Here’s what Damar Hamlin’s doctors said about the Bills player’s health and recovery
- Doctors were asked to provide a timeline of his care on the field and later in the hospital.
- They were asked about a cause for Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, but they said the workup is ongoing.
- They spoke of his response after waking up and his ability to communicate in writing.
Note: Doctors who treated Bills safety Damar Hamlin held a news conference Thursday in Cincinnati. They took questions for nearly 50 minutes on a variety of topics related to his treatment and health. Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.
Good afternoon, my name is Kristen Weavers and I’m a senior vice president and chief marketing and communications officer here at UC Health representing the University of Cincinnati Medical Center here in Cincinnati, Ohio.
We’re delighted to join you today and to be invited by Damar’s family and the Buffalo Bills to give you an update on the medical condition of Damar. I’d like to introduce these two incredible physicians that are with us today. Dr. William A. Knight IV is a professor in the department of of emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Knight is also the lead physician for the Cincinnati Team of Unaffiliated Neurotrauma Consultants, visiting team medical liaisons and emergency medical services support, including on-field paramedics, air-way management physicians and respiratory therapists.
Dr. Timothy Pritts is a trauma surgeon and serves as a professor in the department of surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the division chief of general surgery.
Pritts: Good afternoon, everybody, and greetings from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. It’s a privilege to be able to meet with you, and Dr. Knight and I are representing the many, many individuals and teams that have helped care for Mr. Hamlin since the on-field event on Monday night. We would like to share that there has been substantial improvement in his condition over the past 24 hours. We had significant concern about him after the injury and after the event that happened on the field, but he is making substantial progress.
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As of this morning, he is beginning to awaken and it appears that his neurological condition and function is intact. We are proud to report that, very happy for him and for his family and for the Buffalo Bills organization, that he is making improvement. He continues to be critically ill and continues to undergo intensive care in our surgical and trauma ICU. He’s being cared for by ICU neurocritical care teams, trauma surgery and a cardiology team, as well as our expert nurses and respiratory therapists. They are attending to him and he still has significant progress that he needs to make, but this marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care.
Can you take us through a timeline?
Knight: What I can tell you is that a significant number of our care team was involved in helping with Mr. Hamlin on the field on Monday night. He was attended to by four of our emergency physicians serving in various roles as the airway physician, the visiting team medical liaison, a neurotrauma consultant as well as one of the team physicians for the Cincinnati Bengals.
As everybody knows, Mr. Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field and it was promptly recognized by the Buffalo Bills medical staff. And that allowed for very immediate resuscitation on the field. He was promptly resuscitated, it did require CPR and defibrillation and at which point he was transported to University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he was met by Dr. Pritts and the trauma team as well as our emergency medicine colleagues.
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He was managed and resuscitated and worked up in the emergency department, had some additional tests in the ED and in the hospital and has been managed in the surgical ICU, as Dr. Pritts said. It’s been a long and difficult road for the last three days. He has been very sick and has made a fairly remarkable recovery and improvement to the point as Tim noted he is now demonstrating that sign of good neurologic recovery as well as overall clinic improvement, as has been previously reported related to not just his vital signs but a lot of his other individual organ recovery.