That's quite a cynical outlook you have there. And I believe this incident was a bit beyond "spilling a li'l blood."
Sorry to disagree with you, but this time, the ambulance drivers were merely transporters. Why do say that ? Because there were doctors already in attendance doing CPR and using medical equipment to get Damar Hamlin's heart started . Each team has several doctors who attend every game. Had the doctors not gotten to Hamlin's within a few seconds, he surely would have died.
When my son was playing soccer, they were taught to take to one knee any time a player was injured. And to maintain it until that player was back up and OK. It had nothing to do with injured soldiers, body bags, etc. It was a simple matter of respect for a fellow player and friend. Sportsmanship, if you will. These players may make a lot of money playing but that's beside the point. They are still team members and probably friends off field. I'm sure they were in shock that one of them had possibly died on the playing field. The game becomes secondary at that point. The game can be finished later when they have all had time to recover from the shock. After all, it's just a game.
Anyone who has seen doctors do CPR knows it is almost only on TV. EMTs and Paramedics are much better at it, and, although not as good as the paramedics, nurses and athletic trainers are better too. I hope my life never depends on a doctor to do CPR.
The Buffalo Bill's assistant training director Denny Kellington is credited with saving Damar's life initially with his 10-second response. I can't find his salary but it is probably around $75,000 a year and at best $300,000. The paramedics did a lot more than transport. They were on the scene in less than 5 minutes and took over all the life savings disciplines. The salary for the paramedics is probably less than $150,000 a year. Kellington's training and quick 10-second response no doubt saved his life, but his life would have been short-lived after CPR resuscitation had the paramedics not been on the scene as required by the league and responded so quickly to administer an IV, oxygen, and other crucial disciplines. The league said that every club is required to have an emergency action plan for instances of severe trauma. The plan – which is reviewed by league and player union officials and approved by outside experts before the season – requires the designation of a level one trauma center along with the presence of two certified paramedic crews and advanced life support ambulances at every game. The team doctors had nothing to do with saving his life. They are more for orthopedics. They don't have the life-saving skills that the paramedics have plus without that fully equipped ambulance and at least one tending to him during the transport, he wouldn't have made it. I get peeved when anyone downplays the value of paramedics. I never fully appreciated what they do until Zek took me down to the station to see a state-of-the-art ambulance and I met some of the guys and gals and got to know their spouses. One of my fake grandnieces is married to a paramedic and hearing his stories, made me realize what dangers they face at times. The chances that Damar would be alive had the paramedics not been on the scene, are close to zero. .
When a person has heart stoppage, 5 minutes is a very, very long time. If Kellington had not performed CPR within seconds, Hamlin would surely have suffered fatal brain damage.
The trainer and Paramedics saved his life unless some onsite drug administration was needed not covered by Paramedic training. (not likely)
I love your comparison! I haven’t voiced it until now but I do wonder what the heck is so uniquely special about this injury versus the many major injuries in pro football of the past? Yes, it was on TV but in times gone by when I watched pro football on TV, I’ve seen a broken neck, a couple of spine injuries and all kinds of guys carried off the field with head and bone injuries. I hated to see guys get hurt so badly but to me, it is what it is. All those players go into it knowing that it’s a dangerous job and they get paid well. Maybe the hype really was about a chance that it had something to do with the jab and although no one has alluded to it, I still speculate that it might be due to performance enhancers but either way, the accident still doesn’t merit all the glitz and media trappings. I don’t recall Dale Earnhardt’s family getting a call from the President when he got killed and he was actually famous!
With more than twenty years of experience in EMS, including quite a lot of hospital experience, I have never seen a doctor doing CPR. I was a PALS/ALS instructor, and several doctors went through that program. CPR was not their strong point, and both RNs and paramedics were far more reliable in the emergent situation. Doctors rarely even administer the medications, and a paramedic would be far more qualified to operate the defibrillator. A doctor might be handy for the purpose of administering a medication not generally carried by EMS, but I doubt that, at least not in the first critical moments. Doctors become useful later, in figuring out why the heart stopped, to begin with. I've worked on several cardiac arrests where doctors were on the scene. They stood by and watched, because the things that were necessary to restart the heart, if it was going to be done, were things that paramedics had more experience with. While the paramedics are busy with other things, a doctor might administer medication once the IV has been started, but it would be unlikely to be something the paramedics were unfamiliar with or that they couldn't do themselves. I doubt they had a cardiologist on the scene during that game. We had an ER doctor as our medical director when I first started in EMS, and he would ride out with us quite a lot while he wasn't on duty at the hospital. He was quite competent but he would ask us what he could help with. The biggest advantage of having him with us was that he could assess the patient for the underlying cause of the event and clear the way for things to move more quickly once we arrived at the hospital.
The above may be correct about doctors not generally administering CPR, however, during the 1st few minutes of Hamlin's trauma, no paramedics were present. Therefore, it was completely up to the team doctors and the Buffalo coaches. Had they waited for the paramedics to arrive on the field with an ambulance and high tech equipment , Hamlin surely would have died. I can not believe that IF the very first responder's are doctors, with no paramedic present, those doctors would forego CPR.
That is exactly what I said! This is why everyone needs to understand the rest of the story. CPR can save a life but not for long in some cases. Kellington had the training because he is part of the medical quick responder's team. The role of the paramedics is to get on the field quick as possible with their highly equipped ambulance. Some say the ambulance was on the field in two minutes. That is fast! Kellington deserves a lot of credit, but not that he single handed saved his life. Even the paramedics can't claim they alone saved his life just like the doctors in the ER can't. They all worked together and it shows because of his recovery. My point was the people that saved his life are paid a small fraction of what the players and coaches make. These players just like Hollywood stars are paid outrageous monies and when something happens to them, it is a big deal but when a first responder goes down it isn't news. When entertainment stars make 100 times the salary of a necessary first responder, that tells me what is wrong with the world.
Wrong! The medical staff of the Bills had two paramedics on the field within a few seconds after Kellington started CPR. Here is the official statement from the Bills medical team. "An automated external defibrillator, or AED, was also used on the field before his heartbeat was restored." That defib was administered by a paramedic, not Kellington or some untrained person. Kellington deserves a lot of credit, but he did not restore Damar's breathing and heartbeat. He did what was necessary during the less than a minute it took for the team paramedics to get on the field with the defib. The ambulance was the second paramedic team. It is only guesswork that Damar couldn't have been restored if Kellington hadn't given CPR. Again the official statement released but not easily found since the media wants to make Kellington a lone hero, is that CPR alone would not have restored his heartbeat.
I fail to understand why some people want to make Damar Hamlin's IMMEDIATE CPR a non-issue. The fact remains, is that Denny Kellington, an assistant Buffalo Bills coach and a certified CPR tech, is responsible for saving Hamlin's life. The steps of CPR are called ABCD. A =airway (insure a patent airway) B=breathe C=circulate D=drugs It is an undisputed fact the Kellington inserted a breathing tube into Hamlin's throat and then used an "ambu-bag. Without those 1st 2 crucial step's all else is useless.