In my platoon we had 20 guys, you’re over there with those 20 guys for a minimum of 12 months. It’d be like me being with my hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres, for 12 months. It’s like a big family.
― Jim Pizzutelli
James "Pizza" Pizzutelli (born 1950) is an American hockey trainer for the South Florida Hockey Academy.
A combat medic in Vietnam, he faced death after himself and 3 others were ran over by a truck and was medivaced out. After this, he developed a newfound appreciation for field medics out in the field.
Pizzutelli is credited for saving the life of Buffalo Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk. During a 1989 match against the St. Louis Blues, Malarchuk took an ice skate to the neck, slicing open his jugular vein. Pizzutelli jumped into action and escorted Malarchuk off the ice. When they got to the team's locker room, Pizzutelli pinched off the sliced vein and kneeled on Malarchuk's collarbone, slowing his heart rate and breathing, reducing the amount of blood flowing out of the wound. Pizzutelli kept this up until doctors arrived to take Malarchuk to the hospital.
Medical experts after the incident say that if it wasn't for Pizzutelli's quick actions, Malarchuk would have died that day.