Five months ago, tragedy struck not just the people of Humboldt, but all of those involved in the hockey community at any level. In that fateful crash with a tractor-trailer on April 6, 2018, 16 of the 29 people on the bus lost their lives and 14 of the players were injured. Ryan Straschnitzki was one of the few who survived.

According to Yahoo Sports, after a month of physiotherapy at the Shriners hospital in Philadelphia, the 19-year-old Straschnitzki returned home. Straschnitzki was paralyzed from the chest down in the accident. When he landed at Calgary International Airport he was greeted by a host of TV cameras and journalists. Straschnitzki had spent the last month in Philadelphia.

The 19-year-old's recovery will be a long and arduous road, but he's taking it in stride, aiming to spend some time with his friends and family, then after a few days of resting attend he will the Calgary Stampede with his girlfriend. His first step in recovery was focusing on sliding from his wheelchair to a vehicle, his next step is focusing on doing that with a regular car and generally improving his mobility.

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Via Calgary Herald

He will go to Philadelphia for treatment every six months to see how he is doing. Straschnitzki notes that he has to focus on working within his limitations because he still has some restrictions placed on him because of his upper back, "I've obviously got stronger upper body and gained some weight back, but there are some restrictions on my back still so I have to wait for those restrictions to be off and then I can start doing more things."

Obviously, lives were changed on that day and some players will never be able to go back to the game they love but it's great to see that some of the players are trying to get on in their lives, and Straschinitzki is certainly an inspiration because of his dedication to his recovery. Hopefully, the good news continues for this inspirational young man and in six months time he will be taken off of those restrictions.

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