The Buffalo Bills player who collapsed on the field and suffered a heart attack likely experienced a “very rare” life-threatening commotio cordis event, which is more common in youth sports that involve projectiles like baseballs and hockey pucks.
The Herald on Tuesday spoke with a Boston-area cardiologist, who stressed that a key message from this shocking event is to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest on the playing field, as he called for better training for CPR and defibrillators.
Bills safety Damar Hamlin remained in critical condition in the ICU a day after he was resuscitated on the field following a tackle in Monday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. After making the tackle, Hamlin initially got up before suddenly collapsing backwards.
The 24-year-old defensive player suffered a heart attack, and club physicians and independent medical personnel performed CPR and used an automated external defibrillator to get his pulse back.
When local cardiologist Christopher Madias saw the impact to Hamlin’s chest and the resulting heart attack, the doctor thought of a life-threatening commotio cordis event.
“It’s a rare event because it really has to be the perfect storm of a series of unfortunate events for this to occur,” said Madias, cardiologist and director of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Center at Tufts Medical Center.
There has to be a major blow to the chest wall over the heart tissue, enough force to trigger this type of cardiac arrhythmia.
“The timing is critical,” Madias said. “There’s a very narrow window of vulnerability (within the heartbeat) when this can occur.”
Commotio cordis is more linked to youth sports that involve projectiles like baseballs, hockey pucks and lacrosse balls.
“These are very rare events for adult athletes because they have more developed chest walls, stiffer chest walls that are less prone to these type of events,” Madias said.
Coming out of this frightening event on national TV, Madias wants people to be aware that heart attacks happen on athletic fields, how to recognize this phenomenon, and how to quickly respond to this urgent situation.
Early and effective CPR and the immediate use of a defibrillator is vital.
“These are critical in the outcomes of sudden cardiac arrest,” Madias said. “Those first several minutes are critical for survival.”
While Hamlin’s pulse was restored, he has not been breathing on his own; he was intubated.
Moving forward, doctors will be evaluating Hamlin to see if he has any underlying cardiac issues.
“They will wean him off sedation and see if his mental status is there,” Madias said. “That will be key to his prognosis.”
Hamlin is a young healthy athlete, Madias noted, “so he has that going for him. Young people tend to bounce back better.”
Jordon Rooney, a family spokesperson for Hamlin, said the Pennsylvania native is “a fighter.”
“The family’s in good spirits,” Rooney said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We’re honestly just taking it minute by minute, hour by hour… His family is very much going through a lot right now, so I think it’s important for everyone to just kind of remember that this is a person, and his family is just trying to work through everything.”
A fundraiser that was initially established to support a toy drive for Hamlin’s community has raised millions of dollars on GoFundMe in the wake of Monday night’s incident.
