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Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane said on Tuesday that safety Damar Hamlin has been medically cleared to resume football activities, just three months after going into cardiac arrest on an NFL field. Beane said that Hamlin had seen three separate specialists over the offseason, who all agreed that the player can return to play: “He is fully cleared. He’s here. He’s in a great headspace to make his return.”. Bills head coach Sean McDermott said the team is happy that Hamlin will be back: “We’re super excited for Damar. He’s moving forward one step at a time here. He’s been cleared from a physical standpoint. We’ll provide all of the mental help we can from a mind, body and spirit standpoint so just happy for him that he’s been able to check some of those boxes to this point and we’re moving forward taking it one day at a time.”
Hamlin later held a news conference announcing his intention to return to the NFL this upcoming season. During his speech to the media on Tuesday, Hamlin detailed that the exact diagnosis doctors gave him is commotio cordis, which is when something hitting an athlete’s chest directly over the heart can cause cardiac arrest and ventricular fibrillation. It is the leading cause of death of youth athletes across all sports.
The 25-year-old Hamlin has not played football since collapsing on the field at Paycor Stadium during Buffalo’s Monday Night Football game against the Bengals on Jan. 2nd. Trainers administered CPR on Hamlin on the field, and in the ambulance on the way to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Hamlin awoke two days later, and was eventually discharged from the hospital nine days after the incident.
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