As teams and players around the NFL pay homage to their fallen gridiron comrade, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin has emerged from his coma after suffering cardiac arrest during “Monday Night Football.”
Even better, Hamlin opened his eyes, moved his hands and feet and even had sufficient enough use of his faculties to ask a question, CNN reported. He was basically dead on the field on Monday night after tackling a wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals with five minutes left in the first quarter with the Bengals up 7-3. He had to be revived twice — once on the field and again at the hospital — before being stabilized. The game has been indefinitely suspended and the NFL office in New York is deciding when or if the game will be made up.
His dramatic improvement in the ICU at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center elicited cheers and sighs of relief from throngs of well-wishers nationwide.
Teams around the league honored Damar Hamlin at their stadiums. ❤️💙 pic.twitter.com/WyMLTqLjJY
— NFL (@NFL) January 4, 2023
Interestingly enough, the first thing that Hamlin asked, in writing, was: “Did we win?” he queried the physician in charge of his care, Dr. Timothy Pritts.
“Yes, Damar, you won. You’ve won the game of life,” Pritts said he told Hamlin during the news conference in Cincinnati Thursday afternoon, Jan. 5, 2023.
Despite the progress, Hamlin, 24, remains in critical condition and on a ventilator. However, the athlete has been communicating with yes and no answers by shaking his head, nodding, or writing brief notes.
“So, we know that it’s not only that the lights are on, we know that he’s home. And that it appears all cylinders are firing within his brain,” Pritts said, adding that “it appears his neurological condition and function is intact.”
“This marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care,” Pritts said. “There are many, many steps still ahead of him. From our standpoint, we would like to see him continue to improve, to be completely breathing on his own and to be ready to be discharged from the hospital.”
