Jaroslav Pouzar

"The professor called me the very next day and said: 'Mr. Pouzar, you should get on treatment as soon as possible. It is not a matter of hours or minutes, yet, it would be better to come here sooner than later.' And I said: 'I will be there on Tuesday.' I arrived there Tuesday. They put me on chemotherapy and pulled out those teeth where I had abscesses. We agreed on I would not be taking any pills, but I would undergo a bone marrow transplantation. That is a very difficult and risky treatment, but when successful, the person has a chance to live for a long time. While on the pills, you can survive for some time, a year, ten years, but no one really tells you… I am a fighter, I used to jump headlong into everything. So I said that I would undergo have transplantation. They took my teeth off, I was not allowed to have any infections. After my first chemotherapy; they sent me home and were looking for a donor. I was staying at home, taking pills. They called me two months later that they had already found a donor. It went fast. The donor was some German from Hamburg. And that I should start soon. So, I stayed locked in a room 2 x 3 meters over Christmas and the New Year. There was a bed, a TV, and nothing else. They insert tubes into your body through a window; through which they feed you pork or sirloin directly into your vein because you cannot eat, it is simply not possible. Before the surgery, I was taking pills for a week while I was on chemotherapy, about 140 pills a day that destroys the mucous membrane, stomach, everything, and you kill your own blood production too. When you stop producing blood, you are technically dead. Once you cut yourself, you can bleed out easily; an abscess on your tooth may be enough, and you die from an infection. It is kind of a room there – they call it the island of life."

"It was around 1972 when I joined the national team, and I was one of the best players in the Motor team back then. All of us were employed, but we did not go to work. We worked in factories — each of us in a different one. I was in the Motor, and my wage was around 2000 crowns at the time. That was pretty good money back then. Although, guys from Dukla Jihlava, who also signed up for the military service, made about 6000 a month. That was some big money at Dukla. But we had enough to make a living; 2000 was a good salary, enough to feed the whole family. And we earned some extra money from time to time. For example, when we took the second place in Izvestia or another time when we won the world championship – we were given 40 to 50 thousand crowns each, and a preference card for a ziguli, so we would not have to stand in a queue. Thus, we were living quite well, but it still was not enough to be able to secure the family for the rest of their life, as some NHL players can do today."