TWO WORDS THE NFL WON'T SAY

The Buffalo Bills lost to the Cincinnati Bengals ending the NFL’s promotion of Damar Hamlin.?

?There was less on the line in this playoff game than when Damar Hamlin nearly died on the field after a routine collision just a few short weeks ago.

?While a million words have been written about this event,?there are two that should be repeated?until everyone in America knows what they mean:?commotio cordis.?The?NFL?is working hard not to mention them.?

?When Hamlin was laying on the field,?a?group of men,?in?the?very small town?of?Bogart,?Georgia,?likely twitched like Hamlin’s misfiring heart.

?Over 15 years ago,?Stan?Kanavage, Stan Payne, Justin Neifer, and others?- deployed a solution to stop commotio cordis in young athletes.?They called it?All Sports Armor, you may know it?as?Evoshield?(owned by Wilson).They launched an effort to call attention to a condition that kills between 20 and 50 young athletes per year. With limited resources, in a borrowed warehouse, they set out to make the world safer for kids to play the games they loved.?Their product took off, but awareness of the condition did not.?

?Commotio cordis is not what most people think of when they think of heart conditions.?Damar Hamlin is not 60 years old with high cholesterol hoping that a few stents will?save?him from?coronary?bypass surgery. He is an elite athlete surrounded by medical personnel.?That?is what saved him.?

?Every year somewhere between 20 and 50 children, overwhelmingly boys,?die from?commotio?cordis, which is caused by blunt force trauma to the?chest wall. It?happens at just the wrong moment?to stop their hearts from continuing to beat. They die in front of their teammates, their friends, their families. They die on football fields,?they die on baseball fields,?they die on lacrosse fields,?they die in the back of ambulances?in their parents’?arms. They die while volunteer coaches frantically try to?help?and small crowds look on in terror.?They die because the odds of dying are infinitesimal and we, like the NFL, will not say those two words out loud and prepare for the worst.

?The real number of deaths from commotio cordis is likely much higher. It is only diagnosed by the extremely rare autopsy that fails to show other structural damage or conditions present. We don’t talk about?this?condition, because?we cannot find it. We only live with its results.?There are no telltale signs, other than the most tragic one: A dead child with no other explanation but a blow to the chest.?

?Damar Hamlin’s life was saved by a trainer, Denny?Kellington, who took his pulse, found almost nothing,?and started CPR. CPR or defibrillation in the first 60 seconds gives a victim a shot at surviving. The odds?of survival?drop fast. As the brain is?deprived of oxygen by a heart that vibrates?but does not?pump. Damar Hamlin is alive and alert because of the immediate care he received.?

?Every athlete deserves the same care, and this can only happen if someone on the sidelines or in the stands?knows how to spot commotio cordis and how to treat it, with immediate CPR or defibrillation.?On a youth sports field, commotio cordis may look like someone having the wind knocked out of them. Parents and coaches might not realize something is wrong until sixty priceless seconds have slipped away.?The child, lying there, is dependent on a volunteer parent?having access to a defibrillator,?knowing where?it?is,?hoping it is charged, and?deploying it correctly, or by starting CPR, all in under one minute.?

?This is exactly why the league should be using this?moment?to?make its audience aware of, and prepared to handle, commotio cordis. This is not about stopping kids from playing; it’s about stopping them from dying. Whenever a player drops to the field, an army of volunteer coaches and parents should think, “Check his pulse” first, not, “He got the wind knocked out of him.”

?Deaths from?commotio?cordis occur as often as deaths from being hit by lightning. When there is a possibility of lightning,?the NFL, NCAA,?high?schools,?and youth leagues all stop their?games. When there is a possibility of?commotio?cordis,?the NFL only stops for a moment of?self-promotion.?