Ondřej Buchtela in the national team jersey at the U18 World Championships in 2017.
| photo: Profimedia.cz
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Twenty-year-old defender, who entered 27 extra-league matches for Chomutov and took part in the 18-year-old world championship, was not diagnosed by doctors with a rare sarcoma in the heart muscle until May. In addition, he had lung metastases.
Buchtela has heart cancer. It is not time to regret it, but to fight, he wrote |
He then announced on his social networks: “You don’t expect cancer in 20 years, but when it comes, there is nothing left but to fight. There is no time to regret asking why me and not the other. “
Unfortunately, the doctors had no treatment for the tribal player of the White Tigers in Liberec and the Ústí nad Labem offspring, the palliative team released him into home care. “It’s like a swing every day. He is dependent on oxygen, a wheelchair and without the help of another he can’t actually do anything, “wrote his friend Pavla Zbíralová.
It was she and her friends who set up a transparent account for him to treat and fulfill his dreams, which raised 3.5 million crowns. Buchtel’s story raised a huge wave of solidarity and with the help of sports greats Jaromír Jágr, Dominik Hašek or Petr Čech, athletes organized auctions of their properties to support him, the Ivan Hlinka Endowment Fund sent 200 thousand crowns.
He planned treatment with specialists in Italy, but the cancer was faster and stronger. To the crushing message, Buchtel’s girlfriend on Instagram attached a photo with the motto written on her hand: “Die and rise.”
The hockey association also expressed its condolences. “Life is sometimes extremely cruel,” said the president of Czech hockey, Tomáš Král. “The serious illness that broke out in Ondřej caused a huge wave of hockey solidarity, and from the responses we received, I know that we will all remember him only in the best possible way. On behalf of Czech Hockey, I want to express my sincere condolences to his family, loved ones and friends. “
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