CNN
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As Buffalo Payments participant Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition after suffering a mid-game cardiac arrest, his childhood good friend and highschool teammate, Indianapolis Colts security Rodney Thomas II, says there’s “little question in my thoughts” that Hamlin will get well.
Thomas drove on to the hospital the place Hamlin was being handled Monday evening, the place he stated Hamlin lay sedated after being rushed from the sphere in the course of the Payments’ recreation in opposition to the Cincinnati Bengals.
“I do know he might hear me,” Thomas stated whereas chatting with reporters Wednesday. He stated he was capable of be within the room with Hamlin and maintain his hand. “Even when he couldn’t hear me, it didn’t matter. I stated what I needed to say.”
The pair, who turned shut associates whereas teammates at their Pittsburgh highschool, spoke each day and had talked earlier Monday earlier than Hamlin’s collapse.
“It calmed me means down,” Thomas stated of seeing his good friend. “It made the journey dwelling loads simpler. I might go dwelling and know he’s gonna be straight. I acquired him. All of us acquired him. Everyone’s behind him.”
Hamlin stays below intensive care on the College of Cincinnati Medical Middle following his collapse in the course of the first quarter of Monday evening’s recreation, although he has been displaying “indicators of enchancment” his group stated in a statement Wednesday.
His heartbeat was restored on the sphere, the Payments have said, earlier than he was carried from the stadium in an ambulance whereas surprised and visibly emotional gamers and followers seemed on. Hamlin is on a ventilator and was “flipped over on his abdomen” within the hospital to assist relieve a number of the pressure on his lungs, his uncle Dorrian Glenn instructed CNN Tuesday.
Since his hospitalization, Hamlin has obtained a nationwide outpouring of help from followers and gamers throughout the sports activities world, together with greater than $7 million donated to his basis’s toy drive GoFundMe as of Thursday morning. A number of athletes have donned Hamlin’s quantity, 3, or his jersey whereas groups throughout the league have honored him via jumbotron messages and light-weight shows at their stadiums.
The Payments-Bengals recreation was postponed after Hamlin’s collapse with the Bengals main 7-3. The NFL is discussing the right way to deal with the unfinished recreation – which won’t be continued this week – however has but to announce a technique.
Initially considered an essential late-season matchup with vital playoff implications, the showdown averaged 21.1 million viewers on ESPN throughout gameplay, in keeping with Nielsen rankings. After Hamlin’s collapse, viewers grew to a historic 23.9 million, making the telecast probably the most watched “Monday Evening Soccer” in ESPN historical past.
It’s nonetheless unclear what prompted Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, however NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills stated the league will examine what might have led to the participant’s collapse in the course of the recreation.
Any time a participant is evacuated from the sphere, the NFL and its medical specialists carry out an in depth evaluate of what occurred, Sills defined on a name with reporters Wednesday. In addition they study the function protecting tools could have performed, he stated.
In some circumstances, Sills stated, the medical group won’t be able to find out what prompted the issue.
The physician additionally addressed theories that the cardiac arrest might have been attributable to commotio cordis, which happens when extreme trauma to the chest disrupts the center’s electrical cost, inflicting harmful fibrillations.
“It’s a must to have the suitable kind of blow hitting on the proper spot on the chest with the correct quantity of power at simply the suitable time in that cardiac cycle. So plenty of issues must line up for that to occur,” he stated, emphasizing that whereas it’s doable, investigators will contemplate all choices.
Sills attributed the “transformational response” of medical personnel when Hamlin collapsed to the “60-minute assembly” that’s held amongst medical groups and NFL officers earlier than each recreation. Throughout the assembly, groups establish the placement of medical tools and close by medical facilities, and set up a sequence of command in case of an emergency, together with cardiac arrest, amongst different issues.
Hamlin’s collapse is the newest in a string of current tragedies which have struck the group of Buffalo and and its beloved soccer group, together with a racist mass shooting and a historic blizzard that left at least 41 people dead in Erie County, New York.
A high-ranking official throughout the Payments group instructed CNN’s Coy Wire that they broke down in tears after day and night-long conferences on Tuesday, sobbing due to the heaviness of the state of affairs.
The sequence of inauspicious blows to Buffalo have emotionally piled up throughout the group, the supply stated, including that via all of it, the group has tried to be a supply of power for town, the supply tells Wire.
The supply pointed to the efficiency of Buffalo Sabres hockey ahead Tage Thompson on Tuesday evening as a “glimmer of hope” at a time when the group wants inspiration.
Hamlin’s jersey quantity, 3, was a recurring motif all through the sport, performed on January 3. Thompson’s three objectives throughout additional time introduced the Sabres a win. It was Thompson’s third hat trick of the season and his third objective got here fortuitously within the third minute of additional time.
The Sabres additionally wore “Love for 3” t-shirts honoring Hamlin earlier than the sport.
