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Posted: **Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:29 pm**

<a href="http://www.startribune.com/462/story/15 ... ml">Hockey Dad Dies</a>  Reality sets in for fallen hockey dad's loved ones Organ donation and funeral preparations have begun for Dennin Bauers after he was struck in the neck with a puck. Larry Oakes, Star Tribune DULUTH - A tear ran down Dave Ling's cheek as he said it: Somewhere out there is a lucky person who will soon get to see the world through Dennin Bauers' eyes. Organ-donation and funeral preparations were underway Sunday in Duluth for Bauers, 52, a gregarious and popular ex-cop and volunteer youth athletics coach who was considered brain dead after being hit by a hockey puck Saturday during an annual father-son game. Officially, Bauers' condition remained critical Sunday. But family members and friends who stood vigil in a St. Luke's Hospital waiting room said that tests showed that his brain functions had ceased. They said the fatal brain damage was caused by blood loss from an artery that was ruptured by the blow to his neck, just below his helmet. Family members said he would be removed from life-support machines as soon as recipients were located for his organs and they were removed, expected to take a day or two. The accident happened Saturday morning during a game at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center between about 20 high school hockey players -- most from Duluth Central High School -- and their fathers. Bauers was there with his sons, Dean, 17, a player for Central, and Bryan, 14, a Bantam A player for the Duluth Lakers. Duluth Central's head hockey coach, Christian Koelling, said that Bauers, who was lean, physically fit and still was playing hockey regularly in leagues, was near the fathers' team's goal when he was struck by a puck shot toward the goal from the blue line area by one of the students. "It wasn't even a slapshot," Koelling said. "It was just kind of a fluttering puck that was picked up." Bauers said something like, "That hurt," and asked whether he was bleeding before collapsing, unconscious, Koelling said. He almost immediately stopped breathing, and other adults gave him CPR until an ambulance arrived a few minutes later. Blood filled the area around Bauer's brain stem, which governs the lungs and the heart, said former Police Chief Scott Lyons, a longtime friend. Doctors tried to drain it, Lyons said, but the treatment didn't work. "Over and over, I've been wondering how this could have been prevented," said Koelling, who joined the vigil at the hospital, along with Lyons, Police Chief Roger Waller, Ling and scores of others. "I guess it raises the question of how helmets are made. If they're not protecting all the vital areas, that's something that should be looked at." Koelling said grief counseling will be made available to the student players today. Bauers' wife, Anne Peterson Bauers, the chief of police at the University of Minnesota Duluth, called what happened "a freakish accident." But she said that if Bauers could have known his time was up, he might have chosen to go exactly this way, doing something he loved with the sons he adored. The news that Bauers wasn't expected to live spread rapidly through Duluth's law enforcement and amateur athletics communities. Ling, who had known Bauers since junior high, said it was just like his friend to be an organ donor, giving generously of himself in death, as he had always done in life. "He loved an awful lot of people, and an awful lot of people loved him," Ling said. Lyons, who worked with Bauers in the department's Special Investigations Unit -- which Bauers eventually ran -- said Bauers was a fearless cop who spent a lot of his career building cases against drug dealers, including stints undercover. "On major busts, he always wanted to be one of the first guys through the door," Lyons said. "He took the attitude that, 'This is my city, and they're not taking it over.' " While Bauers normally went for cheap beer, he'd always bring a bottle of expensive Courvoisier cognac to New Year's Eve gatherings, for himself, friends said. So Saturday night, the friends who normally spent those New Year's Eves with him gathered in Bauers' hospital room. As midnight approached, they poured glasses of Courvoisier, and in the first seconds of 2006, toasted their friend, and the good heart that will soon go out to some lucky person, as it always has. Larry Oakes ï¿½ 218-727-7344 Elk River AA State Champions- 2001 Boys & 2004 Girls

Posted: **Mon Jan 02, 2006 8:32 pm**

<a href="http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/dulut ... ">Duluth's Article</a> Duluth man pronounced brain dead after 'fluke' hockey game accident BY PETER PASSI NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER A retired police officer and youth athletics coach was declared brain dead Sunday, one day after his injury during a father-son hockey game. Although he was wearing a helmet, a puck struck Dennin Bauers, 52, just below his ear during the third period of a game that pitted members of Duluth Central's boys hockey team against their fathers Saturday morning at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center. Bauers' 17-year-old son, Dean, is a junior forward and defenseman for the Trojans, and his 14-year-old son, Bryan, is a freshman defenseman. Bauers was about 10 feet in front of the net when the accident occurred. He was struck by a wrist shot taken from the top of the point, according to Jim Sweeney, another father who participated in the game with his 16-year-old son of the same name, a junior left wing. "He (Bauers) grabbed his ear, went down to a knee and then lost consciousness in a matter of seconds," Sweeney said. "It happened so quickly." Sweeney said a couple of people began to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Bauers as another person called 911. He was taken to St. Luke's hospital, where he remained on life support in the intensive care unit Sunday evening. Jean Erickson, a registered nurse and administrative supervisor at St. Luke's said, "Mr. Bauers has designated on his license his desire to become an organ donor, and his family has chosen to go forward with his wishes." Friends and family members may monitor developments and share memories of Bauers by visiting the following Web address: caringbridge.org/visit/denninbauers. A journal from the Bauers family, dated 10:55 a.m. Sunday, said: "The results of the final angiogram indicate no blood flow to the brain. Dennin is considered legally brain dead and is being prepared for organ donation to help other families in need. We are confident his spirit will live on. Dennin will be forever in our hearts and minds." "The doctors are saying his injury was a fluke," said Scott Lyons, Duluth's former police chief and a friend of Bauers. "If the puck had hit him1 inch in any other direction, it probably would have been nothing more than a bad bruise." The impact of the blow apparently ruptured an artery, Lyons said. Dr. Benjamin Owens of Hibbing, an 80-year-old physician who has spent much of his career tending to hockey players, said he was surprised to hear of the fatal injury. "I've been taking care of the Hibbing hockey team for nigh on 50 years, and I've never heard or even read about something like that happening on the ice," he said. "It sounds like a very rare and tragic event." Bauers coached youth hockey, Little League baseball and VFW baseball for many years. He also served on the board of the Duluth Heights Community Club. "He's one of those guys who has been deeply involved his whole life," said Damon Anderson, past president of the Duluth Heights Community Club. "In everything he did, it was always about the kids." Anderson said Bauers' devotion to the community seemed to be ingrained from his upbringing. He noted that Roger Bauers, Dennin's father, also was active in community causes. Angelo DeCaro coached hockey and baseball with Bauers and considered him a close friend. "Denny had such a passion for kids," DeCaro said. "He cared about them on and off the field, win or lose. This man has touched a lot of lives." As news of Bauers' injury spread, dozens of friends and acquaintances gathered at St. Luke's. Lyons said the hospital overflowed Saturday and Sunday with people wishing to lend their support to Anne Leslie Peterson, Bauers's wife, and sons Dean and Bryan. Bauers retired from the Duluth Police Department in April 2004 after 25 years. Bauers, along with Lt. John Hall, oversaw the special investigations unit, which heads up drug cases. They retired simultaneously. Peterson, director of UMD's campus police, remains active in law enforcement. Kim Keuning attended Central High with Bauers, and her family became close friends with his. "It's strange to think that he spent all those years chasing dangerous criminals, and then to have this happen to him playing hockey when he was even wearing a helmet," she said. "It's so sad." Keuning's husband, John, coached baseball with Bauers and said that if Saturday's injury claims his friend's life, as appears likely, it would be a tremendously sad but somehow fitting end. "He loved to be on the ballfield or the ice, playing with his boys," John Keuning said. "And if you were asked how you want to die, who wouldn't want it to be doing the thing you love best?" Keuning said the first time he met Bauers was at a Duluth Central reunion. The crowd was so large that the photographer had to shoot the class in two groups. The images were then spliced together to create a photo of the entire, unified class. Keuning watched as Bauers slipped into both pictures so that he appeared twice in the finished class picture. "Denny never took life so seriously that he forgot to have fun," Keuning said. "The No. 1 thing was to have a good time." Just a couple of weeks ago, Lyons encountered Bauers at a Salvation Army kettle in front of Cub Foods. "He was ringing his bell and shouting, 'Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas,' " Lyons said. "That's the way Denny was -- energy plus," Lyons said. "He never seemed to have a down day, and for being a cop all those years and running the drug unit, that's really something. Denny was always up and positive." "He was one of the greatest people I've ever met," Sweeney said. "Denny had immense inner strength and cared for everyone around him. He was an all-around great guy." Elk River AA State Champions- 2001 Boys & 2004 Girls

Posted: **Mon Jan 02, 2006 9:02 pm**

My thoughts and prayers are with the family. May God bless and be in their hearts.

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Hockey Dad Dies In Duluth

Hockey Dad Dies In Duluth

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