NFL player Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest a 'trigger' for these Worcester-area families
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HOLDEN — Millions of television viewers were shocked when NFL player Damar Hamlin made what looked like a routine tackle during Monday night’s nationally televised game, stood up, then collapsed to the turf.
The unsettling scene hit too close to home for two Central Massachusetts families.
“Triggered” is the word Ralph Thibodeau of Holden used Tuesday to describe the moment he received a text from his son Adam, alerting him that Hamlin had collapsed. It was 11 years ago when Thibodeau’s 12-year-old son, Josh, collapsed and died while playing soccer at Wachusett Regional High School.
The cause of death was an undiagnosed case of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that makes it harder to pump blood throughout the body.
“[The NFL game Monday night] was kind of a trigger for all of us who have lost sons to cardiac arrest,” said Thibodeau.
'Eerie' moment
“Eerie” is how John Ellsessar described Hamlin’s medical emergency. The Buffalo Bills safety had his heartbeat restored on the field by emergency medical personnel, and is in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital.
Ellsessar watched the game at his Sutton home and immediately thought of his two sons, Michael and Timothy. Both died of cardiac arrest at a young age. Michael was 16 in 2010 when he caught a pass in a junior varsity football game for Sutton High School, got up, handed the ball to the referee, and then collapsed.
Five years later, Ellsessar’s son, Timothy, died at 18 while swimming.
“It was eerie. It hit close to home,” said John Ellsessar of the moment Hamlin fell to the turf and was eventually carted off in an ambulance.
Medical perspective
Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, a cardiac electrophysiologist at UMass Memorial Health, watched Hamlin’s collapse on TV and immediately thought it was caused by ventricular fibrillation, when the lower heart chambers contract rapidly and don’t pump blood to the rest of the body.
Commotio cordis could also be at play, thought Rosenthal, a situation when the body sustains a blow at a precise moment in the cardiac cycle that disrupts the heart’s rhythm. The window of time for the blow to occur is incredibly short, said Rosenthal, typically five to 10 milliseconds.
Rosenthal believes the second-year NFL player is likely in a medically induced coma to achieve hypothermic arrest to lower the body’s core temperature. The goal is to reduce Hamlin's metabolic rate to allow the brain to recover a lack of oxygen and prevent swelling.
That procedure could take 72 hours, and Rosenthal called it a “make or break” moment to determine the level of neurologic function.
Get an EKG
As for what parents of athletes should do to protect their children, Rosenthal said it’s important to get an electrocardiogram. The test, known as an EKG, records the electrical signal from the heart to check for different heart conditions.
If the EKG presents anything concerning, Rosenthal said it’s imperative to get a cardiac ultrasound, called an echocardiogram, to check the structure and function of the heart.
The screening procedures are required for all high school athletes in Europe, said Rosenthal, but in the United States they’re seen as too expensive, with not enough return to establish a government policy to require them. An EKG costs $25 to $50, according to Rosenthal, while a cardiac ultrasound could be run $200.
“If you can afford them, pay it,” said Rosenthal.
Get screened
The Thibodeau and Ellsessar families believe that taking preventive steps to promote good heart health is key.
The Josh Thibodeau Helping Hearts Foundation, started by Josh’s parents, including his mother, Danielle, raises awareness about the importance of heart screenings. To date, the foundation has teamed up with doctors at UMass Memorial Health to conduct more than 1,000 screenings. Put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the screenings could restart in April.
The foundation also donated more than 80 automated external defibrillators to individuals, schools and youth programs, including 10 to the Worcester Public Schools. The machine is vital during cardiac arrest, as it delivers an electric shock to help the heart reestablish an effective rhythm. It can be the difference between life and death, as the sooner a victim has access to a defibrillator, the greater the chance of survival.
The foundation also provides scholarships to boys and girls who play soccer at Wachusett Regional High School.
The Ellsessar family has donated more than 50 automated external defibrillators, many to high schools in Central Massachusetts. The family has also awarded more than $20,000 in college scholarships to Sutton High School students, and continues to raise money to donate defibrillators and other services through scholasticsportszonefoundation.org.
A big difference
Both families made it a point to explain the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest, terms they believe are mistakenly intertwined by the public.
A heart attack is caused by “bad plumbing" in the body, a description used by Ralph Thibodeau; cardiac arrest is an electrical problem, as the heart’s electrical currents are out of whack. John Ellsessar compared it to pulling an electrical cord out of the wall. Do it, and the appliance doesn’t work anymore.
Both families pray that Hamlin will survive, recover and live a long, productive life.
The traumatic scene Monday night at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati is something the families won’t soon forget, and is a reminder that their missions to spread the importance of screening for possible heart problems is an ongoing passion.
“For us, it was a lot a trauma,” said Thibodeau. “It was a trigger for us. We lost Josh that way.”
“They were two wonderful young men,” Ellsessar said of his two sons who died much too early. “I miss them every minute of every day."
Contact Henry Schwan at henry.schwan@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @henrytelegram
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This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: NFL player Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest hits close to home.
