I think @doc and @fiskful of dollars alluded to it, but the leading idea is an event called commotio cordis, where a blunt force to the chest just before the T wave disrupts the electrical impulses that contract the heart. Brian Sutterer, a doctor that’s made a bit of a career talking about sports injuries, got one together quick for Hamlin:
His neck snapped back, as well, though I assume if it’s a neck or brain stem issue, he wouldn’t have stood up first?
The fact that Schefter is an absolute shill for the league is pretty relevant to whether he should be the on air voice in a key moment, no?
Sorry, right that's what I meant. Either undiagnosed or not, it's his heart, not his neck or something.
Is there any kind of genetic/congenital predisposition to being vulnerable to commotio cordis?
What's the difference between what is being discussed now on Sports Center right now and the discussions that were being had in real time?
Rich Peverley collapsed on the bench and needed CPR when he played for Dallas. He was a former Bruin.
I dunno. Kolber was getting fed news updates and sharing them. Booger was offering a player’s perspective. Schefter had nothing to add. I give him credit for recognizing that and largely keeping his mouth shut. I mean, look at what Skip Bayless did tonight; knowing when to say nothing is an underrated trait.
I'm positive this is exactly what transpired. SOP after a lengthy delay is to allow the teams to warm up for a for a few minutes before play is resumed. This was treated like a power outage or a more common serious injury stoppage (unfortunately, not uncommon in the NFL). In this case, however, the injury was so much more grave that the SOP should not, and was not, followed. The teams were not in the condition needed to play, relayed this fact to the officials, the SOP was ditched, and the game was temporarily suspended and ultimately called.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/01/19/Prep-hockey-player-dies-during-game/1353790491600/
Agreed it's his heart for sure.
I coach U12 softball in NYC. We are required to carry defibrillators to every game. Thank you for this explanation, which is more than we've ever been given. Of course it's a pain in the ass to carry them, and we've always grumbled about why would kids need defibrillators. I knew of the danger of chest impacts but not exactly how/why, or that children were MORE at risk.
There is speculation - but not objective evidence (the n of commotio is so, so low) that long QT syndrome and Brugada MAY be correlated with a higher incidence. Impossible to validate but it makes some physiologic sense.
That’s a fair point to debate. The criticism wasn’t that though - it was a run of the mill “Schefter sucks!” drive by of a premeditated opinion that did nothing to address whether Schefter did well tonight. The poster hates Schefter’s work and nothing he did tonight was going to change the poster’s opinion.
Good stuff. Question for the docs. With all of the hits that football players take every game for years and years, we're probably talking about thousands and thousands of hits to the chest, how has this not happened before?
I’ve been telling you that there is a LOT of contingency planning done at ESPN. Tons of it, for every situation. If you keep refusing to believe that it’s your choice.
Yeah, it wasn't even like the Eriksen collapse from the 2020 Euros. Eriksen was still jogging around and just kinda slow motion collapsed. This was stand up, wobble, flat back bump out cold.
As always, thank you so much for what you bring to this place. Seriously.
I work in this line of business (though not the NFL) and can tell you that, while they definitely have contingency plans for suspension/resumption of play, it's still a massive headache and ordeal to put them in place and are usually weather based so there's generally a head start. It's less an issue for the teams since they have charter jets and can easily fly home/back tomorrow than it is for the rest of the operations staff. Getting all of the vendors, IT folks, press, etc. back tomorrow is a big challenge. There are hundreds of people involved in events like this. Of course, none of that really matters under the circumstances but thought I'd share for anyone interested.
I would think that warming up these 250-300+ bodies again, after they've cooled down, is asking for it re: hammies, quads, groin pulls etc.
I can't speak for that poster, but the second I saw Schefter in the studio I rolled my eyes- not because of what he was saying, but because he has a history of being tone deaf. And given that, it seemed like a poor choice on ESPN's part to put him on the air, regardless of how well or poorly he ended up doing.
Yeah that’s the one. I remember I was still playing and my mother got super anxious watching that on the local news.
My son who played catcher in HS also had to get a new protector with the extra protection over the heart.
I'm not sure how rigorous the medical screening process is, but hopefully those would be seen on an EKG? I agree commotio cordis seems mostly likely, but the fact that they intubated even after ROSC makes me nervous
Well they can’t immediately leave the game because they aren’t 100% sure what happened. They initially treated it like it was a spinal injury with multiple commercial breaks, which they don’t fully control. When they mentioned CPR they quickly cut again to commercial and then the studio as it became clear this wasn’t going to be a short injury. Given the game is still set to resume, they can’t play an E:60 story or whatever so they have to stay live. When it gets suspended, this becomes a news story and they 100% have to cover it live now.
It has happened before, it's just very rare.
A 10th grader in CT died of a severed carotid artery playing hockey almost exactly a year ago.
It’s ok that Schaefer isn’t that kind of breaking news guy. He has contacts tho and league mouthpiece might’ve been the perfect guy to have. Not really his fault he’s not good at the other stuff. This was a pretty unique circumstance.
If you're talking about professional football players in the NFL (or even college), it's much more common in adolescents (mean age is 15 years old) and it has to do with the fact that the chest wall is thinner in adolescents than adults. Even then, it takes hitting it at the right angle with the right amount of force at the exact right time in the cardiac cycle. That's why fisk and others have suggested that there may be an underlying cardiac rhythm disorder such as Brugada or other QT-lenghtening condition because otherwise it is unusual for this to happen to an adult.
The league deals with a couple weather-related delays a year and doesn’t postpone games. The cool-down, warm-up thing was pretty far down the list of concerns tonight.
I agree.
I think that was the issue with the chart. It made it look like the time during which it could occur was fairly significant compared to the full cardiac cycle.
Yes way overly simplified...
Is this being reported?
