See if I can keep this short...
Playing club roller hockey 2 years ago for UBuffalo... some huge defenseman for RIT hit me with a crosscheck in the abdomen area (I think that's when it happened) and I felt a slight nagging pain, but not enough to have to quit playing. Anyway, it was a double-header that Sunday and this happened toward the end of the first game. In between games, we were ready to start-up the second one when I told my captain I couldn't play anymore because I couldn't even stand up straight anymore. So I drove home alone and as I got back near the dorms, I made a right turn onto a small road and started to black out. Thankfully since I was in the middle of a turn, I was going slow enough to get the car to a stop and put the car in park. I woke up sometime after, not sure how long after, and found myself on the wrong side of the road sweating bullets.
I drove the 1 mile I had left back to my dorm and called the university's "medical center" and they advised me to go the hospital immediately. If they hadn't, I would have just tried to sleep the pain off. So anyway, a friend drove me over and as I entered the emergency entrance of the hospital, I fainted again in a wheelchair. Few minutes later, I wake up in the trauma room with about 9 people surrounding me and cutting up my clothes and sticking needles in me.
To make a long story short, a CTScan revealed that I my spleen was busted in half and I was bleeding internally. They told me I was blacking out not because of that, but because I had been dehydrated so much (I neglect to drink any liquids during games).
Immediate spleenectomy, spent 5 days in the hospital realizing how much you really need abdominal muscles for... then got back into action 6 weeks later. I still have a very visible scar down the center of my stomach. Thanks to the doctors, I have a not-so-nice reminder of the whole thing.
If it were not for the university medical center's advice, who knows if I'd be here today. The lady called me a few weeks after and I thanked her for saving my life.