Ice hockey player who had throat slit made split second decision which helped save his life

A quick-thinking ice hockey player's split second decision helped to save his own life after his throat was slit during a game.

Richard Zednik lost five pints of blood when he suffered the horror injury, while playing for the Florida Panthers.

The Czechoslovakian star's brush with death has gone down as one of the most gruesome injuries in ice hockey history.

His own teammate, Olli Jokinen, accidentally slashed Zednik's common carotid artery with the blade of his skate during a game against the Buffalo Sabres.

The gory incident on 10 February, 2008, played out in front of a packed arena of fans.

Jokinen had become tangled up with the Sabres Clark MacArthur and fell head-first onto the ice.

His right leg flew up into the air and Zednik skated straight into the danger, colliding with his teammates foot.

The skate's blade struck the dad on the side of his neck, severing his carotid artery - but just missed his jugular vein.

Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images

This gnarly injury typically results in a massive haemorrhage, which leads to death, but Zednik thought on his feet.

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The Panthers forward explained he 'knew exactly what he had to do', despite being crippled by agonising pain.

"It was like a stab, I felt like somebody stabbed me," he recalled. "It wasn't the pain, it was like 'what's going to happen?'"

He told a press conference at the time that he was aware his injury 'was pretty bad', but knew that time was of the essence.

Zednik, now 47, explained: "We were waiting and I was like, 'What's going to happen, do I sit about?'

"I was like 'Ok this is it, I have to get up and get to the bench'. I did my job to get there."

Instead of waiting for medics to rush onto the ice to help him, the star managed to skate to his team's bench - leaving a trail of blood behind him.

Zednik clutched his neck and nearly fell into the arms of a trainer, who then quickly applied pressure to the injury.

He was stabilised in the locker room by a team doctor and paramedics who were on standby before being rushed to hospital.

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Zednik explained they were applying so much pressure to his neck that he 'couldn't breathe'.

But by saving precious seconds by skating over to the bench, the retired NHL ace had helped to save his own life.

He continued: "I don't get to train for this experience, you know, I knew what happened and that I was in trouble.

"My job is to get up as soon as possible, because if somebody got injured then the trainer comes to the ice and everything, it takes time. I knew every second was important for me.

"So I was holding my neck and getting to the bench. That's what was on my mind, when it happened I was like 'I have to do this'."

Zednik underwent emergency surgery to repair the artery and remained in intensive care for around two days.

He left hospital on February 16, 2008, and missed the rest of the hockey season while recovering - but returned to play in the 2008–09 season.

Zednik watched the video replay of his close-call, but said that 'once is enough' - which I think we can all agree on.