Damar Hamlin hit gives ex-Wofford football player who went into cardiac arrest at a game new perspective

Michael Roach changed the channel from NFL Monday Night Football and when he flipped back, it was almost an out-of-body experience.

He saw what other people saw in 2016. Players, coaches, everybody from both teams huddled together on the field. Crying, hugging, praying.

Buffalo Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest against the Cincinnati Bengals. Hamlin remains in critical condition.

“Horrible scene,” Roach said Tuesday.

That’s also how it was on a Sept. 1 Thursday night when Roach, a Wofford linebacker, collapsed on the sideline during the Terriers’ season opener against Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee. Roach went into cardiac arrest while sitting on the bench. He stopped breathing for almost a minute.

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Wofford’s medical staff led by head athletics trainer Will Christman, Dr. Stephen Kana and Dr. Eric Cole, with the help of others, got to Roach within seconds and brought him back. He was breathing on his own when taken to the local hospital.

Roach was later diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a condition in which enlarged heart muscles cause the walls of the ventricles to thicken and prohibit the proper flow of blood.

Roach is lucky. He is fine. The Wisconsin native stayed in Spartanburg and works at Gibbs International. He has a cardioverter defibrillator implant that will take over control of his heart and serve as a pacemaker if necessary.

“Living a normal life,” he said.

As the dire situation for Hamlin unfolded before an audience of millions, Roach had new perspective on his own scary story.

“Everybody around me experienced the most dramatic part. I just woke up and felt fine,” Roach said. “Seeing it happen on live television on such a large scale kind of brought me back to what people went through. It looked the way it was explained to me.

“... I’ve seen videos of my teammates at the time and how broken up they were. It took me back to seeing those faces again, distraught and crying. Those are truly your family members out there. You go through so much with them. They care for you like a brother. I always felt that about our team.”

The NFL game was suspended, postponed and then canceled. Wofford and Tennessee Tech somehow continued. All people knew when the game resumed was that Roach was breathing on his own. It wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter that there was an announcement that he was also alert and answering questions.

It was the biggest cheer of the night and it came from everyone in the stadium.

Roach still considers Sept. 1 his second birthday.

“It definitely gives you a new appreciation for what life means and how you live your life,” Roach said. “I’m extremely grateful. I would say the biggest thing it did for me was make me always want to be a happy person. It’s so easy to get upset or mad about things that we don’t have any control over. Stay positive when times are hard. Care for people when it seems hard to care. Always live life with kindness and treat people correctly.”

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Damar Hamlin hit: Wofford football player survived cardiac arrest