Moved by the tragic events that befell Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin, the Saints and Pelicans organization have donated nearly 70 automated external defibrillators to the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish Recreation Departments. The AEDs will be installed at playgrounds and playing fields ready for use should they be needed in the event of a cardiac arrest by a player or spectator.
Related
"There's a lot of stories of high school athletics that have an AED specifically intended for players that end up getting used for a spectator, for a family member, for a father or a grandfather that came to a game to watch and suffered a cardiac arrest in the field. A couple of those have happened in Louisiana," says State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter.
Speaking with WWL's Dave Cohen on Thursday, Kanter went into detail about the incident that happened to Hamlin.
"These freak cardiac accidents, they can be caused by a number of things. There's a thing called commotio cardis, if you have a blow to the chest at just the right location at just the right timing in the cardiac cycle it can put someone into cardiac arrest."
Three days after Hamlin suffered what is believed to be commotio cardis, he awoke at a hospital, still in critical condition.
Kanter believes the proliferation and proper training on how to use an AED will save lives.
"We can put some more programs towards high school and intramural sports to equip the on-field response and put AEDs on the field and train people. I think that’s something that we've under invested in."
Could what happened to Damar Hamlin happen to your kid? Sudden cardiac arrest claims lives of young athletes just like it almost did Damar Hamlin. State Health Officer, Dr. Joe Kanter says cardiac testing can uncover such potential problems.
"I think we can put some attention into the pre-athletic screenings. Because some of these cardiac conditions that predispose you, we don't know yet what caused Damar Hamlin's arrest, it could have been any number of things. But some of these conditions that predispose you can be picked up with a screening."