Damar Hamlin and Denny Kellington and why you should care

Unless you’ve been under a giant rock you’re aware that Buffalo Bill’s Football player Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during a game against the Bengals recently. While the dark web is flush with conspiracies about the cause, your hosts Jason the law enforcement expert and football fan, and Justin the medical expert and irregular spectator, have narrowed things down and have answers to many outstanding questions.

While we’re aware much of our audience may be familiar with the specifics of the event, as of recording of this show Hamlin is recovering at home and no formal diagnosis or cause has been officially released.

However, based on the incident and the swift recovery the overall pre-hospital medical community has it narrowed down to a condition called Commotio Cordis. While a pre-existing condition or other event may yet be identified as the cause, what we do know is that Hamlin was involved in a tackle causing significant pressure to the chest, arose, took a step, then collapsed. Not unlike having your wind knocked out of you, at a certain point of refraction of the ventricles, there exists a moment where the sodium…sorry…got carried away there for a second. There’s a certain point where if you get hit in the chest it can mess up your heart, seen most commonly in baseball players…pitchers mostly, when they get hit by a line drive.

It was Buffalo Bills’ Assistant trainer Denny Kellington that is credited with recognizing a possible cardiac arrest and starting CPR. As we mention in detail in the show, CPR is not a magic solution for everything but it also isn’t hard to learn. As promised, here is just how easy it can be to learn a skill that can literally be a life saver featuring British Footballer turned actor, Vinny Jones:

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