Jenni Hiirikoski got a skate splint over her neck in a nasty accident in the Swedish Championship final between Luleå and Brynäs.
The incident received a lot of attention and the SDHL began digging into the question "what can we do to ensure the safety of the players?" and not least "what can we afford to do?".
"So far, we don't have enough resources to have full teams every day around the teams like you have in, for example, SHL. It is important, without having the resources, to try to find tricks to expand the competence in dealing with injuries, says Alsenfelt.
Can be firefighters
Introducing ambulances at the matches, like SHL, was not on the agenda. But in order to be able to handle emergency situations, the requirement landed in an ambulance nurse or equivalent competence at each match.
– You can be a doctor and have those educations, or you can have two who are firefighters but who have worked in the ambulance before. The clubs can submit their line-up to the medical group that we have put together and then they assess whether the requirements are met.
"We are very pleased and the clubs have really responded well and changed with staff to really get this right.
"Food for thought"
SDHL has also had training with staff around the teams, such as materialists, in the first care if the injury or accident occurs. Two to three employees per team participated in a day-long training in, among other things, CPR and bleeding and stabilizing the neck.
Alsenfelt describes security today as good in the league and thinks that a lot has happened just in the past year. Not least since Jenni Hiirikoski's injury, even though the issue was already a priority before.
– You get food for thought and it aroused more interest from the outside which made it feel a little more inside.