Damar Hamlin collapse --- Bengals-Bills game

I re-opened the thread for one more informative post by @antny1 . . .

 

I don't mean to try to sound like some definitive authority on cardiac arrest. I can't recite statistics but I have 13 years experience of running them as a medic at a high volume department.

An overwhelming majority of those who have ROSC (return of spontaneous circulation) have poor outcomes. The number of People who survive with minimal to no deficit is miniscule but that has to do with so many variables like age, pathology, location, Comorbidity etc etc. So many codes involve people in advanced age, nursing homes, morbidly obese etc etc.

If it wasn't a genetic condition and it was indeed commotio cordis, then the quick response and underlying physical fitness of Hamlin would make him as good a candidate as possible for a recovery.

The 9 minutes needs some clarification. We're they "working him" for that 9 minutes or were they attending to him for 9 minutes? There is A LOT of missing info to know from our perspective. Was he given EPI or did they get pulses back just with CPR and electricity and then they took time to start an IV and set up a proper monitor and airway? How many shocks were needed?

If the numbers for successful recovery were firm then we would never get anyone back because the time it takes to notify 911 and then to have them arrive on scene will almost always be longer than 6 minutes. The most important thing is for quality bystander compressions to be started as soon as possible without interruptions. In the case I cited above regarding the movie theater we arrived on scene from another district amd were delayed because the closest unit was on another call and yet the patient still walked out of the hospital in large part because bystanders were doing compressions when we arrived and the patient was young and healthy enough to make a full recovery even as a middle aged man.

Again, I know nothing of any underlying conditions or the details of the treatment provided him but if it was commotio cordis and they got a prompt return of circulation then he is as good a candidate as any to actually make it through this. That is not to provide false hope. He is still critical and I would never say I EXPECT him to make it, only that he has a chance. In my opinion from my experience.

 

His uncle gives an update:

Bills' Damar Hamlin resuscitated twice, says uncle, ventilator usage down