Flames assistant GM Snow on life support, not expected to wake up

Calgary Flames assistant general manager Chris Snow is on life support.

Dealing with a form of ALS, Snow’s wife Kelsie wrote on Wednesday morning that her husband “will not wake up” and is on life support after a medical episode earlier this week.

Tests yesterday confirmed that Chris will not wake up. In life, Chris offered his body to a clinical trial to help others. In death he will do the same. He remains on life support while organ donation is arranged. We are so proud of him.

— Kelsie Snow (@kelsieswrites) September 28, 2023

Kelsie shared the news Tuesday that Chris suffered a “catastrophic brain injury” and a cardiac arrest.

“Paramedics and doctors were able to get his heart beating 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,'” Kelsie wrote Tuesday. “My chest feels cracked open and hollowed out. Chris is the most beautiful, brilliant person I’ll ever know and doing life without him feels untenable. Hug your people.”

Snow, who had been an assistant general manager of the Flames since 2019 and has been with the organization since 2011, suffers from a genetic form of ALS and had required assistance in order to continue with his duties with the Flames, though he had remained working with the team.

Snow’s father, two uncles, and a cousin had all lost their lives to ALS.

“ALS is a rare disease, and rare diseases aren’t easily cured. Fewer than 20,000 people in North America are estimated to be living with ALS. Of them only 2,000 are living with familial ALS, the kind caused by a gene passed down within a family,” reads a note on the Snowy Strong website, where the family has raised more than $225,000 for ALS research over the years.