In February, life changed forever for FGCU hockey player Kyle Lindholm. On Valentine’s Day, the sophomore defenseman had a seizure and his girlfriend rushed him to the hospital.
At first, the doctors thought he had just had a panic attack. Five days later, it happened again. This time, doctors performed medical tests and determined that Kyle had a mass and bleeding in the front temporal lobe of his brain.
“I was unconscious for both, went straight to the hospital,” said Lindholm. “I had open brain surgery on February 22.”
The life-threatening diagnosis shocked everyone in Lindholm’s life, including his teammates.
“Obviously, it took us by complete surprise,” said FGCU senior Spence Van Tiem. “One minute you see your teammate out there who’s practicing and playing games and he’s completely healthy. Then all of a sudden he’s got to go in for brain surgery. I mean, his life was just upended.”
“Guys were really scared,” Van Tiem added. “I mean, we were thinking, okay, brain surgery, we’re going to lose one of our teammates. As bad as that sounds, but that’s what the guys were thinking.”
The whole team rushed to the ICU to be with Lindholm as soon as he was out of his emergency brain surgery.
“Everybody in there was like on their deathbed almost,” said FGCU junior Jack Emmett. “To see a guy our age, one of our best friends in there, it was really tough.”
Lindholm said the support he received was instant and came from all over. His family flew from Colorado to Florida to be with him and the hockey community sprang into action. The Florida Everblades started a money board fundraiser to help with his medical costs. The FGCU hockey team put together a GoFundMe, and they all shaved their heads and added a sticker to their helmets to honor him.
“My support system was amazing,” said Lindholm. “They’re the real miracle of this story. They made sure I never got too low and they were checking on me every day. I didn’t have my license for six months. And so they made sure I was included and involved in everything and they made sure I was living as normal of life as I could, which to me at the time was everything.”
Over the summer, Dawg Nation Hockey, a foundation in Colorado, invited Lindholm for a fundraiser in him name.
“It’s such a cool organization,” said Lindholm. “Marty Richardson, the ‘Dawg Father or the founder of Dawg Nation Hockey, he started that as three of his buddies on his men’s league team actually got sick at the same time. So he started it as just him passing his hat around the locker room collecting money just trying to support them in any way he could. And it grew and grew and it’s such a big organization in Colorado and it’s so impactful. Just reached out to so many people.”
Miraculously, Lindholm has progressed so much in the last seven months that he is back out on the ice with his team getting ready to compete in the 2023 season.
“He has something that most people will never even experience and within a short span, it’s not even been a year, he’s going to come back and play college hockey,” said Van Tiem. “I mean that’s that’s pretty incredible in itself. It’s a huge success story. him he’s been a rock through the whole thing.”
“Guys have really helped him get back and he’s moving now, so it’s awesome to see,” added Van Tiem.
“It’s crazy, honestly, it’s really awesome,” said Emmett. “It just shows you know he works hard. He’s one of the hardest working guys on our team.”
Lindholm said he lost 25 pounds within the five days that he was in the hospital, so he said gaining the weight back and getting into hockey shape has been a big focus and he can’t wait to get back on the ice.
Going forward, he will have a new sense of normal with added medications and more trips to the doctor.
“I’ll have my radiology appointments, neurology appointments, neurosurgeon appointments, my oncology appointments,” said Lindholm. “Lots of different things. I take MRIs right now. Right now the only medicine I’m on is seizure medication, Depakote, and so I go get my blood drawn to make sure my valproic acid levels are good, but other than that, it’s not terrible. It’s manageable for sure.”
But Lindholm also has a new perspective on life.
“I’ve gotten really comfortable with the unknown because I mean, I guess you kind of have to and just control what you can,” said Lindholm. “I just have to give all the grace in the world to God, my family and all of these boys in the hockey community and communities that rallied behind me and are pulling that rope the same way for me.”
FGCU hockey starts their 2023 season at home on Friday, September 29 at 8:30pm at Hertz Arena.