The Buffalo Bills medical team called for all hands on deck as they scrambled to save Damar Hamlin’s life after he collapsed on the field.
The defensive back suffered from cardiac arrest after being hit in the chest in a tackle by a Cincinnati Bengals receiver on Monday during a game at Paycor Stadium.
After his collapse, a large medical team rushed to save the 24-year-old’s life, as radio traffic audio reveals they asked for every medical personnel to help out.
‘I don’t like how he went down,’ one unidentified man said on the recordings moments after thousands of fans watched Hamlin fall down in Paycor Stadium and millions more watched from their couch.
Damar Hamlin, 24, collapsed (pictured) on the field from cardiac arrest on Monday
Audio recordings between medical personnel revealed the stressful moments after he collapsed. ‘I don’t like how he went down,’ one unidentified man said on the recordings
Seconds later, another man declared the situation an ‘all-call, all-call,’ meaning: ‘We’re going to need everybody.’
‘Call, bring everybody. We need an airway doctor, everybody. Bring the cot with the medics,’ the man said in the recordings, according to The New York Times.
It was revealed that Hamlin had to be resuscitated twice before they ‘sedated him just to give him a better chance to just continue to heal better,’ Hamlin’s uncle Dorrian Glenn told CNN.
Hamlin has since woken up and is ‘alive and breathing.’
His uncle said: ‘It seems like he’s trending upwards in a positive way.’
Although the football star cannot currently speak due to a breathing tube, he reportedly asked who won the game on a piece of paper.
Other audio recordings showed the desperate moments the medical team had with Hamlin before he was rushed to the hospital for further treatment.
Around 9.30pm on Monday, a desperate medical personnel asked another to bring a CO2 monitor to where Hamlin was stationed immediately as per doctor’s orders.
‘I need an end-tidal CO2 now!’ he can be heard on the recording. The test measures how well a person is breathing.
Moments later, another man declared the situation an ‘all-call, all-call,’ meaning: ‘We’re going to need everybody’
Another man reported that the monitoring was on its way, but another man doesn’t seem to be happy with his calm demeanor.
‘Dave, step it up!’ he told the guy.
Another agreed, saying: ‘Yeah, you need to step it up.’
Additional records indicate Hamlin’s parents were being transported to D-Gate to be taken to the hospital. It was originally thought that his parents were being taken to the ambulance to ride in it to the hospital with their son, but it was later reported that they drove separately.
The ambulance was supposed to leave the stadium immediately, but it did not leave until 9.23pm – more than 10 minutes after it left the field.
The NFL did not comment as to why the ambulance was delayed, but medical experts suspect the player could have experienced more complications and staff may have wanted to stabilize him before taking off on a bumpy road.
‘Once the pulse is back, you want to transport him as soon as possible,’ Dr. Glatter, the emergency medicine physician, told The New York Times. ‘Sometimes, they delay transport if a patient is crashing. It can happen where one of the paramedics will hold the driver until he’s more stable.’
‘Call, bring everybody. We need an airway doctor, everybody. Bring the cot with the medics,’ the man said. The defensive back is reportedly doing better after his medical emergency, but currently cannot speak due to a breathing tube
Both Pritts and University of Cincinnati’s Dr. William Knight said the speed of medics’ response to Hamlin’s collapse on Monday was critical in saving the Pittsburgh native’s life.
Physicians were by Hamlin’s side within a minute of his collapse and immediately realized that he did not have a pulse.
‘There are injuries that happen in sports, but it’s rare to have something [that] incredibly serious [that quickly],’ Pritts said. ‘We cannot credit [the Bills medical] team enough.’
‘It’s been a long and difficult road for the last three days,’ Knight said. ‘[Hamlin] has made a pretty remarkable improvement.’
Despite his improvement, it’s not clear when Hamlin will have his breathing tube removed.
‘Every patient is different,’ Knight said. ‘When patients’ families ask, how long are they going to be on a ventilator, in the ICU, [we’ll say]as long as it takes.’
Pritts said the ‘best outcome’ would be for Hamlin to resume ‘being the person he was before this all happened.’
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