A sports career can be over in an instant, but some of these stars overcame their tragedies
with a new lease on life.
Goalie Clint Malarchuk played in the NHL for 11 seasons and has coached for several major
and minor league teams.
But despite everything else he has done in the sport, he will always be best known for
surviving one of the most horrifying sports accidents ever aired on television.
It happened on March 22, 1989, Malarchuk was in net for the Buffalo Sabres when St. Louis
Blues player Steve Tuttle crashed into him.
Tuttle's skate flipped up and slashed Malarchuk's throat wide open, severing his carotid artery.
Malarchuk collapsed and was only saved by the quick thinking of the team trainer, Jim
Pizzutelli, who happened to be a former Army medic who had served in the Vietnam War.
Drawing on his combat experience, Pizzutelli managed to stabilize Malarchuk long enough
to get him to the hospital.
He only missed a handful of games before returning to the ice.
At just 13 years old, professional surfer Bethany Hamilton was already on her way to
stardom, having won two junior titles.
But both her career and life were put in jeopardy on October 31, 2003, when Hamilton was attacked
by a 14-foot tiger shark, an attack that completely severed her left arm below the shoulder.
A friend fashioned a tourniquet out of a surfboard leash and rushed her to the hospital.
Despite losing more than 60% of her blood and going into shock, Hamilton somehow survived.
She returned to surfing and has won several titles in a storied career that continues
to this day.
Her inspirational story was the basis of the hit film Soul Surfer, and she is also the
subject of the documentary Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable.
During an interview about the documentary, she told The Guardian:
"My fear of losing surfing was greater than my fear of sharks."
Professional stock car racer Mike Harmon has competed in more than 250 races over the course
of his career.
But he will always be remembered for a terrifying incident.
It was during a practice session at Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2002 when Harmon
crashed into the track's entry gate.
The gate swung open, and Harmon's car hit the exposed corner of the wall head-on.
The car literally split in half, right down the middle.
Even worse — yes, amazingly, it gets worse — the remnants of the car were then obliterated
by the car of Johnny Sauter, who had been racing right behind Harmon.
Luckily, Sauter hit the half of the car that Harmon wasn't in.
Through a combination of that and some other incredible miracle, Harmon wasn't even injured
and walked away from the crash completely unharmed.
Talk about luck!
In 1986, rugby star Wayne Shelford of the New Zealand All Blacks earned the unofficial
title of "Toughest Man to Ever Live" when he survived an absolutely gruesome accident
on the pitch.
It happened in a match against France that was so violent, it earned the nickname "The
Battle of Nantes."
At the bottom of a massive pileup, Shelford was struck in the groin by an opposing player's boot.
The player's cleats ripped Shelford's scrotum open, leaving one of his testicles dangling
free in the wind.
Any normal man would have dropped dead on the spot, but Shelford not only survived,
he actually asked the team trainer to stitch his scrotum back together so he could return
to the game.
In a wide-ranging interview with Stuff, he said:
"Getting torn down below wasn't that painful, but the actual concussion lasted about three
or four weeks."
Kevin Pearce was one of the biggest, brightest stars on the professional snowboarding circuit.
At the 2008 X-Games, he became the first athlete in X-Games history to win three medals in
a single day, bagging awards in the SuperPipe, Slopestyle, and Big Air competitions.
But his rising star was suddenly eclipsed on December 31, 2009.
While training for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Pearce attempted a difficult maneuver called
the cab double cork.
It went terribly wrong, and he smashed his head directly into the half-pipe.
He was airlifted to a hospital with massive brain trauma, which he somehow survived, though
he would spend the next six months in the hospital.
"I had to relearn how to walk and talk.
And I had to learn how to swallow again and I had to learn everything from the start."
In 2010, he bravely returned to snowboarding, but only recreationally — his career was
officially ended by the accident that he was lucky to survive.
According to Today, he has found new passions in things like meditation, yoga, and philanthropy.
Unlike most of the athletes we've mentioned, Steve Yeager is actually best known for his
sporting accomplishments, rather than his accident.
He won the World Series MVP in 1981 with the Los Angeles Dodgers as part of a 15-year major
league career.
But it's a miracle he even had that opportunity, given the life-threatening freak injury he
experienced back in 1976.
Yeager was waiting in the on-deck circle when the bat of his teammate, Bill Russell, shattered.
A jagged chunk of wood splintered off the bat and flew directly into Yeager's throat,
lodging in his esophagus.
Yeager collapsed, blood spurting from his neck, and he was rushed off for emergency surgery.
The immediate action saved his career, his esophagus, and his life, and it also inspired
the invention of the throat protector now worn by baseball catchers around the world.
"I just wanna play.
That's the important thing to me is playing the game of baseball, doing what I can do
the best, and let's go out there and try to do what I can, what I can do."
Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison were one of Canada's top up-and-coming pair skaters when
they entered the Four Continents Ice Skating Championship in Colorado Springs in 2007.
Just the year prior, they placed in the Top 10 of the World Figure Skating Championships.
Dube and Davison were also a dynamic duo who, although speaking different languages, were
of the same mind and always in sync.
But that chemistry broke for a crucial moment during their routine when Davison and Dube
launched into a side-by-side flying camel, which involves extending a leg while spinning.
Spinning somewhere between 40 to 60 miles per hour, Davison's blade came too close to
his partner on his third revolution, slicing Dube in the face.
Dube fell as blood spilled onto the ice.
She was given morphine and rushed to a nearby hospital, where the laceration cut into her
cheek and nose and required surgery.
She was given 80 stitches, and both she and Davison underwent post-traumatic stress counseling.
Davison said he knew they were getting too close right before it happened, and he dealt
with immense guilt in the aftermath.
The injury could've been worse, either by hitting her eye or her jugular vein.
But only 10 days after the accident, the pair returned to skating and placed seventh in
that year's World Championships.
The two went on to have fruitful careers and received a bronze medal at the 2008 competition.
"It's just such a big surprise to be, like, on-on the podium and I'm just so happy."
In what has been called the most violent hit in NFL history, New England Patriots receiver
Darryl Stingley was left paralyzed.
Stingley was 26 years old and a five-year veteran for the Patriots on the night of August
12, 1978.
He ran a slant while his quarterback, Steve Grogan, threw the ball over the middle.
Just as Stingley reached for the ball, Raiders safety Jack Tatum — who was called "the
assassin" for his violent style of play — lunged at him.
Tatum lowered his shoulder and bore his helmet and forearm into Stingley's facemask.
It was a routine hit for Tatum, who was never apologetic for his aggressiveness and expected
Stingley to get right back up.
But Stingley didn't — he lay unconscious.
Stingley was put on a stretcher and taken to a nearby hospital, where he stayed for
three months.
The hit dislocated two vertebrae in his neck, effectively damaging his spinal cord.
The injury made him quadriplegic, and he depended on a wheelchair after.
He may have survived the hit in the following years, but the injuries ended up taking a
toll; he died in 2007, and his autopsy revealed that his spinal injury was a contributing factor.
Although his hit was brutal, Tatum was never fined since it wasn't illegal.
In the aftermath, NFL team owners agreed to NFLPA's demands to grant disability compensation
to players injured because of the game.
Ideally, Napoleon McCallum should be remembered for taking time off from the NFL to serve
for the U.S. Navy aboard the USS California in the Indian Ocean.
But one footnote in his career ended up epitomizing how brutal the sport could be.
Four years after returning from service, McCallum played the 1994 season opener with the team
that drafted him, the Los Angeles Raiders.
The group was on the road, and their opponents were the San Francisco 49ers.
In a play that changed his life, he was tackled by Ken Norton Jr.
The hard-to-watch video of the injury shows Norton landing on McCallum's leg, causing
it to bend in the wrong direction.
His left knee was hyperextended, leaving a ruptured artery, three torn ligaments, and
nerve damage.
His calf and hamstring muscles were cleaned off the bone.
"This would be his final play of the night, and maybe his final play for some time."
Even with the grotesque injury, McCallum had hope for recovery and a return to the field.
But his doctor dampened those hopes, telling him that his career was effectively over.
What's more, the fate of McCallum's leg depended on a successful surgery.
If it didn't go well, his leg could get amputated.
Thankfully, the surgery went well, although there were six in total, not counting the
physical therapy, per Sportscasting.
Although football ended for McCallum, he kept active after his recovery by running, cycling,
swimming, and playing basketball, per the Los Angeles Times.
He also didn't blame anyone and didn't think it was a vicious play.
On October 29, 2017, Chicago Bears tight end Zach Miller experienced a hyperextension of
the knee during a bad fall in the end zone.
The Bears were losing 14 to 3 to the New Orleans Saints when quarterback Mitch Trubisky threw
the ball toward Miller.
If everything went perfectly, Miller would have caught it.
Miller initially made the catch as ruled for a touchdown – but there were some unintended consequences.
Just as he caught it, with a defender pushing him from behind, Miller landed awkwardly,
with his left knee hyperextending and bending in the wrong direction.
To add insult to injury - literally, instant replay overturned the call on the field – it
went down as an incomplete pass.
At first, Zach Miller thought he only tore his ACL.
He didn't understand the severity of it until he was on the stretcher receiving well-wishes
from teammates.
Miller recalled his leg appearing blue and swollen, and when he was placed into the ambulance,
he lost feeling in his leg.
It was an hour before he received emergency surgery, and the tissue in his leg had already
begun to wither from blood loss and a lack of oxygen.
His doctors told him he was only minutes away from being amputated.
Luckily, he was able to avoid that scenario and was walking again not a year later.
After nine surgeries and an attempt at a comeback, Miller finally retired in 2019.
Montreal Canadiens forward Trent McCleary was seconds away from death after a slapshot
stuck a hockey puck into his neck.
It was January 29, 2000, when McCleary put himself in between Philadelphia Flyers defenseman
Chris Terrien and Canadiens goaltender Jeff Hackett.
At first, McCleary thought the puck would hit his shin guard, but then he realized how
high it was flying.
Before he knew it, it hit his throat.
He lay on the ice, spitting up large amounts of blood.
He couldn't breathe, which confused him, but he was able to stand up and skate to his bench.
Moments later, he lost consciousness.
It turned out McCleary had a fractured larynx and a collapsed lung.
He required an emergency tracheotomy while still wearing his hockey gear and skates,
and for 24 hours, he was in critical condition.
For a while, he couldn't speak.
McCleary, who suffered two other major injuries in his career, tried to make a comeback, but
his oxygen supply never recovered.
He began a second career as a financial advisor and now coaches a bantam hockey team on the side.
McCleary believes that the puck hit him in the unluckiest spot possible — where it
would do the most damage — but he still doesn't regret his block and has gone so far
to say that he would do it again if he could.