“Did we win?” he asked his bedside nurse.Players, coaches, the thousands affiliated with NFL teams, and millions of fans had their priorities upended when the Buffalo Bills safety collapsed on the field. Everyone familiar with the game had seen on-field injuries, some severe, but never had anyone witnessed a player on the edge of losing his life.
Hamlin is now awake and appears to be neurologically intact, his physicians said, as they detailed his condition at a news conference for the first time after Hamlin collapsed and suffered cardiac arrest during Monday’s game. The doctors from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center spoke cautiously, noting that he remains critically ill, and is on a ventilator as his lungs continue to heal...
Hamlin continues to undergo intensive care and receive assistance for breathing. “We would like to see him continue to improve, to be completely breathing on his own, and then to be ready to be discharged from the hospital,” [Dr. Timothy] Pritts said. “We really want to get him home.”
The minds of the Bills and Cincinnati Bengals were no longer on playing football Monday night, and the game was suspended. The news, both print and electronic, have since been filled with discussions about the rewards and health risks of football, whether the Bills and Bengals should continue their contest, and the implications for the locations of playoff games leading to the Super Bowl under either scenario.
Regardless of their position on these topics, all have stated that the most important consideration was the health and well-being of Damar Hamlin and his family.
His first comment was therefore both amusing and poignant. When someone undergoes a life-altering experience, one usually resets priorities while the rest of society goes on as usual. "Did we win?" reminded us how Damar changed everyone's perspective about football, while the catalyst himself remained in the world that existed the second before he went down.
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