Matt Jonsson’s friends in Winnipeg are calling his tragic death at age 24 from a freak accident that initially left him paralyzed but eventually killed him a “blow to the community”.
Matt Jonsson's friends in Winnipeg are calling his tragic death at age 24 from a freak accident that initially left him paralyzed but eventually killed him a "blow to the community".
"They [Matt and his brother Cole] got hurt so many times and so many times that they should have broken their necks, I think. And then for a senseless thing like this to happen, I don't understand. I just don't understand it at all," said Tish Jonsson, the deceased's mother.
According to Press From, Matt suffered a spinal injury and severe brain damage from nothing more than hitting his head on a low basement ceiling. At first, doctors thought he could be confined to a wheelchair but would survive, but the brain damage proved too severe for him to recover.
Evan Cox, who was Matt's teacher and later his co-worker at Sturgeon Heights Collegiate, said this about his friend:
"He kind of left a legacy of playing the game the right way, an insanely hard worker [who] dedicated so much of his time to just pursuing excellence, just trying to get better every single day."
"I think he was doing the same thing to get the girls to have that kind of intensity, that kind of drive and focus and of building hope in them that they can try to get to where they want to get to."
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