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Following Damar Hamlin's shocking and frightening injury on Monday night, theories and rumors arose about what had happened to him. Something like this had not been seen on an NFL field before.
Amid the chaos, people theorized about what may have happened and interestingly, Hamlin's vaccination status came up. Some considered being vaccinated as a possible cause of his unexpected cardiac arrest.
A doctor has responded to that idea, shutting it down plainly.
"What we saw happen tonight is not related to any sort of vaccines. This is almost certainly something called Commotio Cordis, an extremely, extremely rare condition. That's one of those things that we typically only think we're going to read about in textbooks," Brian Sutterer, MD, explained.
Sutterer continued:
"Essentially what can happen is if you have a blunt trauma to the chest, that occurs at exactly the right time in the cardiac electrical cycle, your heart can be sent into cardiac arrest."
What happened to Damar Hamlin was a tragedy and as per the latest reports, it appears it was not his own fault nor due to any vaccines.
Doctor estimates what happened to Damar Hamlin in Monday night game against Bengals
Sutterer said that what happened to Hamlin was a very rare occurrence:
"For commotio cordis to happen, you have to suffer this blunt trauma to the chest at exactly the right moment, specifically on this upstroke of the T wave in order for the heart to then be sent into this a arrhythmia and subsequent cardiac arrest. This is one of those things that not only do you have to have a high enough force, but it has to happen within milliseconds of a time window."
He also said that what happened to Damar Hamlin was a perfect storm:
"Because if that impact comes at any other time in this electrical cycle, you're fine, you don't go into this, but when it happens at just this right time during this upstroke of the T wave and if it's high enough, then you can have this thing called commercial cordis."
He also noted that this typically doesn't happen in the NFL:
"We typically think of it happening in baseball players whenever they get hit in the middle of the chest with a hard thrown ball. But unfortunately, that looks like what is most likely to have happened here with Hamlin. Treatment for this is obviously CPR and defibrillation as quickly as possible because this can absolutely be a life threatening thing."
As of April 18, 2023, however, Damar Hamlin has received the green light from three specialists. Bills GM Brandon Beane announced that the safety has been cleared to make his return to the NFL. Hamlin will, therefore, be available to be called upon in the 2023 NFL season.
