Initial speculation from doctors suggests that Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was hit in the wrong place at the wrong time, triggering a cardiac arrest.
Hamlin collapsed during the the first quarter of the “Monday Night Football” game between the Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin was given CPR on the field and later hospitalized in critical condition. The game was postponed.
In a video posted to YouTube, Dr. Mike Hansen, whose YouTube channel has more than 1 million followers, offered his theory about what took place in what he called a “blunt force chest injury.”
“I immediately put two and two together as to what was going on,” he said, after reviewing video of the incident.
“The NFL has never seen anything like this,” he said.
Trending:
“When it gets to the point where it’s so severe where someone actually has a cardiac arrest, the first thing that comes to my mind is commodio cordis,” he said, referring to a condition caused by a blow to the chest that interrupts the rhythm of the heart.
He said Hamlin was able to rise from the tackle he made because the brain could temporarily function after blood flow has paused.
Doctors interviewed by The Washington Post agreed that Hamlin might have taken the blow during the tiny space of time when the heart’s electrical cycle is vulnerable to disruption from an external force.
Are more health protections needed for NFL players?
Yes: 0% (0 Votes)
No: 0% (0 Votes)
The window of vulnerability is only 40 milliseconds long, which makes such injuries rare. Their most frequent appearance in sports is when baseball or hockey players are hit in the chest by the puck or a baseball, the Post reported.
Hansen offered one bit of hope for Hamlin’s recovery.
“After he was on the ground, he was actually moving his right arm, you see that on the replay, so it wasn’t like he didn’t have any brain function at all,” Hansen said.
Hansen noted that the reported use of an automated external defibrillator…
Source
Leave a Comment