24 year old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered an emergency medical episode during the 1st quarter of their nationally covered game against the Bengals, in Cincinatti tonight. Game suspended until further notice.
It was pretty harrowing to see. He stood up after a rather ferocious tackle, & then immediately collapsed. Reports were that he was seen receiving attempts at chest reviving or CPR, & after some significant time getting paramedic treatment, was taken away by ambulance to the local trauma center a couple miles away, and is reported in critical condition at this time.
If they were giving him CPR, then it's a fair bet his heart stopped, which means there was very near a death on the field of play tonight, (& may yet still turn out that way) However, there were rumors going around that as they loaded him in the ambulance, they'd placed an oxygen mask on him, which gives some reason to be hopeful that they at least got his heart beating (No reason to give supplemental oxygen if he's still in arrest)
This is bad though. His mother & other members of his family were said to be at the game. Staff & Team members from both teams retreated from the field together, without any comment, before which they were shown numerous times praying together & visibly brought to tears & panic.
The latest report is that he's been intubated, and not breathing on his own, and put into sedated sleep, but that his vitals are stabilized, while they run further tests
I've never seen the like in American football in my lifetime. Some medical experts are hypothesizing commotio cordis, where a traumatic blow to the chest at just the right time during the cardiac cycle can trigger a disruption
