January 4th, 2023 – You spent countless hours together in the locker room and on the court, bickering and arguing – just to make up for the sibling ways. You give back to the community and give your all for a game we all love. Losing a teammate or player to a potentially career-ending or life-threatening injury can be overwhelming.
Some athletes liken the feeling to losing a comrade. or extended family members.
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin in critical condition after injury monday game against the Cincinnati Bengals.Hamlin tackles Bengals catcher, stands up, falls back suddenly cardiac arrest.
Many said they thought Hamlin had heartbeata blow to the chest can cause your heart to stop beating.
Players on both sides of the court stared in disbelief and fell to the ground with their faces in their hands as paramedics rushed to the field to try to revive Hamlin’s heartbeat.he passed CPR with AED machine – or a defibrillator – about 10 minutes before being taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He is still taking sedatives.
Empathy – for your teammates and their families – is perhaps one of the strongest emotions an incident like this can evoke in an injured player’s teammates, especially when they fully understand what it takes to play at such a high level. When competing. NHL Hall of Famer and two-time Olympic gold medalist Chris Pronger knows this all too well.
During a playoff game in Detroit in 1998, former St. Louis Blues captain Pranger was hit in the heart by a puck and suffered a concussion that led to cardiac arrest. The puck hit him between heartbeats, so his heart registered that it “skipped a beat,” he said.
“It was crazy to think that was how much oxygen was being pushed throughout the body in one heartbeat,” recalls Pronger in an exclusive interview with WebMD. “The lack of oxygen made me pass out.”
Fortunately, Pronger does not require CPR And a chance to continue after testing to make sure his heart is strong enough to give him an edge on the rink. But he still vividly remembers how much his injury affected those around him.
“you can see [in the video clip of the accident] I was a little uncomfortable, stumbled a little, and then fell to the ground. The next thing I knew, I woke up and I looked up at the beams, at the jersey numbers and banners of retired players. I glanced over and I saw players crying on the bench. “
Situations like this can be difficult for teammates to handle, and many don’t know how to react, which is why it was a good idea for the NFL to hold off the game after Hamlin’s first-quarter hit, Pronger said.
“Some people really don’t know how to make sense of what they’ve just seen and what’s just happened before their eyes,” he said. “You know, you see players break an arm or a leg, or you might see a guy being concussion and get knocked down, but there is no doubt they will survive. “
Questions about the best way to recover from such an injury can be tricky, Pronger said, especially because angina is so rare.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of scars along the way – the people in the game, the coaching staff, the medical staff and the fans, especially not knowing how he’s playing and how that’s going to play out,” he said.
In the hope of Hamlin’s successful recovery, Pronger has some advice for Bills’ safety.
“Quality of life is the number one priority,” he said. “Joining your sport and being active is secondary.”
Laxmi Mehta, MD, director of preventive cardiology and women’s cardiovascular health at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said the emotional toll on Hamlin’s teammates and coaches is now a worrying one. The problem.
“We wanted to make sure that the players who were on the field at the time were getting the right mental health support, and any other player in the NFL would certainly be seeking counseling — that’s their profession,” she said.
People can respond differently to such life-altering events – so while one person may need to seek professional help, someone else may just need a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on. Given how rare this type of injury is in the sport, it’s also important for NFL medical staff to seek emotional help if needed, she said.
“They’ll struggle with that too, right? We [doctors] They were all trained in the hospital to take care of the sick, and they knew they were sick as soon as something happened. But this is a guy who just plays football – and is healthy, right? It’s very different for the medical staff on the ground,” Mehta said.
