Rare condition took Saskatchewan Rush announcer’s breath away
When Saskatchewan Rush commentator Casey Guerin gets to announce a winning goal, or great play, he doesn’t take it for granted.
Doctors diagnosed Guerin with a rare condition, similar to chylothorax, in which a duct in his chest spontaneously erupts.
“It’s a constant feeling of shortness of breath,” the colour commentator explains, adding that his condition cut his lacrosse career short nearly 10 years ago.
“It feels like you’ve just been running as fast as you can for as long as you can, and then you stop. Most of the time, you can catch your breath, here, you just don’t catch your breath.”
In 2015, those symptoms came back and Guerin was admitted to St. Paul’s Hospital.
But even when Guerin was in hospital, he announced every game he could.
“I knew how bad he wanted to be here, he called [the hospital] jail and felt the only thing that got him out of jail was getting to do the games,” John Fraser, Guerin’s broadcasting partner, said.
But while Guerin was out of hospital and in the broadcasting booth, he required an oxygen tank.
"We were literally in the middle of calling a game and there was paramedics changing my oxygen tank right behind me. I missed a goal, I just threw my arms up and said, ‘Fraser you gotta call it buddy,’" Guerin said.
Guerin’s condition got more severe and he was moved to a specialist in Philadelphia.
The Philadelphia specialist used a different approach to patch Guerin’s thoracic duct, using medical glue, rather than stitches or staples.
Doctors warn there is a risk of another eruption, but as long as Guerin can breathe, he says he will continue talking about his favourite sport.
---with files from Pat McKay
