1-6-23 buffalo bills safety continues recovery after suffering cardiac arrest

A Fond du Lac cardiologist says Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin may have suffered the same rare medical condition that cost the life of a teenage Fond du Lac hockey player more than 30 years ago.   Jeffrey Merrill was 15 years old when he died after he was struck in the chest by a hockey puck in Fond du Lac.  Merrill’s death was ruled cardiac arrhythmia.  Fond du Lac Regional  Clinic cardiologist Dr. Marc Atzenhoefer says while it’s speculation at this point his initial reaction is that Hamlin may have the same diagnosis, when the heart goes into an arrhythmia from a blunt trauma.   “That cardiac arrhythmia in his case being possibly caused by the blunt trauma to the chest,”  Dr. Atzenhoefer told WFDL news.   According to the Korey Stringer Institute in Minnesota Commotio Cordis is an extremely rare event. The American Heart Association says it happens only about ten times a year.   Most cases happen during baseball followed by hockey and Dr. Aztenhoefer says most cases involve young people in their teens.  “So it’s very, very rare.   The average age of these patients are 15 years of age. We think that may be a combination of having a young person with a thinner chest wall, relatively speaking to an adult,  bringing the heart closer to the trauma.”    According to the American Heart Association a person suffering an out of hospital cardiac arrest has only about an eight percent chance of recovery.   If that person receives CPR the rate improves by more than double.  “Taking all of these things aside the best thing we can do for our community and our children is making sure we have AEDs available at all sporting events where trauma to the chest is possible, and then know how to do CPR.”  Meanwhile,  Hamlin’s doctors say the player has begun to communicate in writing with his family and others who have been at his bedside since going into cardiac arrest Monday — and his first question was “did we win?” Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said in a conference call with reporters that Hamlin remains critically ill and in the hospital’s intensive care unit. But they say it appears his neurological function is intact, meaning he can follow commands and move. The developments come as the Bills return to practice for the first time since Hamlin collapsed during the first quarter of Buffalo’s game against the Bengals.