A Life Lived in Service

Each year, Hockey Fights Cancer brings with it the special opportunity to tell the stories of warriors. Jessica Block is no exception.

Jessica, also known as Jessi, initially grew up as a Red Wings superfan in Michigan, but when her favorite player Sergei Federov was traded to the Capitals, her fandom was traded too.

As fate would have it, years later employment would lead her to a Physician’s Assistant position with Washington Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, part of the group that worked directly with Capitals players at the time.

This experience set her off on her journey to becoming an orthopedic surgeon.

One of her close friends Erika Triscari recalls, “one day at Front Page we were watching a hockey game on TV. This really distant look came across Jessi's face, as if she was contemplating something significant beyond the last power play. She looked at me, paused and said, ‘I can be an orthopedist! I can do this. I can be a surgeon!’.

Erika and Jessi actually met at that same bar years prior while watching a Caps game. They got to talking and discovered their shared love for the team and the game. The rest is history.

They became fast friends who went to many, many Caps games and practices together.

“I would joke that when she became an orthopedist and paid off her student loans, she needed to buy a boat that we could all hang out on and call it Slapshot,” said Erika.

Once Jessi set her mind to becoming surgeon, she started studying for the MCAT and subsequently attended Drexel School of Medicine.

“She showed up to another one of our Caps/Front Page watch parties with a handful of MCAT test booklets. She flopped them on the bar with this big smile on her face,” Erika recalls.

“She did this while watching hockey games in a busy bar?! She made the hardest endeavors look easy, but I knew they were not.”

She completed her orthopedic surgery residency in Buffalo, NY and was offered a competitive fellowship at Washington University.

She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of oral cancer in March 2022 during her fourth year of residency.

Just a month later, she had extensive surgery to remove the cancer under her tongue and from the lymph nodes in her neck. Five weeks later she began intensive chemo and radiation therapy.

After this grueling process, she recovered and was able to return to her training in September 2022.

Unfortunately, the cancer returned just a month after getting back in the operating room. She resumed chemo and immunotherapy and despite these setbacks, graduated with her class in June 2023.

Jessi’s fight didn’t end there. She developed pneumonia in November and scans revealed the cancer had advanced, so she made the difficult decision to enter hospice care.

On November 26, 2023 the Ruth Jackson Orthopedic Society presented their ‘2024 Courage Award’ to Jessi via zoom in her hospital room. They also revealed they would be renaming the award to ‘The Dr. Jessica Block Courage Award’.

A Caps season ticket member told Erika that she should reach out to the team to try and get them to give her a shoutout while she was in the hospital.

She passed away just days later after a long and brave fight at the very same hospital where she did most of her training at.

Jessi donated her corneas to give sight to others, and donated her body to the medical school to continue to educate future physicians.

“She lived a life in service to others and allowed her life to be her prayer,” her mother Sherri said.

"I'm glad she got to be a Doctor," said one of her friends Krysta Scharlach. "It's just a shame that cancer took her from us before she could really make a bigger mark on the orthopedic field as one of the first female Orthopedic Specialists."

Although the team wasn’t able to do something for her while she was alive, they were determined to do something to honor her legacy and life.

Erika and a few other of Jessi’s friends, Krysta and Jessie Way attended the annual Hockey Fights Cancer game where they saw Jessi’s name in bold projected onto the ice.

“We took pictures of her name on that ice. We held up signs with her name. We were so grateful to everyone to just have that opportunity to remember her in the house that she loved,” Erika said.

But it was what happened before the game that she says really impacted her the most.

Jessie sent Erika a photo from the Capitals Instagram of Alex Ovechkin holding up a sign that read, ‘I fight for Jessica Block’.

“I lost it. I sobbed ugly tears for about a half hour,” she said. “We sent the Instagram picture to her mom and family in Michigan and her friends...to everyone.”

"It was really beautiful to see her name on the ice, but the biggest and most heartwarming shock was seeing Ovi on the Instagram holding her name," said Krysta.

“I know Ovi doesn't know Jessi, but that little gesture meant so much to all of us. Her name was in his hands. Wow.”

There’s so much about Jessi that her family, friends, and everyone that knew her will always remember, but nothing will ever replace her being here.

"The thing I remember most about Jessi was how tenacious she was," says Jessie. "To me, Jessi is the person I will always think of when I need a reminder to be brave. She's my patron saint of perseverance."

Her friends described her as smart, caring, determined, with a smile you’d never forget.

“There is a huge void in my life since she left,” her mom says. “I still remember her little feet kicking me in the ribs while I carried her, her first smile and other milestones but I will always be grateful for having the time to care for her and prepare for what was to come.”

“The world was a better place with her in it.”