Former NHL Player Saves Teammate's Life
Former St. Louis Blues center Mike Danton, now playing with the Swedish team IFK Ore, saved his teammates life using first aid skills learned while Danton served a prison term for conspiracy to commit murder. Danton's teammate, Marcus Bengtsson, took a hit from an opposing player, and his head hit the ice with a thud. Danton skated over to check on his friend and linemate, only to discover that Bengtsson was convulsing. According to Danton, after watching his teammate convulsing for more than 2 minutes, he realized something was drastically wrong, and then proceeded to intervene. Using skills acquired from a prison first aid responder course, Danton placed Bengtsson on his side, and placed his fist in his mouth, to prevent him from choking on his tongue. With help from other teammates, Danton tried to prevent Bengtsson from choking on blood which was coming from his mouth.
According to an entry from Mike Danton's blog , "His convulsions went on for what seemed like forever. Emergency help did take forever, as we are 35 minutes from the closest ambulance. There was nothing that we could do but wait and hope for the best." Eventually, the 22-year old Bengtsson was taken to a nearby hospital, diagnosed with a concussion, and was held overnight for observation. Bengtsson apparently had no memory of the seizure, and was grateful for Danton's assistance. According to Danton's blog, "I showed him where his ugly teeth had chomped down and broke skin on my fingers. To that, he replied, 'Now we are blood brothers.' "
Mike Danton's journey from the NHL to prison, and back to semi-pro hockey in Sweden has been an especially strange one. In 2004, Danton pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison. It was alleged at that time that Danton tried to hire strip club bouncer Ron Jones to kill David Frost, Danton's agent and former junior hockey coach. In a parole hearing in 2009, Danton changed his story, and instead claimed that the target of the murder-for-hire plot was his father, Steve Jefferson, not Frost. To complicate this case further, David Frost was charged with 12 counts of sexual exploitation and 1 count of sexual assault in 2006, which were alleged to have occurred during a four-year coaching career; during this period of time, Mike Danton was being coached by David Frost. While the exploitation charges were eventually dropped against Frost, the allegations that he had inappropriate sexual contact with young boys and girls have never really gone away.
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