January 5, 2023 – Professional football player Damar Hamlin is “awake and breathing,” his doctors said Thursday, but they don't yet know whether he'll fully get well from his cardiac arrest on the sphere or return to the National Football League.
“Testing will continue as his condition evolves,” Dr. William Knight of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center told reporters.
Hamlin, 24, a security for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed during a game against the Cincinnati Bengals on Monday night. Medical personnel tried to restart his heart. He remained on the sphere for 10 minutes and was then taken to a hospital.
On Wednesday evening he was able to jot down with pen and paper, The New York Times reported. He asked who won the sport.
“When he asked if we had won, the answer was: Yes, you know, Damar, you won, you won the game of life,” said Dr. Timothy A. Pritts.
Doctors said they'd not yet determined the reason for the cardiac arrest. They thanked the teams' medical personnel for the fast help they gave Hamlin, which saved brain function.
“And Dr. Knight said it was too early to say whether Hamlin would regain his fine motor skills and that processes such as perception, movement, speech and language would need to be studied in the future,” The Times reported.