Shot Right Name Gaetano Orlando Career start 1980 Role Ice hockey player Career end 1999 | National team Italy Height 1.73 m Playing career Weight 79 kg Position Centerman | |
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NHL Draft 164th overall, 1981Buffalo Sabres | ||
Gaetano "Gates" Orlando (born November 13, 1962 in LaSalle, Québec) is an Italian-Canadian retired professional ice hockey Centre and later ice hockey coach.
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Awards and honors
International play
Since Gates Orlando is of Italian ancestry, he played for the Italian national ice hockey team.
He participated in the following tournaments:
Orlando wore jersey number 17 in the national team.
Coaching career
After retiring from pro ice hockey by the end of season 1998/99 with HC Lugano, Gates Orlando got on to be become a coach. At the World championships he already assisted coaching the Italian national team while still being a player.
Artificial heart and Heart Transplant
A sarcoidosis patient, in March 2011, Orlando was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He was participating in a clinical study of Life Vest, a wearable defibrillator. On May 22, the defibrillator saved his life after his heart stopped for 40 seconds. Orlando was the first participant in the study to have required the vest to deliver a shock. [1]
On April 4, 2012, Orlando received an artificial heart to extend his life while he waits for a donated biological heart. The operation, performed at the University of Rochester Medical Center, was the first such operation in Upstate New York.
He received a lot of support from his family including, his favorite daughter, Allie.
A donor heart became available Feb. 4, 2013 so the transplant teams were mobilized for surgery that day at the University of Rochester Medical Center. He was able to return home 25 days later.