By Jake Antonucci
Most people either watched, heard, or read about the Bills vs Bengals Monday night football game on Jan. 2 that resulted in a cancellation due to an incident that resulted in Bills safety Damar Hamlin having to be rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
In the first quarter of the game, Hamlin made a tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins and everything seemed to be normal as they both got up. Shortly after Hamlin got up, he collapsed back down to the ground, and the medical personnel rushed onto the field and performed CPR for about 10 minutes. Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and his heartbeat was revived on the field but he was still in critical condition when being rushed to the hospital.
Hamlin was released from the intensive care unit at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center that same Monday and transferred to the Buffalo General Medical Center before being discharged altogether on Wednesday. Hamlin had his breathing tube removed on Friday and walked with help on that same day.
He will continue to need different kinds of therapy and care from specialists, his doctors said, as he regains strength and continues to recover from being intubated for three days. There is no speculation on how far Hamlin is from returning to normal life and his doctors said that any discussion of whether he could play football again would be “significantly into the future”.
The Bills played a first round Wild Card matchup against the Miami Dolphins where they squeaked out a win 34-31. Their next opponent was none other than the Cincinnati Bengals. The entire week leading up to this rematch, Hamlin was at the team’s facility almost everyday showing his support to his teammates, coaches, medical personnel, and the organization as a whole.
Bills head coach Sean Mcdermott said that while Hamlin isn’t participating in team meetings, he has been “dipping his toe back in here and you know, getting on the road to just getting back to himself.”
After the incident occurred, Hamlin’s charity toy drive fundraiser began flooding with donations from people all across the country. The GoFundMe donations got up to 8.6 million dollars, and Hamlin has decided that he plans to support young people through education and sports with all of the donation money.
Hamlin also has decided to use proceeds from the sale of new T-Shirts with the quote “Did We Win?” along with his hands in the shape of a heart, to raise money for the trauma center in Cincinnati that treated him. The quote “Did We Win?” was the first thing Damar said after he woke up in the hospital.
Damar made his first public appearance since the incident three weeks ago at the Bills vs Bengals divisional round playoff game, waving to fans from a stadium suite. The crowd at Highmark Stadium erupted when an image of the recovering Hamlin filled the massive screens at the end zones near the end of the first half of the game.
Hamlin still has a long way to go on his road to recovery, but with all of the support he has and the motivation he has to get back to full health, the recovery should go as smoothly as possible.