Novant, Atrium offer insight into cardiac arrest among athletes after Monday Night Football incident

CHARLOTTE — Health leaders from Novant Health and Atrium Health are offering insight into cardiac arrest amongst athletes following an incident during the Buffalo Bills vs. Cincinnati Bengals game Monday night.

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest when he and another player collided during the final moments of the first quarter.

Novant Health pediatric cardiologist Dr. Bill Hammill held a zoom call with reporters Tuesday afternoon to discuss the conditions that can cause cardiac arrest in athletes, the difference between cardiac arrest and a heart attack, and what recovery might look like for Hamlin.

Q: Can you tell us why Damar may have had a sudden cardiac arrest and why it occurred so quickly? What causes that?

Dr. Hammill: Clearly, I think he likely had an arrhythmia. And so if you look at other causes of sudden rhythm changes of the heart, that’s what they’re going to look into over these next few days and weeks. And that’s what we look into when somebody drops in our community because we want to make sure that they didn’t have an inheritable condition. Something like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or inherited rhythm condition like Long QT syndrome, or Arrhythmogenic, right ventricular dysplasia or these fancy words. And all they mean is that you’re susceptible to a sudden rhythm, change of your heart. Some of those can be hereditary. Some of them can be acquired, and I think that’s going to be a part of anything that goes on going forward.

Q: You’re talking about hereditary, is there any potential that he might have had some sort of Marfan Syndrome or something like that? That made him pretty susceptible and how do you even detect something like that?

Dr. Hammill: So the answer is yes. I don’t think Marfan Syndrome Marfan Syndrome has a number of physical stigmata that are associated with it. In addition to it being hereditary professional athletes, college athletes, and even high school athletes are required to have physical exams. And most of the time Marfan syndrome is picked up. So one would think that professional athlete has had extensive screenings, and so the hope and prayer would be that the likelihood that this is something that’s genetic, or hereditary, that could have been picked up earlier, hopefully, is very, very low. And, but you just don’t know. So those are the things that they’ll look at history, history, and then they’ll look at potentials for any of these hereditary rhythm abnormalities that are out there that people do screen for.

Q: If you thought you’d be able, do you think you’d be able to make a full recovery if you would be able to play football again, kind of what are your thoughts on that?

Dr. Hammill: So I don’t think that we’re really going to know about recovery for a few days. The answer about returning to sports is as a cardiologist obviously we get a big lump in our throats when something like this happens. So he would need an extensive workup. We would need to look for those, you know needle in the haystack hereditary things. He would probably need a very detailed stress test to make sure that there wasn’t an inducible arrhythmia meaning a rhythm change that may have occurred because he was participating in exercise. And if all of that is negative and you think really this was this freak commotion Cortes one millisecond in time, then the answer and he has a complete recovery is he couldn’t return whether or not he would want to return whether or not his mom or dad would want them to return or you know that’s a tougher question.

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Dr. Eric Warren, a sports medicine physician with Atrium Health Musculoskeletal Institute, and Dr. Rohit Mehta, a cardiologist with Atrium Health Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute also discussed the issue.

They addressed the importance of athletic trainers, team physicians, and effective CPR techniques when it comes to cardiac arrest incidents.

Q: Dr. Warren, one of the things the conversation that’s come out today about this story and just about how everything transpired is how quickly medical aid was rendered and the processes that are in place with medical trainers. Can you talk a little bit just about that process and why that’s so important to have trained professionals standing by in these types of scenarios?

Dr. Warren: It’s absolutely crucial and vital to have trained medical professionals on the ready for sporting events that are contacting collision events like football. We do this for all of the events that we cover, whether it’s marathon soccer, football, or what have you, and it begins with having an emergency action plan before the season even starts to know how we’re going to respond. Should something catastrophic happen? Which personnel will go on to the field? What’s the quickest way to get off the field all of that planning takes place before the season starts, whether it’s high school or all the way through our professional relationships.

Q: Dr. Mehta, you’ve been a champion for really educating people across the Greater Charlotte region and talking about the importance of someone springing into action and delivering CPR and these types of situations. Can you talk about generally just why that’s so important, the, you know, the process and medically why starting those compressions right away can really save someone’s life?

Dr. Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, obviously, the event that happened was very traumatic for not only those involved but also those watching. But, you know, this is a situation where if you look at the data, if somebody in the community has a sudden cardiac arrest, which is what this was 90% of victims actually succumb to this. And in that situation, each minute reduces your cancer survival by about 10%. So the speed at which somebody gets something basic right CPR, which is something that all of us can do. All of this can be part of the chain of survival. And just the performance of CPR alone significantly improves the odds. That someone will survive.

Q: One thing that I would like to ask the doctors is how ethnicity and race play a role in an athlete’s health. What can heart health doctors and what can athletes do now to address some of those specific ethnic reasons and some of those out some of the underlying issues that, you know, come with this?

Dr. Mehta: You know, I think if I stressed one point across all populations, it would really be access to care. And I think you know, I’m very proud that Atrium has taken a very concerted effort in the community in terms of really making sure that communities at risk, really do have extraordinary access to care. And it’s, you know, it’s a work in progress. We’re continuing to work on that front. But number one, getting basic testing done ... one of the strongest components to know is knowing your family history.

(WATCH BELOW: Social media reaction pours in after Buffalo Bills player suffers cardiac arrest on field)

Social media reaction pours in after Buffalo Bills player suffers cardiac arrest on field

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