It could be something like A-FIB that generates a blood clot in his heart or a weakened artery. If it’s something like that then he’s a ticking time bomb.
When he got up he grabbed his helmet and then stepped back so he may have been trying to drop down under his own power or just maintain his balance.
The unity of the players, forming a wall around Hamlin, and saying “no” to continuing to play. Good to see.
I stopped watching when the truth about the concussions came out. This is beyond that. I can’t believe anyone thought for a second that the game would just go on.
I saw that and thought, blood pressure drop. I’m thinking his heart got out of rhythm, stopped, and he dropped. There is adrenaline from the tackle as well, that may have given him a few more seconds before the drop.
It is usually 6 seconds from a heart going out of rhythm to drop.
When my heart skips a beat my natural reaction is to reach up and touch my chest and focus on it. I’m leaning more toward a head injury/aneurysm. But he stopped breathing and had to have his heart shocked so ???
To me it looked more like that “whooo” you get when you stand up too fast, then the fast drop. A hard hit at just the wrong time and body placement.
Usually you hear about it in baseball or as posted above in hockey, it could happen with a hard hit.
They are saying his vitals are back to normal levels, and they are putting him on a ventilator. They usually cool people down that have heart issues to preserve function.
I’ve seen a number of medical talking heads suggest it may be related to a disruption of the heart beat called commotio cordis. It is usually caused by a blow to the chest, directly over the heart. Sounds like a decent chance to recover.
There are also reports there will be a press conference coming up at some point tonight.
Also heard a variation of what @rocking_chair posted above about the ventilator and cooling him down to check things. And vitals are at normal levels. It was reportedly from a member of Hamlin’s marketing team(?) but not an official statement. Still, it sounds hopeful.
In the other thread, I link to the Wikipedia article on it, and it’s 58% survival rate. (ETA: Whoops – just noticed you linked to the same article with the same number.)
Yeah. I figured 58% = decent chance.
Oh, I agree. I thought the number for that would be much grimmer. I was not at all optimistic 30 minutes after the collapse. I am cautiously optimistic now.
Yeah I just heard that his vitals are back to normal. That sounds like good news.
I agree with cautiously optimistic. The fact that his vitals are reportedly in a normal range is very good news. He had really good and quick medical care.
Yes but that probably doesn’t take into consideration how quickly he was attended to. Probably a much higher survival rate.
Definitely. The kids playing little league of high school ball getting hit in the chest and collapsing don’t have the resources of an NFL team behind them. It typically effects males from 8 - 18, according to my lay person’s Internet research on the topic.
With the way football padding works, could there even be a direct hit to the sternum? You would think that the basic kit would specifically protect that area and spread out the impact even if there was a direct hit.
Is it like a 1/1000 chance to get hit in a way that your padding wouldn’t deflect the blow? Was his padding defective or not on properly?
I’m just ignorant of football padding. But I assume they are making it more protective each year.
I don’t know jack about football padding or about velocity but ISTM if I was in full pro football padding and a 220#, 6’4" tall person hit me at full speed in my chest, with their shoulder/head at just the correct spot…that wouldn’t go well.
May the fact he’s young and in fantastic physical shape work in his favor.
The front of a set of shoulder pads will cover at least the upper part of the sternum and chest, but generally, there isn’t a lot of padding/protection in that part of shoulder pads (which are primarily designed to protect the shoulders and upper arms).
Generally, most football players don’t wear other protective gear on their chests/torsos; the exceptions would usually be quarterbacks (who get hit in the ribs a lot), or a player who’s nursing broken or bruised ribs.
They weren’t waiting. I’ve been on many CPR calls. It may seem counterintuitive but the procedure isn’t to roll to the hospital right away. If it is fully trained paramedics and not EMTs they have same capabilities as an ER. The key is to stabilize and get a sustainable heart rhythm before transporting. At a pro game they have trauma doctors present as well as paramedics.
I saw a discussion where it would seem that is indeed the case at pro games, the medical personal, while maybe not trauma doctors, have advanced training beyond paramedics.
Paramedics have a lot of training. And equipment and can push the same meds as they give in to the ER. There is a huge gulf between EMTs and paramedics. Your best chance at survival is to be stabilized before the ambulance rolls out. I’ve witnessed it countless times. I’m sure it’s even more so at pro football games.
I’m always impressed that the paramedics on the field can always seemingly figure out, within seconds, which ailment out of several dozen possibilities that an unconscious, unresponsive player has, especially given that much of the player’s body is covered by pads, clothing and a helmet.