Damar Hamlin update: His first question was, “Did we win?” says the doctor, days after he suffered cardiac arrest during an NFL game

CNN
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Buffalo Bills player Hamlin devastation He is awake in a Cincinnati hospital, neurologically sound and moving his hands and feet, doctors said Thursday. comfort and joy A fan across the country after the 24-year-old went into cardiac arrest at the game.

And his first question upon waking up?

“Did we win?” Hamlin scribbled on the clipboard, according to Dr. Timothy Britts, vice president of clinical operations at UC Health.

“Yeah, Damar, I won. I won,” Bretts said at a news conference in Cincinnati Thursday afternoon, paraphrasing the reaction of one of his medical partners.

Still on a ventilator, Hamlin communicates yes and no answers by shaking his head, nodding, or writing brief notes, according to Britts.

“So, we know that not only are the lights on, we know he’s home. It seems like all cylinders are firing inside his brain,” Brits said.

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Hamlin has been receiving treatment at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center since Monday night, when he collapsed in the first quarter of the Bills’ Monday night game against the host Cincinnati Bengals, stunning a packed stadium and leading to a contest. Postponement.

Hamlin Partners, who were residence He was intubated and released the news Thursday morning that he had woken up, though details about exactly when he woke up weren’t immediately available. His agent, Ron Butler, told CNN on Thursday that he was holding hands with his family in the hospital.

Britts said Hamlin remains in a critical condition, but his condition has improved dramatically in the past 24 hours, and “his neurological condition and function appear to be intact.”

“This marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care,” Britts said. “He still has many, many steps ahead of him. From our perspective, we would like to see him continue to improve, breathe completely on his own and be ready to be discharged from the hospital.”

Hamlin was resuscitated and intubated in the field, according to Dr. William Knight IV, a professor in the University of Cincinnati’s department of emergency medicine. The cause of Hamelin’s disease remains unclear Cardiac arrestThe NFL will investigate what could lead to this, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sales said Wednesday.

I brought Thursday news Tweets From to celebrate From across the league and beyond, including from President Joe Biden.

“Great news. Damar, just like I told your mom and dad yesterday, Jill and I — along with all of America — pray for you and your family,” Biden to publish employment Twitter.

Details about Hamlin’s condition come as NFL players contemplate an emotional return to the court this weekend, as all 32 teams are set for their final scheduled regular season games on Saturday and Sunday.

The Bills, scheduled to host the Patriots on Sunday, Wed met They were scheduled to hold their first training session of the week, Thursday. Players – already reeling from last year Racist mass shooting And talk A deadly blizzard In their hometown — they were encouraged and emotional when Hamlin’s father, Mario Hamlin, had a Zoom call with the team on Wednesday, a source in the Bills organization told CNN Thursday.

On Thursday afternoon, the Bills plan to hold their first press conference since Hamlin’s injury, The team posted on Twitter.

No decision has been made about resuming Monday’s game — which was halted with the Bengals leading 7-3 — NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy told CNN Thursday.

Some of this weekend’s games — and possibly the postponed Bills-Bengals game, if it was made up at all — will have ramifications for the NFL playoffs. The Bills (12-3) and Bengals (11-4), in particular, both earned playoff spots, but they won that Maneuver to get higher seeds in the American Football Conference.

Since his hospitalization, Hamlin has received nationwide support from fans and players across professional sports, including more than $7 million donated to his foundation’s gaming campaign. GoFundMe As of Thursday morning. Many athletes wore Hamlin’s No. 3 or his jersey while teams honored him with Jumbotron messages and light shows in their stadiums.

Hamlin collapsed shortly after a tackle in which a Bengals receiver attempted to run past Hamlin, who was a close tackle, with about six minutes left in the first quarter of Monday’s game. Hamlin still rolled his receiver to the ground and stood up—but within seconds he had fallen and was motionless.

His heartbeat was restored on the field, Bills He saidbefore being taken off the field in an ambulance while players and fans were visibly amazed and emotional.

Not only was Hamlin sedated, he was on a ventilator, and was also “turned on his stomach” in the hospital for Help relieve some pressure His uncle, Dorian Glenn, told CNN on Tuesday that his lungs were damaged. Details about what Hamlin’s lungs were not available.

Before news broke Thursday that Hamlin was on alert, some in the league were publicly assessing their willingness to play this weekend.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow told reporters Wednesday that he “might want to play” the Bengals-Ravens game on Sunday, but there may be others who don’t.

“I’m sure if you polled the locker room, there would be mixed votes on that,” Boro said. “Personally, I think playing it is going to be tough… I think getting back to normal as quickly as possible as quickly as possible is personally how I deal with these kinds of things. But… everyone has a different way of dealing with it.”

Among those rushed to a Cincinnati hospital after Hamlin collapsed was Rodney Thomas II, one of Hamlin’s childhood friends, the Indianapolis Colts. Thomas visited Hamlin while Hamlin was under sedation and intubation this week, he said.

“There is no doubt in my mind,” Thomas told reporters on Wednesday. Hamlin will recover.

“I know he can hear me,” said Thomas, adding that he was holding Hamlin’s hand. “Even if he can’t hear me, it doesn’t matter. I said what I had to say.”

“I just (said) I love him, I support him, and I’ll see him in a bit,” Thomas added Thursday on “CNN This Morning,” before news broke that Hamlin was up.

Hamlin and Thomas, who had become close friends with high school classmates in Pittsburgh, spoke daily and spoke on the Monday before Hamlin collapsed. Thomas said on Wednesday that seeing his friend so soon after the in-game incident “calmed me down a lot.” “It made the trip home so much easier. I can come home knowing it’s going to be straight. I got it. We all got it. Everyone’s behind it.”

Thomas, whose Colts host the Texans on Sunday, said every team should “trust everyone is going to make the best decision going forward, whether that’s playing or not playing.”

“From a player’s point of view…just the world in general, we’re all just one heartbeat right now…we’re all waiting for devastation just to get healthy,” Thomas told CNN on Thursday.

Seals, the NFL’s chief medical officer, on Wednesday addressed theories that Hamlin’s cardiac arrest could be caused by an enlarged heart, which occurs when blunt force trauma to the chest disrupts the heart’s electrical charge, causing dangerous fibrillation. .

“You have to have the right kind of blow in the right place on the chest with the right amount of force at exactly the right time in that cardiac cycle,” he said on a call Wednesday with reporters. “So, a lot of things have to align for that to happen,” he said, stressing that while that is possible, investigators will look at all options.

Any time a player is evacuated from the field, the NFL and its medical experts do a detailed review of what happened, Sales said. He said they are also examining the role that protective equipment might play.

In some cases, Sales said, the medical team won’t be able to determine the cause of the problem.

Sales attributed the medical staff’s “transformational response” when Hamlin collapsed to a “60-minute meeting” held between the medical teams and NFL officials before each game. During the meeting, teams locate nearby medical equipment and medical centers, and establish a chain of command in case of emergency, including cardiac arrest, among others.

Hamlin’s collapse is the latest in a string of recent tragedies to hit the Buffalo community and its beloved football team, including Racist mass shooting and a Historic blizzard This left At least 41 people were killed in Erie County, New York.

A senior Bills official told CNN’s Coy Wire they broke down in tears after day-and-night meetings Tuesday, sobbing at the weight of the situation.

The string of hard blows against Buffalo built up emotionally within the organization, the source said, adding that through it all, the team has tried to be an asset to the city.

The source said Buffalo Sabers hockey forward Tygue Thompson’s performance on Tuesday night was a “glimmer of hope” at a time when the team needs inspiration.

Hamlin’s jersey number 3 was a recurring motif throughout the match, played on 3 January. Thompson’s three goals during overtime sealed the victory for the Sabers. This was Thompson’s third hat-trick of the season and his third goal came by accident in the third minute of extra time.

The Sabers also wore “Love for 3” T-shirts in Hamlin’s honor before the game.

revision: An earlier version of this story misspelled Hamlin’s agent Ron Butler’s first name.