Boston University head athletic trainer Larry Venis is home from the hospital and is expected to fully recover from emergency brain surgery after being hit in the head by a puck during the Nov. 14 game at Merrimack College.
Venis, who has been a member of the BU athletic training staff since 1994, was standing behind the bench during the 2-2 overtime tie with Merrimack when he was struck in the head with a puck after a BU player tried to clear it out of the Terrier zone. Venis, who said he felt fine at the time and even went on to the ice later in the game to tend to an injured player, was taken to the hospital early Nov. 15. Surgery to relieve internal bleeding in and around his brain was deemed successful and Venis is expected to make a full recovery.
‘He’s a lucky guy to tell you the truth, he’s a very lucky guy,’ said BU coach Jack Parker after Friday’s game against the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. ‘It was a very, very dangerous situation … But I’ve seen him three times now, and he’s gotten better and better. It doesn’t look like there’s any ramifications whatsoever except a full recovery.
‘He’s going to have to wear a helmet on the bench now, and he’ll be very, very upset about that I’m sure,’ Parker added. ‘But he’ll be back pretty soon I’m sure, and whenever he gets back he’s gonna be Larry Venis, that’s for sure.’
During his absence – the length of which is not yet known – BU Director of Sports Medicine Maria Hutsick will serve as head trainer for the hockey team.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
