Last Monday night people watching the Monday Night Football game saw Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin take a hard, but not brutally hard, hit from a Cincinnati Bengals player.

Hamlin got up started to walk back towards the sideline and then collapse.

Fortunately for Hamlin the training and medical staff from the Bills, with some help from the Bengals staff, quickly got to him and started CPR. An AED was also quickly on scene and he was defibrillated a several times before he was successfully resuscitated and moved to the ambulance.

Hamlin was intubated in the field, no doubt had an IV started, and was probably given Amiodarone or Lidocaine via the IV.

Good work and as it turns out NFL medical teams drill for this stuff during the off season. Just as players work to keep their skills up, so doe the medical teams.

We should all be so fortunate to have such help so close if we need it.

One the immediate medical needs were attended and the game cancelled the speculation started.

How could a young man in top shape, a professional athlete no less, suffer such a medical emergency.

To the uninformed the answer was obvious. IT WAS THE VACCINE!!!!! Evidence? Who needs evidence? We have the Internet and Google School of Medicine.

Now, let me note the following. I am not saying that there appears to be some risk from the vaccines. That happens with every medication. I’m not even saying that there is no possibility that some people haven’t died from vaccine reactions. In my town and the city next door, two under 50 year old police officers died suddenly. In another town a fire fighter in his 30s died suddenly.

Whether there is a connection to the vaccine in their deaths should be investigated. Whether there is a heightened risk of death from the vaccine needs a serious investigation.

What shouldn’t happen is that every death of every person under about 90 be attributed to the vaccine. Make that 96, as I saw someone questioning whether or not 95 year old Pope Emeritus Benedict had had “the jab.” Such terminology show Joy Bahar level stupidity.

But I digress.

The hysteria around that has had an overall effect of discouraging people from getting vaccines of all types. Vaccines have a long history of relieving human suffering. On a medical scale, the various COVID vaccines and their boosters are failures. They don’t stop the spread of the virus, they may even make people more susceptible to contracting it.

Again, that needs to be investigated and the results widely published. That, however is not the point of this post.

What I am reasonably sure of based on having seen the video of Hamlin’s collapse and the play that occurred just before it is this. His cardiac arrest was not based on any reaction to the vaccine. Since the alleged cause of death from vaccine reactions is blood clots, I’m very sure that if a blood clot had caused Hamlin to go into cardiac arrest, he would not have been resuscitated. Whether a pulmonary clot or a clot in his cardiac circulation, he would not have been resuscitated.

There I said it twice.

Here is a good definition of Commotio Cordis,

A history consistent with commotio cordis involves a sudden impact with the anterior chest overlying the heart, followed by immediate cardiac arrest. This is most commonly a baseball; however, any impact may be present in the appropriate circumstances. Ventricular fibrillation may be observed if monitoring or an AED is available. Patients generally have no history of structural heart disease to explain the dysrhythmia, and the injury is not attributable to physical damage to the heart, cardiac contusion, or rupture. Penetrating injury is not the cause for arrest.

Physical exam findings may reveal a contusion overlying the heart, but this often takes time to develop, so it should not be relied upon to confirm the diagnosis. A pulse is not present with ventricular fibrillation, and there is evidence of inadequate organ perfusion (i.e., unconsciousness).

Why was Damar Hamlin able to get up, walk, and then fall over? My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that he had just enough oxygenated and adrenolinized (I made the word up) blood in his body to keep him going for a few seconds before everything just ground to a halt.

Why did he survive? Because the medical and training staff did exactly what is in the text books in exactly the correct order in exactly the critical minute after he collapsed. Add to that his previously mentioned superb condition. No underlying cardiac disease as older people would have.

Again from the previously linked article,

Initial efforts should focus on resuscitation from cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation. This includes closed chest compressions and early defibrillation. If the arrest is prolonged, it may be prudent to provide rescue ventilation and/or medications to improve coronary perfusion pressure (e.g., epinephrine). For an isolated blunt cardiac injury resulting in dysrhythmia, stabilization of the electrical activity may be the only necessary intervention. After resuscitation, appropriate post-arrest care should be implemented.

So what lies ahead for Damar Hamlin? Today, one week after his near death experience he has been discharged from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and is heading back to Buffalo.

I would expect that he’s going to see at least one cardiologist, maybe more. He may get an implanted defibrillator, but I won’t speculate. He may never play in the NFL again, but again I won’t speculate.

Commotio Cordis is rare and it’s victims are usually on the young side. The possibility is why almost all school athletic events have someone standing by to provide treatment.

Of course the media is as typical overreacting and providing bad information. Of course the media does that all the time, so we shouldn’t be surprised.

This isn’t “unprecedented” although it is rare. Parents shouldn’t panic, but they should make sure that their kids have a thorough physical exam before signing up to play sports. In fact, some athletic programs are starting to require that.

Damar Hamlin had a good outcome from what could have been a tragic situation. I’m happy for him.

It does not one any good to mindlessly speculate about what caused his situation when there is a perfectly valid explanation.

Which was the point of this entire post.