The Buffalo Bills’ safety, critically injured while making a tackle, opens up about trying to process the incident.
Damar Hamlin hopes he can return to the field but says it will be gradual after suffering cardiac arrest during Monday Night Football in January.
In his first television interview since his near-fatal injury, the 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety told “Good Morning America’s” Michael Strahan on Monday that he’s still adjusting, according to People Magazine.
“I’m still trying to process all the emotions, the trauma, that comes from dealing with a situation like that,” Hamlin said.
In a Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Hamlin made a tackle and awkwardly landed on an opposing player’s helmet. He got to his feet, stumbled, and fell. Hamlin went into cardiac arrest, and medical professionals performed CPR, theGrio reported.
EMTs rushed Hamlin to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in critical condition. He spent several days hospitalized before his release on Jan. 11.
Hamlin told Strahan he’d seen the play that hurt him. But he said he doesn’t like to revisit the details of what took place and still wonders why the incident happened to him, People reported.
Hamlin holds out hope that he can return to the field.
“It’s an up-to-me-thing, I guess. It’s a long road; they were just worrying about trying to get me back to normal,” Hamlin said on the television broadcast.
He returned to the field during the lead-up to Super Bowl Sunday, theGrio reported. Hamlin appeared at State Farm Stadium before the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles on Feb. 12.
Speaking about his recovery to Fox News, Hamlin said, “I’m allowing that to be in God’s hands.”
He added, “I’m just thankful he gave me a second chance.”
In the meantime, Hamlin is working with the American Red Cross in hopes of getting 3 million people trained in CPR.
“That’s something I feel is important because it really did save my life that night,” he said Monday on GMA.
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