Hamlin, a safety for the Buffalo Bills, collapsed on the field during a Monday night football game.
Hamlin was shocked with a defibrillar after medical staff gave him cardiopulmonary assist. News outlets speculated that Hamlin may have suffered from commotio cordis, a potentially lethal stop of the heart caused by a strong hit to the chest. The Bills did not confirm the cause of Hamlin's cardiac arrest but said he had experienced acardiac arrest.
Hamlin collapsed while Dr. Wendy Tzou was watching the game at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Tzou was asked four questions by the conversation. The answers are adapted below.
A person with a normal heart can suffer from Commotio cordis, a condition in which the heart stops pumping blood when it is traumatised. Children and adolescents are more likely to be affected by colito cordis. At a particular moment in the heart, the impact needs to be very strong. The electrical signals that control the heart become chaotic when this occurs. A type of heart arrhythmia is caused by the uncoordinated electrical pulse that causes the heart to twitch and spasm.
When a heart is in ventricular fibrillation, it is no longer able to pump blood throughout a person's body, and their organs are damaged due to lack of oxygen. Problems with the heart can lead to arrhythmia. A person can be killed if their heart stops beating.
A single heartbeat is a sequence of muscle contractions that are all controlled by electrical signals. The muscles need to be reset after a heart contract. The process of repolarization involves moving charged ion to different parts of a cell so that it can contract when it gets an electrical signal.
The impact of a hit to the chest can cause electrical signals to go off before the heart is ready. A chaotic electrical storm causes the heart to go into spasm.
Hamlin stood upright for a short time after the impact. From the way he collapsed, it was obvious that no blood was going to his brain. He was experiencing an arrhythmia when he received cardiopulmonary resuscitation and a shock from a defibrillar. It's impossible to diagnose commotio cordis from a video alone.
Hamlin's heart failure may have been caused by commotio cordis, a condition that can occur after a collision with another player. When all other possible causes of arrhythmia have been ruled out, a diagnosis is usually made. Commotio cordis is so rare that it is hard to get reliable information on the number of occurrences. In a database of patients who died from sudden arrhythmia in Minnesota, commotio cordis was the cause of only a small number of cases.
The cause of sudden cardiac arrest is usually one of two conditions. A sudden arrhythmia can be caused by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which is when the walls of a person's heart are not normal. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is a disease that affects 1 in 200 Americans. Many people are diagnosed before they start playing sports because they inherit the condition. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the leading cause of sudden arrhythmia deaths in athletes.
The second most common cause of death in athletes is arteriosclerosis. Blood flow to the heart can be compromised due to these anomalies at birth. Around 1% of people have an issue with the structure of their coronary arteries, and the problem is responsible for over a dozen deaths in athletes.
In sports where blunt trauma directly to the chest is common, Commotio cordis is a rare occurrence. The best way to prevent commotio cordis is with appropriate precautions.
Screening may be able to find heart problems like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and other heart problems. Your doctor can help you decide if a screening is worth it.
Time is everything if a person's heart stops pumping blood and oxygen isn't reaching their brain. If you call for help, you can delay the start of brain damage or death until a defibrillated heart beats again.
The Conversation is a news site that shares ideas from academic experts. It was written by Wendy Tzou. The news comes from experts. You can try our newsletters.
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