CNN
—
Buffalo Bills player Tamar Hamlin Cincinnati is awake in a hospital, his agent and a teammate said Thursday morning. Instant relief and happiness from supporters across the country three days after the 24-year-old’s sporting heart attack.
Hamlin, unconscious He was awake and holding hands with family at the hospital when he was admitted, his agent Ron Butler told CNN.
“Our boy is doing great, awake and showing signs of improvement. Thank God,” Bills cornerback Guyer Elam, one of Hamlin’s teammates, said. Tweeted Thursday morning.
Hamlin has shown “significant improvement” over the last day and appears to be “neurologically intact,” the Bills said separately on Thursday morning.
“According to the doctors caring for Tamar Hamlin at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Tamar has shown significant improvement in the past 24 hours. Bills tweeted. “While still critically ill, he appears to be neurologically intact. His lungs continue to heal and he is making steady progress.
“We are grateful for the love and support we have received.”
Further details about Hamlin’s condition and how he proved to be neurologically intact were not immediately released by the team as supporters across the country hang on to updates on his health and NFL players contemplate an emotional return to the field this weekend.
Hamlin collapsed in the first quarter of the Bills’ game Monday night against the host Cincinnati Bengals, shocking a packed stadium and prompting the postponement of the game — a rare move in a league where an inherently violent game usually resumes. Injuries in the field. Even as all 32 teams prepare for their final scheduled regular-season games this Saturday and Sunday — capped off by a 7-3 win over the Bengals — the NFL has yet to announce whether it will make that contest.
Players around the NFL were dispatched Tweets of Celebration News broke Thursday that Hamlin was cautious. Before that, a fellow NFL player and childhood friend of Hamlin had said there was “no doubt in my mind” that Hamlin would recover.
Indianapolis Colts safety Rodney Thomas II went straight to a Cincinnati hospital where his 24-year-old friend was unconscious after collapsing on the field during Monday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. “I knew he could hear me,” Thomas told reporters Wednesday as he held Hamlin’s hand. “It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t ask me. I said what I had to say.”
“Basically (I said) I love him, I’ve got him, I’ll see him in a little while,” Thomas said on “CNN This Morning” Thursday when the news broke that Hamlin had woken up.
After seeing what happened to Hamlin, some players apparently rate themselves ready to play this weekend. It’s still unclear what caused Hamlin heart attackAnd the league will investigate what led to it, NFL chief medical officer Dr. Alan Sills said Wednesday.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow “wants to play” Sunday’s Bengals-Ravens game, but others may not, he told reporters Wednesday.
“If you had voted in the locker room, I’m sure it would have been a mixed vote,” Burrow said. “Personally, I think it’s tough to play … to get back to normal as quickly as you can is how I personally deal with things like that. But … everyone has a different way of dealing with it.
The Bills, who are scheduled to host the Patriots on Sunday, He returned to work on Wednesday Meetings and the first practice of the week will be held on Thursday. Players were encouraged and emotional when Hamlin’s father, Mario Hamlin, held a Zoom call with the team on Wednesday and said his son was making progress, a Bills organization source told CNN on Thursday.
Thomas, whose Colts host the Texans on Sunday, said each team “has to hope that everybody makes the best decision moving forward, whether it’s playing or not.”
“Player-wise … the world in general, we’re all in one heartbeat right now … everybody’s waiting for Damar to be healthy,” Thomas told CNN on Thursday.
Hamlin and Thomas, who were close friends as high school teammates in Pittsburgh, spoke Monday before Hamlin’s fall. Thomas said Wednesday that seeing his friend after the Cam incident “calmed me down.” “It made the journey home so much easier. I can go home and know he’ll be straight. I got him. We all got him. Everyone is behind him.
Since his hospitalization, Hamlin has received nationwide support from fans and players in various sports, including a donation of more than $7 million to his foundation’s toy drive. GoFundMe As of Thursday morning. Many athletes are Hamlin’s no. 3 or wearing his jersey, while teams have honored him with Jumbotron messages and light displays at their stadiums.
With about six minutes left in the first quarter of Monday’s game, Hamlin collapsed shortly after being hit by a Bengals receiver who passed Hamlin as he approached for a tackle. Hamlin stood up still twisting the receiver to the ground – but within seconds fell and lay motionless.
His heartbeat was restored on the field, the Bills said have said, before he was taken from the stadium in an ambulance as shocked and emotional players and fans looked on. Hamlin was on a ventilator and was “flipped on his stomach” at the hospital to relieve some of the complications with his lungs, his uncle Dorian Glenn told CNN on Tuesday.
Anytime a player is carted off the field, the NFL and its medical experts conduct a detailed review of what happened, Sills explained in a call with reporters Wednesday. They are also examining the role played by safety equipment, he said.
In some cases, the medical team can’t determine what’s causing the problem, Sills said.
The doctor theorized that the cardiac arrest may have been caused by commotiocardis, a severe shock to the chest that disrupts the heart’s electrical charge, causing dangerous fibrillations.
“You have to deliver the right type of blow to the right place in the chest with the right amount of force at the right time in that heart cycle. So, a lot of things have to line up for that to happen,” he said, stressing that while it’s possible, investigators will consider all options.
Sills attributed the medical staff’s “transformational response” when Hamlin collapsed to a “60-minute meeting” between medical teams and NFL officials before each game. During the meeting, the teams locate medical equipment and nearby medical centers and establish a chain of command in the event of an emergency, including cardiac arrest.
Hamlin’s collapse is the latest in a string of recent tragedies to hit the Buffalo community and its beloved football team. Racist mass shootings and A A historic blizzard He left that At least 41 people died in Erie County, New York.
A top official in the Bills’ organization told CNN’s Coy Wire that they broke down in tears after Tuesday’s day and night meetings.
The series of tough blows to Buffalo have emotionally piled up within the company, with the team trying to stay strong for the city, the source said.
Buffalo Sabers hockey forward Tage Thompson’s performance Tuesday night was a “glow of hope” at a time when the team needed inspiration, a source said.
Hamlin’s jersey no. 3 was a recurring theme throughout the game played on January 3. Thompson’s three goals in overtime gave the Sabers the win. It was Thompson’s third hat-trick of the season and his third goal came by chance in the third minute of extra time.
The Sabers also wore “Love for 3” T-shirts honoring Hamlin before the game.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the first name of Hamlin’s agent, Ron Butler.
