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One week ago Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed during a game with the Cincinnati Bengals, suffering a cardiac arrest. He received CPR on the field, after which EMT personnel rushed him to a local hospital. The situation was very touch-and-go; football fans wondered if he would survive the night.
But Damar Hamlin did survive. He’s made remarkable — no, miraculous — progress, with doctors pronouncing him “neurologically intact.” As a speech pathologist, I know that “neurologically intact” within a hospital setting means one thing; his cognitive functioning after he returns home may not be as rosy. But as a football fan — hell, just as an American! — I’ve been praying for his recovery like the rest of the country.
However, media of the mainline, online, and social variety have been providing their own takes on this event. They fall into categories of good, bad, and downright ugly. But let’s start with the bad takes, and finish with the good — kind of like dessert after your Brussel sprouts.
The day after Hamlin’s cardiac arrest saw many cardiologists pronouncing it as a likely episode of “commotio cordis.” As Dr. Matthew Martinez, M.D., director of sports cardiology explained:
“Commotio cordis is related to ventricular fibrillation, when the heart completely stops …”
“This is a poorly timed event. It lands at a time when the heart is vulnerable to being put in cardiac arrest, what we call on the T Wave, when the heart is resetting itself.”
Credit: Wikimedia Commons/public domain.
Dr. Marc Cohen, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Newark-Beth Israel Medical Center, also believes Hamlin may have experienced commotio cordis. However, he added that his head snapping may have released excessive adrenaline, resulting in cardiac arrest:
“When your head goes ping-ponging, it’s very possible that a tremendous amount of adrenaline may be released and that adrenaline triggers the heart to go into a chaotic rhythm, which we call ventricular fibrillation.”
But as Dr. Marc Siegel, Fox News medical contributor and professor of medicine at NYU Langone, wisely said:
“There’s more that we don’t know than we know.”
However, this being the age of Covid, there are those who have jumped to the conclusion that Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest came as a result of a recent covid vaccine. And some of those takes are especially egregious.
For example, over at Twitter someone calling himself “Dr. Benjamin Eidelman” claimed that he administered a Covid booster to Hamlin the week before the event.
“I recently administered Damar Hamlin’s Covid booster on 12/26, and as a medical professional, I can assure the public he passed all the screenings with flying colors. I am in contact with the (University of Cincinnati Medical Center) staff and will provide any assistance to them.”
Except the account of “Dr. Benjamin Eidelman” didn’t belong to a medical doctor. The Twitter user described himself as an “Artist, Data Scientist, Disinfo/deception/fraud detector, Democracy Enjoyer.” Not to mention that if a real doctor posted this it would violate HIPAA laws big time.
In short, this person is a fraud, pushing a narrative.
There is a real Dr. Benjamin Eidelman, and he’s a neurologist living in Florida. I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate his name being used in such a manner.
“Dr. Eidelman” may have been a fake doctor, but one real-life physician has pushed his own take that a Covid vaccine probably caused Hamlin’s cardiac arrest.
Dr. Peter McCullough, a Dallas cardiologist and vaccine critic, told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson that “vaccine-induced myocarditis” may have caused the episode. In addition, Carlson told his audience that McCullough found that “more than 1,500 total cardiac arrests” have occurred among European athletes “since the vax campaign began.”
McCullough also posted at Twitter a letter to a medical editor that he and an alleged colleague wrote:
“This recent paper from Dr. Polykretis and myself gets the sharp rise in athlete deaths into PUBMED. Since vaccination, “1598 athletes suffered cardiac arrest, 1101 of which with deadly outcome. Over a prior 38-years (1966-2004), 1101 athletes < age of 35 died (~29/yr).”
As Libertarian Chris Manning, who ran for Congress from Arizona, pointed out in his Twitter takedown of McCullough:
What was the basis for his claim that more than 1,500 young athletes had experienced cardiac events with over 1,100 dying in the past 2 years? This website by an anonymous group of people. https://t.co/u5OGRHTyWH
— Chris Manning (@Manning4USCong) January 5, 2023
Manning added:
“As you can see by simply scanning the list of people who died the vast majority are not young (<35) and if you do a quick google search you will see many are not athletes. You will also see in the description many died from cancer or suicide, obviously not heart issues.”
The truth is, cardiac arrest does happen among young, healthy athletes, and this has been noted by medical journals both in Britain and in the United States. One study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine was conducted from 2014-2018. An analysis from the American College of Cardiology was written in 2016. Both these articles date well before Covid.
Shame on both Dr. Peter McCullough and Tucker Carlson for promoting a dubious narrative, especially since both these men have millions of followers who take their word as truth. It’s perfectly appropriate to question whether or not Damar Hamlin may have been affected by a Covid vaccine. It’s quite another to pass off sketchy information as proof.
It’s bad enough that liars and TV personalities use Damar Hamlin to push their political beliefs. But when the take on this young man’s horrific medical episode enters the realm of racism and hatred of masculinity, it gets really ugly.
Exhibit A: Joy Behar on “The View” who threw foul shade at men — especially conservative men — for the crime of loving football:
“45% of Americans think that tackle football is appropriate. Heterosexual men voted the most support for kids doing football. And conservatives were more likely to support youth tackle football. Just saying.”
Her suggestion? Play golf or tennis instead.
And then there’s the other Joy — Joy Reid of MSNBC — who also despises football. She called it a “gladiator spectacle:”
“A horrifying on-field injury raises new questions about America’s obsession with the violent spectacle of professional football.”
“It’s yet another tragic reminder of the inherent violence of the sport and the humanity of the young men who put their health and safety on the line for the NFL’s modern day gladiator spectacle.”
Clay Travis of the sports website Outkick had words, calling such criticism a “war on masculinity:”
But the two joyless Joys weren’t the only ones inserting their ugly takes into the Damar Hamlin story. So did Scientific American in an opinion article entitled: “Damar Hamlin’s Collapse Highlights the Violence Black Men Experience in Football.”
You knew it was coming. Because the players in the NFL are predominantly black men, this has to be connected to racism. Writes author Tracie Canada, a cultural anthropologist:
“On these playing fields, ones that sociologist Billy Hawkins would argue are never theoretically far from plantation fields, financial stakeholders value Black bodies for their productive potential and physical prowess.”
But Tony Dungy, former NFL player and coach — and also a black man — shot down the article:
“As a black man and former NFL player I can say this article is absolutely ridiculous.”
Who would’ve guessed that the collapse of a young football player during an NFL game would’ve brought a nation to its knees in prayer? Even if only for a little while?
Immediately after Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest, players from both the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals kneeled to pray.
Please don’t share the video of the Damar Hamlin play. Share this because we are all Praying for him and his family. pic.twitter.com/QnO7DpAo7u
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) January 3, 2023
Not only that, but prior to the game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Tennessee Titans, both teams kneeled to pray for Hamlin.
What a powerful sight – all Titans and Jags players praying together for Damar Hamlin before the game.#LoveForDamar pic.twitter.com/2U9f2gqTh7
— Romi Bean (@Romi_Bean) January 8, 2023
And who can forget how ESPN’s Dan Orlovsky prayed for Damar Hamlin on the air, while also engaging his fellow announcers at the desk:
Remember how some sports announcers ridiculed Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow for kneeling in prayer on the field? How times have changed. Tebow, incidentally, is asking people to pray for Damar Hamlin, adding:
“One day we’ll see the big picture. One day we’ll see how this puzzle’s put together, how it all works out. But until then, let’s rejoice. Let’s remember the Lord is near. And let’s express confidence in our God because we trust His plan.”
On top of that, the children’s charity that Hamlin founded has received over $8 million from a nation that opened their hearts to this young player.
On Sunday, prior to the Buffalo Bills/New England Patriots game, Damar Hamlin tweeted this:
https://twitter.com/HamlinIsland/status/1612121283868909568?s=20&t=db7zTDN21G_CAr9d8zOI0A
“God using me in a different way today.” He surely is. And despite the bad and the ugly takes using Damar Hamlin’s accident on the football field to score political points, he has pulled Americans together in a way we haven’t seen since 9/11 — even if only for a brief moment in time.
Featured image: @HamlinIsland/Twitter/screenshot/cropped.
Wfjag says: Two more points to add to The Good:
First, Hamlin is a great athlete who is at the top of his physical conditioning. That greatly enhanced his chances of survival and for full recovery.
Second, is the skill, knowledge and rapid response of the EMS personnel. When the heart stops there are only a few minutes within which circulation and oxygenation of the blood must be restored before there is permanent, and frequently fatal, brain damage.
My brother suffered sudden cardiac arrest a few years ago. His wife, immediately called 911, and performed CPR as she’d been trained to do. EMS arrived shortly and took over and restored his heart beat and breathing. But, it was too late and he died without regaining consciousness.
Here, Hamlin’s conditioning and the excellent response of the EMS providers gave him back his life.
One point on The Bad:
There are over 30 known causes for sudden cardiac arrest. And, even with complete autopsies, the cause infrequently remains undetermined. Anyone who speculates until all the facts are known is just blowing it out their b*tt to get attention. Remember who they are and pay no attention to them in the future.
Kim Hirsch says: Thank you for sharing that information.
Sorry for the loss of your brother. I too have lost a brother, although through cancer.
NTSOG says: “On these playing fields, ones that sociologist Billy Hawkins would argue are never theoretically far from plantation fields, financial stakeholders value Black bodies for their productive potential and physical prowess.”
Well Hamlin is undoubtedly paid a lot more than plantation slaves and is a free man. He chose his way and has risen to the top of a highly competitive sport. Certainly natural ability is part of the equation, but hard work is always required to maximise innate potential. Leftist commentators, such as the flabby Joys, never stop trying to portray independent, ambitious and hard-working people like Hamlin as helpless victims so as to sell their divisive political message. As for NFL football being violent I find professional ice hockey to be more physical and apparently has few rules that I can discern, but players choose to play such sports. No one makes them. They’re not slaves and risk is part of life.
As for Hamlin’s career in football as a player I wonder if he will be able, even allowed, to play after this extreme incident. Other players might be reluctant to tackle him for fear of killing him.
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