Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Georgian Soccer Star Saves Life of Dynamo Kiev Star in Sunday Match

BALTIMORE, Maryland April 2, 2014 - A Georgian soccer player, Jaba Kankava, used quick thinking and calm courage to save the life of the captain of the team he was playing against. The miraculous intervention Sunday stunned everybody who saw it, and a doctor said the fact that Oleg Gusev was able to stand up after the incident was equally stunning.

The incident took place during a match Sunday in the Ukrainian Premier League. Gusev, the Captain of the Dynamo Kiev Side, collapsed to the ground after sustaining an inadvertent blow to his head from the goal keeper of the Dnipro team, Denys Boyko. Gusev collapsed to the ground, unconscious, immediately after taking the blow.

He was saved by another Dnipro player, Kankava, who is also the caption of Georgia’s National Football Team. Without hesitating at all, Kankava reached down Gusev's throat and pulled up his tongue, which Gusev had swallowed. Doing what he did undoubtedly saved Gusev's life. The Dynamo team physician said "He (Gusev) is lucky to have such light injuries." As it was, Gusev was said to have sustained a "medium" concussion, a bruised jaw and other bruises. Kankava was seen shaking his own hand after the incident, because Gusev had apparently bitten it inadvertantly the instant his airway was clear. Dnipro won the game, 2-0, to jump over Dynamo Kiev into second place, behind Shakhtar Donetsk.

There are stunning photographs of the both the injury and Kankava's quick actions in The Guardian at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/mar/31/dnipro-jaba-kankava-kiev-oleg-gusev-save-life-swallow-tongue. Wikipedia also has a brief account of the incident on it Jaba Kankava page. And, Youtube is said to have film of the incident.



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