CHATHAM, Ill. (WAND) — Monday Night Football came to a halt this week after a player collapsed on the field.
Buffalo Bills safety, Damar Hamlin suddenly collapsed after a routine tackle against Cincinnati Bengals receiver Tee Higgins. Team trainers performed CPR on Hamlin until an ambulance could transport him to a hospital. The Bills announced that Hamlin's collapse was due to cardiac arrest. He is still in critical condition.
"Physical energy like this, there's a lot of energy involved. When to two of them came together, that created an electrical shock, electrical energy that transferred directly to his heart and stopped it. So, you hear the term cardiac arrest and that means the heart stopped working," said Patrick Murphy of Prairie Health.
Decatur native, Nathan Stewart attended the game. He described the stadium's reaction to the tragic incident as pure silence while health experts rushed to the field to provide aid.
"I don't know if I ever seen a stadium that full of people so quiet. We thought, 'Oh it's probably a concussion. They're going to take them off to do concussion protocols and stuff like that.' But all of a sudden, they bring the ambulance out to the field and the whole stadium is silent," said Stewart.
CPR was performed on Hamlin for over nine minutes according to AP reports. Local experts explained why this procedure was so crucial to keeping the player alive.
"For every minute that goes by when someone needs CPR, they lose seven to ten percent of their survival rate. And so, getting those medical professionals out on the field and starting CPR immediately most likely led to the fact that he is still with us," said Kari Martin-Leyva, Training Center Coordinator at Chatham Fire Department.
Doctor Murphy added that this incident can occur during almost any active sport or activity. Learning CPR will help prevent tragedies from escalating.
If you're interested in Chatham's CPR training classes, visit here.
Red Cross CPR information can be found here.
Copyright 2022. WAND TV. All rights reserved.Â
