What can the NFL learn from football after Dumar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest?

When Dummer Hamlin collapsed after cardiac arrest on the NFL field, the Buffalo Bills’ medical team had less than 10 seconds to launch the league’s emergency action plan. It was critical care that saved his life. This is something many American football fans have never seen before.

However, football fans around the world have grown accustomed to these events occurring on stadiums. It has improved in recent years.

Hamlin’s case may not be the most famous one, but the response to cardiac arrest in European football has improved significantly over the past decade as provisions have been made across professional and amateur games. I was.

Here, athletic We’ll see what American football can learn about providing the right precautions from the top to the bottom of the sport.

Dummer Hamlin case

Bills safety player Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on Jan. 2 when he collapsed on the field during the team’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

In response to the incident, field medical staff implemented an NFL-mandated emergency action plan (EAP) that the league said “worked as designed.”

His heartbeat recovered on the field before being transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in critical condition. A week later, after a marked recovery, he was transferred to a hospital in Buffalo for further examination. The following Wednesday, Bills confirmed he was discharged and will continue rehab at his home.

It’s unclear exactly why Hamlin’s heart stopped about nine minutes into the game, but several prominent cardiologists have suggested it may have been caused by a heart attack. When blunt trauma to the chest occurs during a specific period of the heart’s electrical cycle and leads to cardiac arrest. There is no structural damage or anatomical change in the heart and no underlying conditions causing it. The force must be strong enough and timed precisely for this to occur.

Hamlin is currently on the road to recovery, which could take months or years. Although promising physical and neurological progress has been made, symptoms may appear later.

A case of cardiac arrest in football

Christian Eriksen is back as Denmark’s captain for the 2022 World Cup after falling down while playing at Euro 2020 (Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)

Perhaps the most notable was when Cristian Eriksen, then signed to Serie A side Inter Milan, collapsed on the pitch while playing for Denmark against Finland at Euro 2021 in 2021.

As an elite-level athlete, Eriksen was tested annually and reported “normal” results, said Professor Sanjay Sharma, a world-leading cardiologist and cardiology adviser to the FA and British Institute of Sport. Nevertheless, in the words of Danish medical officials, their star player and captain is “gone”. His heart had stopped before being revived by rapid use of an AED (automated external defibrillator). I mean, he was technically dead.

After the incident, Eriksen had an ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) and left Inter because people with pacemakers are prohibited from playing professional football in Italy. In January 2022, he signed for Brentford, and he played a starring role in the West London side’s Premier League status for the second season in history. He moved to Manchester United in the summer and established himself as a first-team regular. Since then, Eriksen has described his recovery as a “miracle.”

Cardiac arrest in football players is not a new phenomenon, but it seems to have spiked in 2021, raising global awareness. While playing for Barcelona, ​​former Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero has decided to retire after being taken off in a match against Alaves on 30 October 2021. In September of the same year, Nottinghamshire’s West Bridgford Colts 17-year-old amateur player Dylan Rich collapsed and died during an FA Youth Cup match. One of his most famous cases in English football is Fabrice’s recovery after his Muamba collapsed on the pitch in March 2012. Unlike Eriksen, he was forced to retire afterward.

Since then he has opened Venturi Cardiology, a heart clinic in the North West of England.

How football at all levels improved cardiac arrest response

According to a 2020 study (covering 2014-2018), 617 player deaths were attributed to cardiac arrest during that period. This report focuses on deaths “during training or within one hour after training (all organized sporting activities of football players) and in competition” rather than players dying from cardiac arrest outside of competitive activities. I’m here. Of the total sample, only 142 (23%) survived, and for minorities like Eriksen and Muamba, the prompt response they received from the on-call medical team was crucial.

In the general UK population, only 10% of people who have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital survive. The relatively low rate is because CPR or defibrillation services are not available quickly enough and screening procedures are not frequent enough.

For this reason, the English Football Association (FA) and other sports organizations are increasing the frequency of screening. Players are tested more frequently between the ages of 14 and 25, and all 16-year-old academy players are required to undergo a comprehensive screening procedure.

Screening includes determining questions about heart symptoms or a family history of heart disease, following an electrocardiogram (a graphical representation of electrical activity in the heart) and an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart).

The Premier League also announced the launch of a new defibrillator fund in response to Eriksen’s cardiac arrest. The fund will provide thousands of automated external defibrillators to grassroots clubs and associations across England.

According to the Premier League, these 2,000 new life-saving devices are now available to some 1.5 million players, coaches, officials and administrators in England’s grassroots game.

This initiative provides everyone, including the general public, with life-saving means at football facilities at all levels. In the wake of Hamlin’s incident, the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans have announced they will donate 67 of his defibrillators to local schools. Yet access to a defibrillator is still difficult in the United States, with more than 18,000 Americans suffering public cardiac arrest each year that could be saved with immediate defibrillation.

(Top photo: Kirk Irwin/Getty Images)