Beloved father, teammate dies following COVID-19 outbreak among men's hockey players
CBC
A COVID-19 outbreak among players in a men's hockey league in Newmarket, Ont., has claimed the life of a beloved teammate and infected more than a dozen others.
Oro-Medonte resident Garry Weston, 75, died last week from complications related to COVID-19, his daughter Amber-Lea Weston-Campbell confirmed to CBC News.
Weston-Campbell said the father of three was a family man and sports lover who was kind to all those he met.
"The smile on his face ... it just lit up a room and you just knew he was so proud of the family that he and my mom built," she said.
"It's going to be hard without him."
York Region's public health unit confirmed 13 residents, and two from the neighbouring Simcoe-Muskoka health unit, tested positive for the novel coronavirus after playing hockey games at the National Training Rink (NTR) in late September and early October.
The cases are linked to a three-on-three league for men over the age of 50, who had been playing at the rink for several years. All are considered breakthrough infections because they were among fully vaccinated people, the health unit said.
"That was the first game he played in 18 months, so he was very excited, we all were," said Brian Dunn, Weston's close friend, with whom he had played hockey for five decades.
"I'm still trying to figure out how this all sort of happened."
Weston-Campbell said her father was admitted to hospital after having trouble breathing, and ended up in the intensive care unit. Days later, when his condition declined suddenly, he was put on a ventilator.
That's when health-care workers noticed he had suffered a massive stroke and he was eventually put on life support.
Doctors told the family that even if he beat the odds and survived being taken off the ventilator, the damage caused by the stroke would leave him unable to walk or communicate.
"He wouldn't be able to live like that," said Weston-Campbell, a registered nurse.
The family decided to take him off life support and Weston died in the hospital last Thursday. He leaves behind his wife, three children, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
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