SALT LAKE CITY — After Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills safety collapsed during Monday night's football game against the Cincinnati Bengals, a Utah doctor weighed in on what may have happened and the rarity of such an incident.
"This is something that we've never really seen on live TV," explained Dr. Filip Roos, chief medical officer for MountainStar Healthcare. "So it's striking, it's concerning and it's very very rare."
Hamlin was seen getting up after a tackle before he collapsed to the ground.
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"If you look at blunt chest injuries, traumas - we see them in motor vehicle accidents," Roos said, "There are vital organs - your lungs, your vessels to the heart the aorta, they all can get injured."
Dr. Roos explained a rare condition called "commotio cordis," which translates to "agitation of the heart." It's a condition that was first described in the 1700's and only about 200 cases are registered.
The condition means that impact over the heart in the chest area can cause a person to go into cardiac arrest, Roos said.
"It has to be a focused impact," roos explained. "It has to have some certain amount of energy, doesn't have to be excessive energy. But it has to happen at a very precise moment of the cardiac cycle."
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The precise moment of the cycle only lasts for about 20-40 milliseconds, Roos said.
"The cardiac cycle is squeeze, relax and fill, squeeze, relax and fill," he said. "There are only about 20 to 40 milliseconds that that impact has to happen in order for the heart's electrical system to get confused."
He explained cardiac arrest is different than suffering a heart attack.
"Cardiac arrest is when the heart stops effectively squeezing," Roos said. "Now to get to that you can get there through a heart attack...or you can get there through impact like in this case."
Roos praised the people who jumped into action to perform life-saving CPR, which likely saved Hamlin's life.
"I think that they did a very good job," he said. "They first recognized that he was unconscious, they recognized that he was not breathing and that he had no pulse."
He encouraged everyone to learn how to do CPR correctly so that in case of an emergency, bystanders are prepared to help if necessary.
"CPR is lifesaving, everybody should know how to do a CPR," Roos said. "It's easy but it's important to do it right."
