us. We try to be good to them."
LuAnn recalled how their community treated Heatley as one of their own. The night after the golf tournament, members of the Canadian band The Tragically Hip played along with Jake Snyder. LuAnn said Heatley was just one of about 500 people in the crowd.
"He was just a person there," she said.
Throughout Heatley's legal ordeal, the Snyders have voiced their opposition to the Fulton County District Attorney's office.
"We suffer with Dany," LuAnn said. "My heart aches for him, too."
While their relationship with the Heatleys has been a salve on their wounds, the public nature of their grieving has not. The day Heatley was indicted, media camped outside the Snyders' house and television reporters knocked on their door.
"That's the hard part," LuAnn said.
"Certainly, it changes the dynamics of the grieving process," Graham said. "We don't have time for normal - whatever the normal way most people do it is."
Honoring Dan's memory
Graham and LuAnn described their son as irate when he learned that a study commissioned by his hometown did not call for the building of a new ice rink for 13 years - 13 years too late, they said.
Graham spoke critically at a public meeting about the plan. Dan decided to help the crusade by using his connections with other NHL players to raise funds.
So when he wasn't there to carry on, his family made it their mission. The Dan Snyder Memorial Fund now takes up a good deal of Graham Snyder's time. It is overseen by a board, including Snyder's former agent and a local banker.
Graham has had to quit his role as general manager of the local junior hockey team because of the new endeavors.
The Dan Snyder Memorial Fund is where nearly $250,000 of that money sits while the family attempts to begin the project. They need the support of a small, rural township (about 18,000 people) whose officials don't want to go into debt.
The Snyders hope if they raise one-third, one-third will come from local funds and the rest will come from government grants. They project the entire cost at between $10 and $15 million and hope to have enough money in a few years.
While most of the year the Snyders can dedicate their energies to fund-raising and the like, the coming week will be different. The Snyders say they have been portrayed as stoic, but that is their public face, not their private one. They have made no special plans for Oct. 5, the day Dan died.
That day will be for reflection.
"It'll be a difficult period, I'm sure," Graham said.