New York, N.Y. (WBEN) - Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin opens up about his 'remarkable' recovery after his collapse on the field.
Not only did Hamlin attend Super Bowl LVIII this week, he also sat down with Michael Strahan and Good Morning America to talk about his cardiac episode.
"When they said, 'You won the game of life.' That put things into perspective for me," Hamlin said. "Hearing it from the doctor, things could have went differently, and the details of the situation of everything that had been on the field. It could have been the last of me."
Before Hamlin took the field against the Bengals, Hamlin described that he felt 'great' and felt normal. "I remember the things that we were focused on, going into the game just trying to get a win," Hamlin said.
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With less than six minutes left in the first quarter, Hamlin got hit by a tackle that he eventually got up from, but went down again.
Hamlin said he owes his life to the man who gave him CPR, Buffalo Bills assistant athletic trainer, Denny Kellington. "I owe Denny my life, literally," Hamlin said. "He loves to say he was just doing his job, which is true, but that night, he was literally the Savior of my life, you know, administering CPR on me. That's something I'm truly thankful for and I don't take for granted."
Hamlin declined to speak on a couple questions, the two main ones being if he remembers getting up after the hit and what the doctors thought was the reason his heart stopped beating. Hamlin is still in discussion with his doctors. "It is something that we're still processing and I'm still talking to my doctors just to see what everything was."
Hamlin says that physically, he is doing great. "Every morning, every night, I take 10, deep breaths to myself. It puts everything in perspective for me. So, I'm doing great."
Emotionally, "I'm still working through things. I'm still trying to process all the emotions and in the trauma that comes from dealing with a situation like that and not really having people around, like, no one in my immediate circle who's dealt with something like that," said Hamlin.
In regards to a possible return to the football field, Hamlin says he would like to. "That's always the goal, but I'm allowing it to be in God's hands," Hamlin said. "They [the doctors] can't really tell because, it's an up to me thing. It's a long road. They just were worried about trying to get me back to normal as much as they can."