Beck Water

The Buffalo Bills training staff? Um, No. Denny Kellington, the Bills Assistant Trainer who performed initial CPR? Unless he's been a combat medic or the like, probably has never done it for reals before. Looks like he's kind of moved from college team to college team as a trainer and then to the Bills. The paramedics and EMTs and the airway management specialist physician and the emergency medicine doc - of course you're correct. My point: the NFL has set out these protocols in which the First Responders are the athletic trainers, who run out on the field and assess dents and dings and even neurological trauma all the time, but whose experience with an actual ABC true emergency is nil - and in which they have 1 meeting a week to discuss how they'll work together with the EMS professionals. They had the protocols setting out roles and responsibilities, but they had never been actually used IRL And they worked seamlessly, with the less-experienced First Responder athletic trainers correctly identifying the emergency and doing all the right things. May you be bored!

Um, Nothing? Was this a trick question?

Yes.

I don't think he was in charge, but the athletic trainers were the ones out there initially and had to recognize the situation and radio for the rest of the response crew and equipment/start CPR They may have done the first CPR right through the pads and everything, so the guy really had to be a Beast to make it effective. I LOVE for 1st responders and EMS personnel to get their propers, but it really needs to be recognized that this, like a football game, was a Total Team Effort. Whoever cut the jersey and pads off enough to do effective defibrillation and got the facemask off to deliver oxygen, whoever called the Code (whatever their word is for cardiac arrest) and radioed for the defib and other supplies, deserves just as much credit.

Somehow fans got credit for donating directly to Oshei Children's Hospital in honor of Patricia Allen 🤷‍♂️ Charities aren't stupid. If they see an uptick in giving that looks like it has a specific motivation, it's in their interest to track and publicize it.

I'm gonna go with "No. He can't" Either meeting

I would just like to reiterate this: if you want to support this cause, donate directly to Axe ALS and specify "in honor of Tee Higgins" More straightforward than trusting a GoFundMe, even if they do try hard to be a credible organization.

Seeing Josh crack a genuine smile at that and then McDermott smile and quip "at least it was a happy song" was my fave moment. I Hear That I'm pretty sure it was something about what the NFL wanted them to do or what the NFL said to them about playing on Sunday. McDermott said "I'm not going to get into that". I'm pretty sure that McDermott's decision tree for playing on Sunday looks like this: Am I confident my players are emotionally mentally and physically ready to take the field? -> Yes -> Play Anything else? -> Go take a long walk off a short bridge

The differing language would be driven by differing timelines and responsibilities. I'm assuming here that immediate testing ruled out coronary artery disease and structural defects of the heart, straightforward tests for conditions that would need immediate treatment. The UC doctors treating Hamlin have a responsibility to him and his family to be 100% sure before they give them a diagnosis. They need to scrutinize every cardiac rhythm, deep-dive into the health of his heart muscle after recovery, and rule out every rare genetic condition before they tell him "we think this was commotio cordis and is unlikely to recur". They have nothing to gain and much to lose by speaking before they do that. The NFLPA doctors have a large membership of football players who want to know what the hell happened before they start smashing into each other this Saturday. Assuming the straightforward stuff has been excluded, they can tell their members that this seems to be the working diagnosis and it's very rare and requires a fluke placement at a fluky time. If it's not, then the other most likely cause is that it's specific to Hamlin, and also unlikely to apply to the membership at large. So they have a need to provide information now but not much to lose if the latter proves true when all is said and done.

You are correct.

We've learned something this week about how the NFL has put resources in place and trained and before each game in each stadium, holds a preparedness meeting for just this medical true emergency - which has never actually occurred on a professional football field since...1971? So these guys on the training staff stay current, year after year, skills they hope they'll never have to use. They and the physicians and opponent's staff talk through, week after week, roles and responsibilities and protocols and procedures that again, they hope they'll never have to use. Well, Monday, they had to implement those never used protocols and test those never used skills, and it all worked like a well-oiled Swiss watch. They have to be proud.

I believe you're probably correct. But there have been all kinds of crazy rumors around the internet - that Hamlin had to have CPR and be defibrillated again in the hospital, that he had a tracheostomy, that his jaw had been broken, that the ambulance waited for Hamlin's mom possibly to the detriment of his immediate care, that Hamlin's brain activity was flatlined and his family just couldn't face the decision to take him off life support, and I'm sure I'm not touching the surface. So he might have used the word that he meant, and gotten the answer he wanted when they doctors responded to the effect "I don't think anything detrimental was done" Nit: spelled Muki I think that is correct.

It's upthread

All I can say is "wow." Give props to Josh for at the end, specifically calling out to Tee Higgins and saying that it was a football play and there was nothing else he could have done, and people should not be holding him responsible, and that he hopes today's positive developments have given him some relief. One thing that caught my ear was that Josh said he had talked to Damar's father Mario on Monday, that Mario told him "my son's going to be all right" and that Mario predicted the first thing his son was going to say would be "Did we win?" Exactly as he did

https://www.buffalobills.com/photos/in-the-lab-bills-prepare-for-patriots-week-18#f5cf0734-4327-4b07-909c-bc775302687c I think notable is there appears to be a photo of Taron Johnson in a red non-contact jersey, participating in a catching drill. This would place him in Stage 4 of the NFL's concussion protocol, and would appear to be a positive sign that he might be able to play Sunday.

I think that's an amazing idea. "At Visiting Team Medical Liason and Emergency Medicine Physician....At Airway Specialist....At Team Physician...At Head Trainer..." Then the climax "At Assistant Trainer, DENNY KELLINGTON!" and the crowd goes totally bonkers

Some of those guys must feel like they're walking on air

I actually think it will may be Cam Lewis.

little article from Sal https://www.audacy.com/wgr550/sports/bills/doctors-hamlin-making-substantial-improvement?utm_campaign=sharebutton&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_term=WGRAM I actually think it would be super-cool to have a t-shirt with a photo of Hamlin in his jersey and the caption: "There's gonna be a lot of toys for him to buy"

There aren't HIPAA concerns because the family requested the press conference and authorized the doctors to speak. It sounded as though there were agreed-on boundaries before the conference, and the doctors (I thought) did a great job of gently smacking down questions that went too far. I actually was kind of flabbergasted by the level of medical detail a couple of physicians who got on the call requested. They want to know the ejection volume***, what's next, the size in inches? ***yes, yes, I understand what they're actually asking for, but I haven't been able to make a joke for 3 days, work with me

PR and media relations management is normally not something they teach in medical school I thought those two physicians did an INCREDIBLE job. They were very generous in recognizing the Bills physicians and trainers, gently emphasizing the impact of immediate bystander CPR and defibrillation on a positive outcome, and also firm but clear on refusing to provide details of exact timing of the arrest/resuscitation that remains to be reviewed, or detailed results of medical tests that are nobody's business but his family's Trying to summarize some notes I took: Initial response: 1. initially had pulse when trainers reached him, pulse disappeared under their initial care 2. had one round of CPR and one round of defibrillation to restore a pulse (ROSC, return of spontaneous circulation) 3. had a "textbook" EMS response including airway maintenance and intubation prior to transport to hospital 4. no details about why/how long the ambulance remained in the tunnel, but did share that Hamlin was intubated and had airway maintenance prep once he was inside the ambulance. 5. no tracheostomy (hole in the throat to insert a breathing tube, this would be done if there were an object lodged in upper airway or if there were neck trauma where swelling would threaten the airway). 6. no broken jaw. 7. was sedated, placed on ventilator and placed in prone position due to ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) which was explained as an inflammatory response interfering with gas exchange in the lungs. 8. hypothermia protocol was used Current status: 1. Still on ventilator with breathing tube in place, so can not speak. 2. Is communicating by moving shaking head or nodding (important detail - means they aren't worried about neck injury), by squeezing hands, and by writing on paper on clipboard. 3. He asked early on who won the game? Doctor said they told him "you did, Damar, you won the game of Life". 4. Parents and family and members of the Buffalo Bills staff are with him 5. Said he's been holding lots of peoples' hands - he's held doctor's hand, family, Bills 6. They can very much feel the prayers and the well wishes surrounding Damar and his family. 7. Said his family is wonderful and they wish everyone had a family like that. 8. Said Damar has been told he's got a lot of toys to buy when he gets out of hospital Next steps: 1. Focus is on improving his respiration and restoring his ability to breathe without the ventilator 2. Asked if Commotio Cordis was the cause of his cardiac arrest. Explained that Commotio Cordis is a "diagnosis of exclusion" and they will be conducting further tests to rule out other causes of sudden cardiac arrest before that diagnosis would be made. 3. Asked about concussion. They explained that no head injury detected, but concussion is a neurological diagnosis and since he's been sedated on a ventilator that evaluation could not be made. 4. Asked several times about what the best outcome would be, and what kind of rehab he would need or timeline. Said the best outcome would be to return to the state he was in at 8 pm Monday night (didn't sound as though they rule that out) but it's too soon to tell what kind of rehab would be needed or what the timeline would be Hope this is helpful to anyone who didn't have time to listen to the whole thing.

Not intended to disrespect your generous desire to meet the information needs here or your source: All that information and more was provided directly from two physicians involved in his care during the almost hour long news conference that just concluded

Question for our emergency medicine/ICU docs here: Can he be maintained on a ventilator (if still needed) while conscious?

I'm waiting for the video of him walking out of the hospital in his #3 Bills warmup suit. Oh, Hell, I don't care, he can wear his "Love Me B4 They All Do" swaggy jacket if he prefers 😆 I BILLieve it will come, and maybe in not too long* *for values of not too long measured in weeks

Yesterday it was reported they had meetings and a walk-through practice. That implies the coaches have been "on it" putting together a game plan that they're installing. It's usual, I believe, for the Weds after a Mon game to be a walk-through. It was probably pretty hard for them to focus. It's said that an update from Damar's father was part of the team meeting, so that probably helped a lot.