NHL assistant GM suffers ‘catastrophic brain injury’ amid ALS battle, wife reveals

Calgary Flames assistant general manager Chris Snow, who was diagnosed in 2019 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” after going into cardiac arrest on Tuesday and is not expected to “wake up,” his wife revealed on social media. 

Kelsie Snow shared the heartbreaking health update on Wednesday, explaining that the brain injury was caused by a “lack of oxygen.” 

“With a shattered heart I’ve come to share that yesterday Chris became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest.”

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“Paramedics and doctors were able to get his heart breathing again but, devastatingly, a scan showed Chris has suffered a catastrophic brain injury caused by lack of oxygen. His doctors do not expect him to wake up from this.”

“My chest feels cracked open and hollowed out,” she continued. “Chris is the most beautiful, brilliant person I’ll ever know and doing life without him feels untenable. Hug your people.” 

Snow, 42, revealed in June 2019 that he had been diagnosed with ALS. According to the team website, he was initially given six to 18 months to live. 

“ALS is a horrible disease, and when we went to Miami to see one of the best ALS doctors and researchers out there, we prayed hard,” Kelsie Snow wrote in an open letter to fans in December 2019. “We believe there are miracles in the world and maybe, maybe we would get one. And we did, just not the one we’d hoped for.”

Snow had enrolled in a clinical trial shortly after his diagnosis. According to his wife, the treatment was meant to silence the “effects of the mutated gene.” 

Snow joined the Flames organization in 2011. He was named assistant general manager just months before his diagnosis in 2019. 

According to Sportsnet, his father and two uncles and a cousin have all died from ALS.