Alex Pietrangelo has returned to the Vegas Golden Knights, and while meeting with the media he provided an update on why he needed to step away from the team.
🎥 Pietrangelo on support from the team: Unbelievable… I feel bad because I couldn’t get back to all of them, but they were messaging me every day asking for updates. pic.twitter.com/xwWH4IaEvb
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) December 17, 2022
Over Thanksgiving, my daughter got sick (my four year old) she had the flu that turned into what they call encephalitis which creates a lesion on the brain and she’s basically lost all motor skills and all function, eating, walking, talking… the first five days she basically couldn’t even open her eyes… that comes with extensive MRIs, studies.. trying to figure out what the issue was… we tried a course of treatment a week later the lesion on her brain was gone which I don’t wanna say it was a surprise but that progressed a lot quicker than I guess the original diagnosis.
I cant really give you a timetable when your precious little girl is going to get better… it’s pretty scary for mom and dad… so I said I wouldn’t go back to work until I feel comfortable with where she is at home, I said to my wife if it takes a year to get her back to where we want her to be than so be it cause there’s more to life than some things and whether it is this job or another job I feel I need to be there for not only my family, but my wife too.
Pietrangelo then added that the change in status certainly has been great to see, and ultimately helped him and his wife decide that now was a time he could return to the team.
She came home three days ago and she woke up the next morning out of nowhere and just said screw it, I’m going to try and walk and we were thinking this could be months down the road when this was going to happen and then yesterday she just kept walking and just walked in circles for a full day and you don’t know.
Iif I didn’t walk for three weeks or do much but lay in a hospital bed I’d probably be like let me free so… God answered our prayers and it is a miracle how she’s come along in the last 48 hours and yesterday she tried getting on her scooter in the house… these are all things that we did not expect to happen.
We prayed that it would and you stay optimistic but it’s hard and I feel comfortable where she is, there’s still months and months of extensive rehab to get her back to where she was when all this happened but as a family it’s something we’re going to have to work through, my schedule might be flexible practicing some days and others but with the way she’s going she’s a resilient girl, I just can’t believe how resilient she’s been over the last few days but getting her home with her siblings is sometimes the best therapy.
Pietrangelo went on to say that he’s back with the team now and ready to play based on how his daughter Evelyn is feeling, and how he himself feels mentally.
Pietrangelo’s face lit up while he was describing her walking around his house the last couple days.
Doctors told him they expect Evelyn to make a full recovery, and Pietrangelo now feels ready to return to game action.
— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) December 17, 2022
Overall what Pietrangelo described was quite a scary situation, and it is great to hear that his daughter is feeling better and on the road to recovery. He mentioned that it is a fluid process with many months of work ahead. With that in mind it is safe to say that there’s always the chance his game availability could change going forward, but like Pietrangelo said, there more to life than hockey, and the situation he’s dealing with is assuredly a bigger priority than trying to win hockey games.