Bills/Bengals game

[Marvinlungwitz]

It was playing in the background as I’m playing with my iPad just now.

Horrible to see Hamlin collapse like that. So sad.

[bigbill]

I don't think a speculation thread accomplishes anything.

[Marvinlungwitz]

I don't think a speculation thread accomplishes anything.

You’re right.

[rwsaunders]

Local kid who starred at Pittsburgh's Central Catholic and the University of Pittsburgh...good karma sent his way.

[jimcav]

reminds me how relieved I was when my son stopped baseball. We made him wear a chest protector, but even then it upset me the local league didn't mandate an AED on site for games b/c it is needed for commotio cordis. Hopefully they recognized and treated him in time

[Mabouya]

Hopefully they recognized and treated him in time

I don't know how accurate this is, but last night I heard on ESPN radio that it took them 9 minutes to get his heart re-started. If that is correct I would be quite concerned about significant brain damage.

[Clyde]

Don’t know about this specific incident however cpr is designed to flow blood and 02 into major organs.

[jimcav]

I don't know how accurate this is, but last night I heard on ESPN radio that it took them 9 minutes to get his heart re-started. If that is correct I would be quite concerned about significant brain damage.

hard to say what is true clinically there as far as what they mean by ''re-started'', but 9-min of asystole is certainly survivable with good CPR. Having done CPR that, would be a long and exhausting 9 minutes

[Mark Walberg]

hard to say what is true clinically there as far as what they mean by ''re-started'', but 9-min of asystole is certainly survivable with good CPR. Having done CPR that, would be a long and exhausting 9 minutes

I once did CPR on a person for over 45 minutes on the side of a road. She went back to work after that (well, not right after).

[bigbill]

reminds me how relieved I was when my son stopped baseball. We made him wear a chest protector, but even then it upset me the local league didn't mandate an AED on site for games b/c it is needed for commotio cordis. Hopefully they recognized and treated him in time

As a youth baseball umpire, I saw a baserunner take a baseball to the chest, which knocked him down. I stopped the game and insisted that the parents take him out of the game and to urgent care. Luckily there was an MD parent that backed me up. He was fine, but I've heard many horror stories about a kid dying after a game from a blow to the chest.

[Marvinlungwitz]

My original post (prior to editing) mentioned commotio cordis as a potential cause of Hamlin’s injury because it is obviously unusual in football and because I was impressed by my wife, whose sharp eye picked up the chest collision in real time, before replays of the event.

The putative mechanism of injury is getting a lot of publicity, but it happens more often in less violent sports, and usually involves a hit from a ball.

I’ve also seen it happen after drivers have hit steering wheels in car accidents.

The diagnosis should probably be one of exclusion, and I’m sure he’ll be undergoing a bevy of cardiac tests to make sure there’s no other potential cause (and that the hit didn’t do physical damage to his heart).

And when the drama of this story passes, the NFL should go back to concentrating on its more common player health problems, which arise from head injuries and obesity.