Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest during a Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, resulting in the use of automated external defibrillators (AED) and CPR to restore his heartbeat before he was taken to a nearby hospital.
The incident occurred at the 5:58 mark in the first quarter when Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Hamlin initially got up from the hit before immediately falling to the ground.
Training staff from both teams, along with first responders, began administering CPR and used AEDs to restore his heartbeat, which took around 10 minutes to achieve. Hamlin was then transported by ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, a Level 1 trauma center.
More than an hour after the injury, the NFL officially postponed the game.
Early Tuesday morning, the Bills released an update on Hamlin’s condition.
“Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in the Buffalo Bills’ game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition.”
As of late Tuesday morning, Hamlin’s vitals have returned to normal, though he remains intubated and doctors are conducting tests, according to his marketing representative.
Hamlin, a 24-year-old player who was drafted by the Bills out of the University of Pittsburgh in 2021, is among the more than 356,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests that occur annually in the U.S. The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation said that nearly 90% of these cases are fatal.
The healthcare community, much like most of the country, watched in shock as the disturbing incident played out on national TV.
Minutes after Hamlin collapsed, the American Heart Association tweeted “thoughts and prayers” to Hamlin, his family and the Bills before reiterating the crucial role CPR plays in a cardiac emergency.
Several cardiologists and vascular surgeons weighed in on the cardiac arrest and possibility that it was the result of commotio cordis, a rare phenomenon that occurs when a blunt, nonpenetrating blow to the chest causes ventricular fibrillation.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, said it was “critically important” that first responders were able to restart Hamlin’s heartbeat on the field.
Christopher Semsarian, a professor of medicine at Sydney Medical School and head of the molecular cardiology program at the Centenary Institute, said it was likely to be commotio cordis. Still, he noted that despite the triggering of abnormal electrical rhythms leading to life-threatening cardiac arrest, it was promising that Hamlin was resuscitated quickly.
Megan Ranney, MD, MPH, who serves as deputy dean at the Brown University School of Public Health, said that it is normal to sedate and intubate a patient following cardiac arrest in order to “to protect them from stress, & to give us docs time to determine next steps.”
In addition to the medical community, the incident led to an outpouring of support for Hamlin from fellow NFL players, most notably Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt, who underwent a heart procedure earlier this season to address an arrhythmia.
One silver lining to the incident is that donations to Hamlin’s annual toy drive rose from $7,000 just before kickoff to more than $3.6 million as of late Tuesday morning.
