CNN
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[Breaking news update, published at 10:15 a.m. ET]
On Friday morning, four days after the 24-year-old suffered cardiac arrest in the game, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s breathing tube was removed overnight and “continues to make significant progress in his recovery,” the team said Friday morning.
“His neurological function remains intact and he has been able to speak to his family and care team.” she tweetedCiting doctors at the Cincinnati hospital where he is being treated.
[Original story, published at 9:36 a.m. ET]
The Buffalo Bills are a destructive Hamlin Achieve a “fundamental improvement” at Cincinnati Hospital afterward Cardiac arrest in the game Doctors announced Monday, Thursday, that he is now awake and moving his hands and feet.
Dr. Timothy Britts, who is part of his medical team, told reporters that the 24-year-old can communicate by shaking his head, nodding or writing brief notes but cannot speak yet because he is on a ventilator. Upon waking up, Britts said, Hamlin’s mind was still in the game as he wrote his first question on the clipboard: “Did we win?”
“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,” said Britts, vice president of clinical operations at the University of Cincinnati Health where Hamlin is being treated.
However, the medical team warned that many stages of Hamelin’s recovery lie ahead. Britts said the player, who had to be sedated and intubated after he collapsed, remains in critical condition. The doctors did not say exactly when he started to wake up.
On Monday, Hamlin collapsed during the first quarter of the Bills’ game against the host Cincinnati Bengals. Swiftly hauled off the field in an ambulance, he stunned a packed stadium — players left crying and hugging — prompting an outpouring of support from strangers across the country, including among the millions who watched the medical emergency played out on live television.
The NFL announced Thursday that the Bills-Bengals game — which was initially postponed Monday night — will not resume or be made up. league players, I shook a lot With Hamlin imploded, they are now preparing for an emotional return to contention to play their final games of the regular season on Saturday and Sunday.
On Sunday, that includes the Bills hosting the New England Patriots and the Bengals hosting the Baltimore Ravens. The league is working on plans to honor Hamlin at all 16 of the weekend’s contests, two people familiar with the matter told CNN reporter Oliver Darcy.
The Bills and Bengals have already clinched playoff berths. While canceling Monday’s game won’t have any effect on teams qualifying for the playoffs, it could change the seeding and which teams host certain games — and the NFL is expected to end Friday. modifications to process it.
“It’s been a very tough week,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Thursday. “We continue to focus on Dummar Hamelin’s recovery and are encouraged by the improvements in his condition as well as the tremendous outpouring of support and care for Dummar and his family from across the country. We also incredibly appreciate the amazing work of the medical staff and commend each and every one of them.”
Here are the latest developments:
• Hamlin made a “fairly remarkable recovery”: Although Hamlin remains in intensive care, he is showing a “good neurological recovery” while awake and holding hands with his family in the hospital, Brits said Thursday.
He has a long way to go: “This marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care,” Britts said, but “he still has many, many steps ahead of him.” Hamlin’s next big milestone will be breathing on his own without a ventilator, said Dr. William Knight, director of emergency medicine.
• The cause of cardiac arrest is still unknown: Knight said tests are underway to determine the cause of the cardiac arrest. results of a heart attack from electrical disturbances that cause the heart to suddenly stop beating properly, and death can occur quickly if help is not given immediately; It is not the same as a heart attack or heart failure.
• Hamlin lost his pulse on the field: While surrounded on the field by medical teams, Knight said Hamlin lost his pulse and had to be given CPR and defibrillation while fans and his teammates looked on. The doctor added that he was then intubated in the ambulance and arrived at the hospital about 30 to 45 minutes after he collapsed.
• Billing is back in action: the team Wed met And it held its first full practice this week Thursday in preparation for hosting the Patriots on Sunday. The team’s head coach, Sean McDermott, said the team was receiving “additional updates” from the medical staff as well as from Bills general manager Brandon Bean and athletic coach Nate Prisk, who remains in Cincinnati. “I think the fact that we continue to hear good news about Damar, it moves us forward,” quarterback Josh Allen told reporters Thursday.
• “People will be changed forever”: Allen said the players have had “very frank, honest and deep conversations” since their teammate was hospitalized on Monday. “I think getting that helmet back on was a really good thing for our team,” he said of his return to training, “…but I’d be lying to you if I didn’t say, some people are going to be changed forever after being on the field and watching that and feeling those feelings.”
News of Hamlin’s awakening was met with an outpouring of messages of support and relief from players across the NFL. Since his collapse, fans have honored the player and donated more than $7 million His charitable fundraiser A company spokesperson said his jersey is the most-bought athletic jersey at sportswear store Fanatics.
Hamlin and Allen’s family also dismissed the online criticism of Cincinnati Bengals receiver T. Higgins, who collided with Hamlin moments before he collapsed. A family spokesperson said Higgins reached out to her and “was supportive.”
“I hope he feels some relief today,” Allen said of Higgins while speaking to reporters Thursday. “This is football, and I hope he doesn’t take that on himself, because there’s nothing else he could have done in the situation.”
Doctors and billing staff members repeatedly applauded the prompt action of the medical staff who rushed Hamelin seconds after he collapsed.
Assistant sports coach Denny Killington He performed CPR on Hamlin while he lay on the field, Bills offensive lineman Deon Dawkins tweeted Thursday. McDermott said Thursday that the coach saved Hamlin’s life.
“As they say, training pays off in this case,” said the coach at Thursday’s post-practice press conference dedicated to Hamlin. “But again, the context of that, having the aide find himself in this position and needing to take the action he did and step up and take over as he did — and there were others in the field too — is not in short of astonishing and the bravery that it took, speaking of a true leader, a true hero , in saving a life of destruction.”
Medics who were working on the sidelines when Hamlin collapsed called for everyone to help, according to an audio recording obtained by CNN. They said “I don’t like the way it went down” and “we’re going to need everyone”.
NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sales on Wednesday attributed the rapid medical response to a “60-minute meeting” held between medical teams and NFL officials before each game to locate medical equipment and nearby medical centers, and establish the chain of command in the event of an emergency. , among others.
In Thursday’s announcement of the official cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game that was suspended after Hamlin’s collapse, the NFL detailed parts of its decision-making process, including that the outcome of the game would have no effect on teams advancing to the playoffs.
The Bills and Bengals have already clinched playoff spots, but they are Maneuver to get higher seeds in the postseason American Football Conference.
The NFL’s statement clarified that the decision to resume or make up the game would have forced the league to postpone the start of the playoffs by one week, a move that would have affected all 14 qualified clubs.
Finally, the league said that making the decision before Week 18 still allows all clubs to know their final game odds before the final game of the regular season.
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