Now 26, he suffered a crushed vertebra in his cervical spine when he was checked headfirst into the boards during a World Junior A Challenge game on Dec. 14, 2014.
A Smiths Falls hockey player who suffered a devastating spinal injury while representing his country at an international tournament has settled his seven-year-old lawsuit against Hockey Canada.
Neil Doef, now 26, suffered a crushed vertebra in his cervical spine when he was checked headfirst into the boards during a World Junior A Challenge game against Switzerland on Dec. 14, 2014.
He sued Hockey Canada and its insurer, AIG, for $6.5 million.
Doef alleged Hockey Canada breached its duty of care: its legal obligation to take reasonable steps to protect him from foreseeable harm.
In a joint prepared statement released this week, Doef and Hockey Canada said they had reached an “amicable resolution” to their long-running legal dispute.
The financial terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Doef expressed relief at finally reaching a deal. “Hockey remains, and will continue to be, one of the most important aspects of my life,” he said. “I am eager to continue my journey in the hockey world and to make the contributions that I can to the game and hockey community.”
Hockey Canada, the national governing body for the sport in this country, said it wanted to publicly recognize Doef’s courage.
“He played Canada’s national sport with talent and passion and has demonstrated tremendous resilience and determination during his rehabilitation, in no small part because of his strength of character,” Hockey Canada said in the statement.
Doef was 17, an aspiring National Hockey League prospect, and the leading scorer for the Central Canada Hockey League’s Smiths Falls Bears when he was injured during the game in Kindersley, Sask. He was stretchered off the ice, unable to feel his arms or legs, and underwent emergency surgery. Doctors were initially guarded about his ability to walk again.
But Doef dedicated himself to recovery at The Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre and by the summer of 2015 was able to able to walk short distances with the help of a walking pole and an electronic muscle stimulator.
Doef went on to graduate with an economics degree from Princeton University, where he had previously been recruited to play collegiate hockey. The Ivy League school honoured its admission and financial aid offers after Doef’s spinal-cord injury ended his hockey career.
In his lawsuit, Doef said Hockey Canada failed to obtain appropriate insurance coverage to pay for the heavy costs associated with a spinal cord injury. Its AIG policy included $1 million of coverage for an insured person suffering total paralysis of both lower limbs.
Documents filed as part of the lawsuit showed AIG rejected Doef’s $1-million claim on November 2015 on the basis that he was not paralyzed. The insurer said he did not meet the definition of a paraplegic with “the permanent paralysis and functional loss of use of both lower limbs.”
AIG said its medical review indicated Doef had normal strength in his right leg, hip, knee and ankle. It offered Doef a $30,000 settlement for the loss of use of his left leg and other benefits for occupational training, home and vehicle modifications, physiotherapy and counselling.
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