Gatorade Replay 2: Near fatal accident doesn't scar LaTarte

DETROIT, Mich. - Opposed to what most would think – fathom even – of all the players in today’s Trenton-Catholic Central (Novi, Mich.) hockey rematch from 1999, Kurt LaTarte doesn’t need a replay or do-over.

The former Trenton defenseman really just wants to say thanks. Thanks to entire Detroit Metropolitan area for all their notes and good wishes.

Thanks to players and coaches from both teams, who knelt with clergy in one corner of the ice to pray for LaTarte’s survival.

Thanks to paramedics and Dr. David Wolf, a parent of one of Trenton's players, who essentially saved LaTarte’s life.

“Hopefully I’ll get to shake each and every one of their hands,” LaTarte said.

Other than that – believe it or not – LaTarte likely wouldn’t change that nearly tragic night when a skate from a fallen Catholic Central accidently slashed his jugular in the third quarter of a 4-4 game.

The contest was never completed and served as impetuous and inspiration for Gatorade’s Replay 2 at Compuware Arena that will pit players – including a fit 6-foot, 188-pound 29-year-old LaTarte – from both teams to finish the final score between the two bitter rivals.

On the bitter scale, LaTarte himself would score it scoreless.

Though literally scarred from the hundred of stitches he sustained in surgery, and nerve damage that still causes him twitching and numbness in his upper chest and neck, LaTarte said his perspective on life and living changed drastically some 48 hours following the slash and bloodied, chaotic, painstaking aftermath.

“In the long run, it was good for me,” he said.

In the short run, it looked horrific that fateful night in Trenton.

Fading to black
Trenton fought back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game midway though the third quarter when Trenton sophomore Andy Greene, now with the New Jersey Devils, laid a perfect check on a Catholic Central player, who fell in a heap and whose high-flying skate grazed LaTarte’s neck.

“I felt a lot of pain right away and I went to the bench,” LaTarte said.

When he saw the trainer’s reaction, he knew it was really bad.  “Then I saw the blood all over my jersey,” he said.

“The next thing I remember was waking up behind the bench.”

There, he witnessed his father Dennis, Trenton coach Mike Turner and Dr. Wolf, who grabbed his neck to stop the bleeding. “But I couldn’t breathe so I kept pushing him away,” LaTarte said. “My dad was screaming to relax, to let the doctor pinch my neck.”

Completely counter-intuitive to survival, LaTarte let the doctor choke him. “My breathing labored more but I let him squeeze. I just kept fading. Eventually I faded to black. I remember thinking, ‘this is probably the end.’ “

The medics arrived shortly after and with Dr. Wolf still pinching, rolled LaTarte into an ambulance. That was LaTarte’s next memory.

“They had me on oxygen and I remember asking them if I was going to live,” he said. “They said, ‘yes, you’re going to be fine,’ and I remember telling them ‘you have to say that.’ “

Tubes, morphine and clarity
The next 24 hours were cloudy, scary and painful for LaTarte. Heavily sedated with morphine, he had cumbersome tubes sticking up his nose and down his throat to help him breathe.

“It was a bad scene,” he said. “I was happy to be alive for sure, but the chemicals were making me throw up. I was so thirsty but was only getting water through the tube. Nurses were monitoring me every half-hour. I didn’t want to see anyone.”

When the morphine cleared, the tubes were removed and the stark white recovery room became still, LaTarte suddenly and forcefully found his moment of clarity.

“I remember thinking what was I so worried about,” he said.

Not about his surgery or fate, but about his entire life to that point. 

“I just suddenly felt so relieved, like all the little stresses of life went away,” he said. “Why was I so worried about the small little petty things in life I couldn’t control before. I thought about how I treated some people poorly. I thought of all the time I wasted, that in a moment, life can be cut so short in an instant.

“Honestly, since that day, that thought has stuck with me ever since. I look in the mirror and think about it every day. It put life into another perspective for me. … I see a lot of dead people walking around these days, caught up with a lot of small problems. They can’t get out of it. They can’t open their eyes.”

Strong-willed and easy going
With his new outlook, LaTarte, then an 18-year-old senior, didn’t waste anytime jumping back into the fray.

Within a month of the surgery – with Trenton approaching the postseason – he went to the doctor for a new regular checkup.

He told LaTarte his injuries would probably take a year to heal. LaTarte then asked, “Can I play tonight?”

With mixed blessings from the doctor – “He assured me I wasn’t going to die on the ice, but I did risk having more surgeries,” LaTarte said. – and his parents, LaTarte played the entire postseason with his Trenton teammates. “I’ve always been strong-willed,” LaTarte said. “My parents weren’t happy about it, but they said it was my body and my final call.”

He’s stayed physically fit and in attack mode every since. He played intramural hockey at Michigan State and is an avid snowboarder. Recently wed, he and his wife live in Beverly Hills Village, a suburb north of Detroit.

He’s a buyer for a packaging and manufacturing facility and still plays hockey in recreation leagues, which are highly competitive in this region.

LaTarte is looking forward to playing with his younger brother Brad in today’s game, along with playing in front of 70 or 80 family and friends. Some 3,000 fans are expected to fill Compuware Arena.

He’s not trying to repair old wounds, though he’d like to befriend the Catholic Central player who accidently cut him. That player’s name was never released and it wasn’t until recently that LaTarte found out who he is.
 
“It wasn’t his fault,” LaTarte said. “It was no one’s fault, it just happened.

“I can’t tell you how excited I am to play. To play in front of a big crowd again is great. It’s so exciting. I can’t even describe it.”

For more stories and background on the series, go to www.replaytheseries.com. Look for much more coverage from the game on Monday.