Glove Save, And A Beauty

November 24, 2014 8:48 AM

At a Gander Flyers game against the Corner Brook Royals, a fan suffered a heart attack in the stands. The first two people there were the Mayor of Gander and the starting goaltender, Patty O'Brien, who moonlights as a paramedic. The victim is fine, Patty's a hero, and this story couldn't be more Canadian if the Trailer Park Boys were in the ambulance, feeding everyone poutine & Eric's Red beer and singing "I's The By".
posted by chicobangs (15 comments total)

So very Newfoundlandian. You just know that everyone is going to go to everyone else's house for dinner now. (Yes, I want to be Newfoundlander, too.)
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:59 AM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

I live in Corner Brook. It's a lovely town but not a place that makes the news a lot (Gander even less so!), so it's very odd to see this on MetaFilter. Here's the CBC story about the incident. Great save!
posted by oulipian at 9:06 AM on November 24, 2014 [7 favorites]

Somewhere Allan Hawco is weeping with pride.
posted by Kitteh at 9:06 AM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

this story couldn't be more Canadian if the Trailer Park Boys were in the ambulance, feeding everyone poutine & Eric's Red beer and singing "I's The By".

Well, Triumph or April Wine would have to be playing.
posted by jonmc at 9:11 AM on November 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Awwww, Canada.

Take this as your annual reminder to get your CPR training and carry a CPR mask and gloves on your keychain!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:22 AM on November 24, 2014 [4 favorites]

I dunno, this story could be more Canadian, although not true... yet.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:39 AM on November 24, 2014

People may remember Gander as the little city of 10,000 that took in thousands of grounded trans-Atlantic travelers on 9/11. Helping people is a proud Newfoundland tradition.
posted by erlking at 11:15 AM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

(I also don't want to derail an awesomely and rightly feel-good thread, but I always feel kinda weird seeing Newfoundland things being held up as essentially or primordially Canadian, when we only joined the country recently and ambivalently, and there's a struggle to keep a sense of Newfoundland's cultural identity distinct from a larger anglo-Canada that has been working on assimilating it since the '50s. But hooray! Everyone is OK!)
posted by erlking at 11:22 AM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

What about this story makes it so distinctly Canadian? The hockey? The goalie knowing CPR? The involvement of the small-town mayor?

Could a similar story not have developed in Denmark? In Gabon? In Myanmar? In the United States?

Is it just amusing because it involves bunch of Newfies?
posted by fredludd at 11:50 AM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

@fredludd, you're right. We live in an increasingly multicultural world, where customs once thought to be endemic to one area, in previous eras where international news and cultural commingling was rare when it existed at all, actually are, we now understand beyond doubt, native to every group on Earth. The generic form of simple golden-rule-style humanity is now considered a baseline for human civilization as a whole.

That said, if a pro hockey goalie (named Patty O'Brien, of all names) climbs into the stands, wearing full equipment, to restart a fan's heart just before a game, in Gabon, well, that would be odd news indeed. The (admittedly slight at best) sense of amusement in this case is only appropriate insofar as everyone came out the other end of what would otherwise have been a small-town tragedy.

So, for polluting your feed with this obvious attempt at appropriating the tenet of kindness for merely one tiny tile in humanity's great mosaic, and at the risk of playing to the Canadian stereotype further: I'm sorey.

(Also: According to my posting frequency, my next FPP should appear some time in September of 2024. You may want to take that month off, so as not to sully your short time on this Earth with any of my, oh, let's go with ethnocentric twaddle.)
posted by chicobangs at 12:15 PM on November 24, 2014 [7 favorites]

This might be more Canadian:
Moose runs through Regina
Animal leaves city after lingering outside Roughrider ticket office
posted by Theta States at 12:16 PM on November 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Smart moose.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 4:08 PM on November 24, 2014

As soon as I saw the name and place I was reminded of Mayor Claude Elliott giving a small speech (or rather thanks) at a 9/11 ceremony in Gander in 2002 (starts at 9min45s and lasts a couple minutes). CSPAN video

And here is a snippet of him speaking at a 2011 ceremony (starts around 2min20s and lasts about 5 minutes). CBC video

While this may not be totally on topic, I think just hearing him speak could be some additional (regional / Canadian) flavour for the story.
posted by phoque at 6:11 PM on November 24, 2014 [1 favorite]

Holy shit this is my hometown! Well CB is, not Gander.

...Fucking Gander.

I was once involved in a charity boxing match with a friend from Gander Bay with the prize as the sole right to acknowledge being from Newfoundland. He won on a split decision. It was Cassius Clay from Gander Bay vs The Left Hook from Corner Brook. Thankfully no CPR was needed.
posted by Lemurrhea at 8:59 PM on November 24, 2014 [4 favorites]

So it turns out that a few days before this more widely-publicized incident, another paramedic-goalie in full gear saved someone in St. John's. Batman isn't the only do-gooder who wears a mask.
posted by oulipian at 5:42 AM on November 27, 2014