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Buffalo Bills: Damar Hamlin Suffered Cardiac Arrest In Game Against Bengals: Heartbeat Was Restored On Field And Condition Is Critical; Buffalo Bills Player Damar Hamlin In Critical Condition. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired January 03, 2023 - 02:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN "BREAKING NEWS".

[02:00:28]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Hello, everyone. I'm John Berman and this is CNN special live coverage of an event that I think has captured the attention of an entire nation and now the entire world, an injury on the field, in a nationally televised football game. Monday night football.

24-year-old Damar Hamlin collapsing on the field after a collision. We just got official word -- the first official word on exactly what happened and his medical condition now.

BERMAN (voice over): Let me read you a statement just put out by the Buffalo Bills. That is Damar Hamlin's team. The Bill say, "Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest following a hit in our game versus the Bengles.

His heartbeat was restored on the field. And he was transferred to the U.C. Medical Center for further testing and treatment. He is currently sedated and listed in critical condition."

This is the first time we have received official word of what happened. A cardiac arrest. And it's absolutely the first time we have been told that his heartbeat was restored on the field.

That is a bit of -- I imagine, good news. They got his heart beating again on the field before he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where he has now been sedated and listed in critical condition.

BERMAN (on camera): We've been told, there were reports that he was intubated. Some of the medical experts we spoke to said that, that might be a positive sign that the heart started beating again.

They intubated him to do his breathing for him to make it easier now for him to recover.

So, let's hope this is the beginning of what might be a positive sign there. Damar Hamlin, for those who didn't see it, 24-year-old safety plays defense for the Bengals. He collapsed after this collision in the first quarter of the Monday night game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

BERMAN (voice over): This is the actual moment it happened. We're going to show this as little as we have to. But to give you a sense of what happened, you can see he popped up.

Number three. He popped up after the tackle before ultimately collapsing onto the field. Now, that happened just before 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

The game itself was postponed at 10:00. Postponed, I mean, called off, at least for the night. And the Buffalo Bills have now gone home. They're back on their way to Buffalo.

And an ambulance you can see, they're brought onto the field. Damar Hamlin was given CPR. We now know the heartbeat was restored before he was taken in that ambulance to the hospital.

Now, as this was happening, you could just see players from both teams just devastated. The players -- former players we spoken to, say, they've never seen anything like this.

They've never seen anything like that collapse, nor the instant reaction were clearly all the players you're seeing now knew that something was very, very wrong there.

You saw the pictures of them kneeling, they're embracing each other no matter what team they were on.

Again, his mother was at the game. We're told that she rode with him in the ambulance to the hospital.

Damar Hamlin is in his second year in the league. He was a sixth round draft pick out of the University of Pittsburgh. He's played in every game this season starting the last 14.

Now, and people around the country, around the world, athletes and others, now sending prayers, and well wishes.

I want to bring in CNN's sports correspondent, my friend, Carolyn Manno. And Carolyn, again, this is a bit of new information we have now, where they say his heartbeat was restored on the field following a cardiac arrest. Your reaction?

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, this confirmation of the cardiac arrest is consistent with what some of our medical experts have been saying.

We can't speculate about what this might mean. You know, I would immediately think that it is a bit of good news, but we just don't know.

You know, I keep thinking about how the Bills have handled this as an organization. How the head coach, Sean McDermott handled this moment. I was at home like many people around the country watching this unfold. And you and I, John, have watched a lot of football games over the years. You immediately knew that something was different, something was very wrong. Unfortunately, we've become accustomed to head trauma in the NFL, we know that it's such a violent game, but the nature of this was very different even though it fell under that umbrella of this being a dangerous sport.

[02:05:05]

And so, when you saw Sean McDermott, really take matters into his own hands. I mean, the way that the players reacted, how emotional they were. Covering their faces, crying.

The first thing I thought was that I really hope that the NFL will make sure that both The Bills and the Bengals collectively will have access to the care that they need to process the trauma of this moment.

But to see, you know, the head coach, decide that his players couldn't continue, I felt was really the difference here. And you know, Zac Taylor to his credit, the two of them putting their heads together and saying, you know, what, official word hasn't come through, you know, we watched the team sort of packing things up. But we're the ones that are going to decide that this isn't right for our players and our player, especially with the future being so uncertain at that time.

So, it's good to get a little bit more information. I think we still have many hours to go before we'll hear from the hospital and learn his condition.

BERMAN: Sure. Yes, and as you note, this game, postponed, mid game, something I don't think I've ever seen in a football game. It must have been an event that these players and these coaches just felt like they could not should not go on.

MANNO: Yes, and I think, you know, the -- on the NFL conference call just a short time ago that we're all listening in on, there's a couple things to take away. I mean, one is that they felt and expressed to us that the emergency plan that was put in place on the field, the way that the response was so efficiently conducted, the CPR.

And we've heard a defibrillator was used even though we're waiting for confirmation that, that was, in fact used, you know, that, that really was executed well.

And that's a credit to the league and the repetition, the practice, the access, to the tools that they need, the staff that's in place to make these decisions to help these players in a way that may not have been done a couple of decades ago.

I mean, when seconds matter, according to our medical experts, which I am not. But, you know, it seems to be that every second here was crucial.

And so, to see, you know, the league have a protocol in place that was executed the way that it did was great, but you know, I think, over the next couple of days, maybe the next couple of weeks, we're going to analyze why did it take so long to call this game, and included there's a lot at stake, the NFL is managing a lot.

But right now, the focus is on a young man, in Damar Hamlin, who many people describe as kind, funny, caring, loving, we've talked a lot about the toy drive in his community that he's passionate about.

At the beginning of the night, around the time of this incident, there was about $12,000 being donated. Now, that's upwards of 3 million and beyond.

I mean, people around the country are identifying him as a person and wanting to reach out and do anything they can to show support, which I think is just wonderful as we remember that at the end of the day, this is very much about his health.

BERMAN: 3,059,150. I just checked Carolyn Manno, thank you so much for sharing your insight on this tonight, and your reporting.

We do have a medical expert with us now. Dr. Anthony Cardillo is an emergency room specialist and the CEO of Mend Urgent Care.

He joins us from Los Angeles. Also with us, former NFL player, wide receiver Donte Stallworth.

Dr. Cardillo, I do want to start with you here, because since we last spoke, we now have this statement and it is information, a lot more information than we had before.

A cardiac arrest. Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest, his heartbeat was restored, and he is now sedated in critical condition.

So, three data points there. Walk us through with the being.

DR. ANTHONY CARDILLO, EMERGENCY ROOM SPECIALIST: OK, this is substantial information, and it's very reassuring to find out that they actually were able to restore cardiac activity on the field.

This is critical, and it's really going to be critical in his further developments.

Now, it sounds like we're finding out that he had cardiac arrest on the field. A lot of us have been looking at these videos and surmising that what most likely happened is a traumatic cardiac arrest.

When he was hit in that chest anteriorly, as hard as he was, it's a phenomenon known as commotio cordis. This is when you get traumatic injury to the anterior chest, just as the heart is getting prepared to have another beat.

It's during that repolarization phase and the electromechanical activity of the heart, river (PH), the heart is fueled by electrical impulse.

If you have trauma at an exact moment, when that heart is getting ready to repolarize and beat again, you will go into cardiac arrest.

So, what we saw and we were all summarizing (PH) is actually developing into most likely the etiology of would cause him to fall down and go into cardiac arrest.

And it's also a testimonial to the quick action of the medical professionals on that field that saved his life.

[02:10:07]

Being prepared and ready, having all of the equipment necessary, particularly, the AED, the Automated External Defibrillator.

And quite honestly, after this event, I can't imagine not having a football game, even on high school level without having AEDs available. They are widely available now in our communities, in shopping malls, and public spaces, but we need to have them everywhere, because it was that quick action that most likely brought him back.

Now, again, this is all speculative as you're watching this unfold, but we are hearing great news that, that heart was restored on the field.

That's going to be the single most important factor in his ability to get through this.

BERMAN: And again, and Donte, I'm going to come to you in just one second. But if the heartbeat is restored, does that mean that he will recover?

CARDILLO: Well, certainly means that is, again, all speculative. But if you had the traumatic chest injury that led to this lethal dysrhythmia, there's been tricking the fibrillation, he collapsed.

It sounds like CPR was started immediately. And that is the real important factor for survive -- for survivability. And also, coming back to a normal life is how quickly after the event happens, that CPR get instituted.

Sounds like it was within moment. The next critical thing is restoring normal circulation with the defibrillator. It sounds like it may have just been minutes that, that happened.

Those are critical factors in getting his physiology back. Now, unfortunately, when you go down like that, you're having what's called brain anoxia, or no oxygen to the brain. Similar to when a child falls in the pool, for example. And that scenario, it is really seconds that matter.

How long was the brain deprived of oxygen? It sounds like he was on the field for 10 or 15 minutes before they took them in the ambulance. And we didn't really get a good visual what was happening, but you have to imagine that CPR was started, they defibrillator him, and they were giving him oxygen.

Those are all very important things.

BERMAN: Thank you. All right. Thank you for that.

Again, what we know for sure is what the Bills are telling us now. Cardiac arrest, heartbeat restored, sedated, and in critical condition.

Donte, to you, just your reaction to the words, heartbeat was restored.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER PLAYER, NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: It's the words, it's hard to talk about. Players get hurt all the time in this game, it's a violent sport, it just is. You see players have these injuries, where they're out for the years with a torn ACL or Healy's. And you see the -- you see the cart come out, and they get a cast put on, and it's a -- it's a meticulous process, but it's slow. And it's intentionally slow to make sure that they don't reinjure whatever injury occurred at the moment.

But this was something totally different. This was performing a life saving measure on one of the players on the field, which is why you saw the reaction from those guys.

We see these injuries, these -- just injuries, in general a lot. But the reactions were not the same. And we couldn't really tell at home what was going on. But me seeing the players reaction led me to believe that this was something that was unprecedented that had never happened before, just by looking at the players reactions and that -- and that can tell you, you know, by them performing the CPR on him, something devastating, which is why you saw the reaction from players on both teams.

The guys were crying, guys were turned away because they probably just couldn't stand to look, but hoping and praying that everything would turn out all right.

BERMAN: And you were just telling me, you suspected that the Bills who are now on their way back to Buffalo now. What they're trying to do, what they're hoping for is any sign, any word about their teammate Damar Hamlin.

How do you think -- what do you think it will be like on that plane as they land? And they get this word? And again, I don't want to get out ahead of this. I mean, I don't know how optimistic anyone should be. But it is a -- it is a new piece of information that the heart was beating on the field before he was taken to the hospital.

STALLWORTH: Yes, I think those guys are obviously devastated. But they want to be optimistic as possible. I'm sure. It's -- this is their brother, they spent as much time with these -- with these players in the locker room than sometimes you do to your own family members.

And so, they all look at each other as brothers. So, this is a member of their family who's going through this. And so, they're -- I'm sure they're trying to be optimistic as possible. And I know that they're all wanting to know, as many updates as they can, as they fly back home to Buffalo.

And I know it's going to be a difficult night for a lot of them to be able to even try to get to sleep.

[02:15:02]

And I'm pretty sure there is going to be some -- whenever there are updates, they will all get them, at the same time, the coaches or someone in that organization will call the players, because usually on the days after games, will come in, you know, typical days will come in and have meetings and go to our little workouts, like 45 minute workouts, just to kind of work out the kinks and bruises.

But this is going to be something totally different. And I hope those guys were able to get some kind of -- some kind of help to help them get through this. Because this is -- this is something unprecedented, like I said.

And I don't know what the NFL or what the teams are going to be prepared to do to help these players. You know, even try to prepare for a game next week or this weekend, I should say.

BERMAN: Well, they should do whatever they can. They should do whatever they can to help these players get through this.

STALLWORTH: Right.

BERMAN: Dr. Cardillo, the fact that he's sedated now at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Talk to us about what's happening, you suspect now.

CARDILLO: Sure, and that's all normal protocol. He has to be sedated at this point, just to protect his body. He's been through a lot right now. Whenever the body suffers a cardiac arrest and CPR is instituted, you want to really get that body to relax.

And the intubation was probably just really prophylactic because they needed to control his breathing. They wanted to control the body's physiology. And that's why they intubated him. That's why they sedated him.

Now, they will slowly start weaning off that sedation to see how his body responds, to see if he's breathing. We -- the term we use is, is he breathing over the ventilator? Is he -- does he have his normal breathing dried back?

That's what we're going to be watching very carefully this time. I am sure they are doing CAT scans of his cervical spine as well as his chest.

Remember, this is all speculative. And we are -- we are presuming that he had a cardiac event secondary to the anterior chest trauma, but we wouldn't rule out the possibility of a cervical spinal injury. Also, he was hit pretty hard. It's less likely, but I'm sure they're scanning him. And then also another modality is what we call therapeutic hypothermia. That means that we have a device that we lower the body's core temperature to help preserve the brain and its ability to come back.

Again, it's really going to be dependent upon how much anoxia or lack of oxygen his brain suffered.

BERMAN: And Donte, what do you want to hear from the NFL next?

STALLWORTH: Well, I think the NFL needs to immediately come out and dispel any rumors that they were ready to resume this game. From what we heard from the announcers during the game, we heard that they were going to give the players and the -- and the teams five minutes to warm up to resume the game.

I think they need to dispel that. And there needs to be more information out on that, because the information that we heard from the announcers was that the players were going to warm up, get a five minute period to warm up to resume this game, but the coaches intervened.

So, I would --I implore the NFL to come out and discuss exactly how that process came about and why it took so long to suspend this game.

BERMAN: Donte Stallworth, thank you for joining us tonight. Dr. Anthony Cardillo, our thanks to you as well, helping us understand this new statement we receive from the Buffalo Bills.

Cardiac arrests for Damar Hamlin, his heartbeat restored on the field, now in critical condition, under sedation. Thank you both.

Much more to come on this "BREAKING NEWS", including reaction from around the NFL as well as some of Damar Hamlin's teammates.

BERMAN (voice over): Stay with us.

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[02:22:11]

BERMAN (on camera): All right. We are following "BREAKING NEWS" Buffalo Bills' safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition at a Cincinnati hospital.

BERMAN (voice over): The Bills' say he suffered cardiac arrest after making a tackle early in the Monday night football game against the Bengals.

Now, the team and a statement just released moments ago, says his heartbeat was restored on the field. That is new information. And he was taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Centre where he is currently sedated and in critical condition.

Now, the 24-year-old is in the second year -- his second year in the NFL. A sixth-round draft pick. He played every game for the Bills this season, starting the last 14.

Football fans sending, of course, their thoughts and prayers. Some gathered outside the hospital where Hamlin is being treated.

Fans of both the Bills and the Bengals came together to show their support with some holding candles.

BERMAN (on camera): Earlier, the NFL held a conference call to discuss Hamlin's injury. One of the people speaking on that call from the league was Troy Vincent, Executive Vice President of the NFL, himself, a former All Pro NFL player. This is part of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY VINCENT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE: It was really about Damar, and making sure that -- and look, I've never seen anything like it since I've been playing. And so, immediately, my player hat went on and how do you resume play after you've seen such a traumatic event occur in front of you, real time. And that's the way we were thinking about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And joining me now on the phone is Kelsey Conway, she's a reporter covering the Cincinnati Bengals for the Cincinnati Enquirer. She was in the stadium when Hamlin collapsed.

Kelsey, I've been reading your stuff on Twitter all night long. So, it's terrific to get a chance to speak with you here.

Troy Vincent just said he never seen anything like it before as a player. What was it like to be in the stadium when this happened?

KELSEY CONWAY, BENGALS REPORTER, CINCINNATI ENQUIRER (via telephone): Well, it was horrifying. I don't know if there is another word that could explain that better than what happened.

And I tweeted it. But I was sitting in the same exact seat in the press box back in late September when the Bengals played the Dolphins. And if you remember, that was the start of the concussion situation with the NFL when Tua Tagovailoa went down, and it was very scary moment.

He also got taken off in an ambulance to University of Cincinnati Medical Center to be examined for his head injury, which then has now trickled down into multiple head injuries for him.

But the scene was pretty scary then, and this popped it times 10. You were sitting there trying to see from a press box far away if they really were doing CPR. You could see someone pumping, but you know, you didn't want to make a statement without knowing it for sure.

[02:25:06]

CONWAY: But it seemed to be very bad when they weren't moving. And typically, I've seen enough of these injuries, they try to get these guys off the field as quickly as they can. But they could not get him off the field. They took the backboard back and forth from the ambulance, which showed that they didn't quite know what to do, they really struggled to be able to get him into the ambulance. And it was just a really tragic, horrifying scene.

BERMAN: And now, of course, Kelsey, just moments ago, we got word from the Bills that his heartbeat was restored on the field. Now, that is something that I don't think any of us knew until just a few minutes ago.

CONWAY: Yes, that's a major update here. And hopefully, all of these prayers by everyone all over the world right now are with him. But that was a significant update, because you didn't know when he was leaving the field. You didn't want to start rumors, but it was really unclear what exactly was going on.

You knew it had something to do with the heart. And you saw by the reaction of Bill's head coach Sean McDermott, who was in tears. All the Bills, players were in tears. You knew something tragic happened, but you just didn't know.

So, for us to get that update is significant.

BERMAN: Yes. Again, and I think that's really important. You didn't know. You were watching, and you didn't know what was going on, what had happened that it was a cardiac arrest.

Now we know, the Bills told us cardiac arrest, you certainly didn't know the heartbeat was restored on the field. Now, what we still don't know is what that means for a possible recovery.

The statement from the Bill's also said that Damar Hamlin is currently sedated in critical condition at the hospital, correct?

CONWAY: Yes, and he's at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, which is about five to 10 minutes from the stadium. It's very close. And one of the pieces of information we got from the NFL league office when they did their call was that they have an emergency action plan at each NFL Stadium, which involves an ambulance, a level one trauma center that's connected to the stadium, and an airway traffic control.

So, they never want things like this to happen, but they are prepared for situations like this. And they were able to get him to better care quickly, as quickly as they could. He had a police escort, take him in the ambulance.

So, he got up there pretty quickly. And I was told that the Bills are going to head back to Buffalo tonight, but there are several players staying back to stay close. And they just don't want to leave Damar Hamlin quite yet. But the team is taking everybody back to Buffalo.

BERMAN: And just finally, and I'm sure I don't know if you've had a chance to notice what was going on because you were doing reporting -- furious reporting here. But, what about the fans? What about the 10s of 1000s of people who were at the stadium any sense of what their mood was like or how they reacted when, when the game was called? They -- well, I was in the tunnel close to the locker room when the game was called. But for the hour before then, it was just sitting in silence, absolute silence for the fans. And that stadium was absolutely sold out. So, there was a ton of fans there. And you could just tell everybody, whether you're a Bengals fan or a Bills fan, it was just absolutely speechless.

And it took the NFL and the teams a little bit to figure out what they were going to do. That was another piece of information that it was up to the team. It was up to Bengals head coach Zac Taylor and Sean McDermott and the players.

They were sent to the locker rooms to kind of debrief and the team came together and realized that they weren't going to be able to play this game with the emotions and the players and everything involved.

So, they then notified the league and said, we're going to postpone this game. So, I thought that's an important piece to know, because everybody just assumed that the NFL makes the call. And of course they do, but it was because of the information they got from the Bengals and the Bills.

Kelsey Conway from The Cincinnati Enquirer, as I said, I'm just one of many people who's been following your reporting all night and now all morning long.

So, thank you so much for the work that you've been doing.

CONWAY: Thank you so much for having me on.

BERMAN: All right. Now, everyone stick around. We're going to have much more reaction and analysis of Damar Hamlin's injury, right here on CNN.

[02:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, we continue our breaking news coverage out of Cincinnati where Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in critical condition after collapsing on the field during Monday Night Football against the Cincinnati Bengals. In a statement just a short time ago released by the Bills, they say Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest following a collision in the first quarter of the game. It happened when Hamlin tackled Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. Now, the Bills say that Hamlin's heartbeat was restored on the field before he was transferred by ambulance to the hospital where he is now sedated and receiving treatment.

The National Football League Players Association, among the many, sending well wishes in a tweet, the union said, "The NFLPA and everyone in our community is praying for Damar Hamlin. We've been in touch with Bills and Bengals players and with the NFL. The only thing that matters at this moment is Damar's health and well being." Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen expressed his own concerns for his teammates. He wrote out, "Please pray for our brother." Now, both of those statements were put out before the release of the information we just got, that it was cardiac arrest that Hamlin suffered, and that his heartbeat was restored on the field. I want to bring in CNN sports correspondent now, Carolyn Manno. You know, Josh Allen, obviously, the NFLPA, everyone expressing their concern for Hamlin, Carolyn.

[02:35:05]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, across the entire sports landscape, John, and really, across the entire world. I mean, I know you as a soccer fan, remember Euros 2020 when Danish soccer player Christian Eriksen had a moment that made the whole world sit still when he suffered an incident, a cardiac incident, and we didn't know his fate. We've heard from LeBron James, many players in the NBA that have held postgame press conferences have stopped to offer their thoughts and prayers. We've seen it all over Twitter, and what was really touching and also to me what was really one of the first signs of the potential severity of this is when you saw all the Bengals players react, both sides of the field clearing their benches. Joe Burrow going over to Josh Allen, consoling him.

And there's a still image that's just really chilling and startling, both of the quarterbacks kind of staring into the abyss in the immediate aftermath of this incident. And you could tell how upset they were, how devastated they were. And to hear that Zac Taylor, the Bengals head coach, you know, made a trip to the hospital, that was widely reported and now confirmed by us that, you know, that Stefon Diggs was there, the Bills receiver who was among the players trying to rally his teammates, when it was thought that maybe they might have to go back out on the field and play. But to your point, I mean, athletes are tied to one another through what they do. And so, you're seeing within the NFL, certainly, but also far beyond it, so many players reaching out and just sympathizing, empathizing, and wanting to know -- everybody to know that he's in their thoughts as well.

BERMAN: You know, he's their friend. He's their teammate. He's someone they all care about very, very much. Carolyn Manno, thank you so much for being with us. Earlier, I spoke with Joe Danneman, and a reporter with WXIX in Cincinnati, about Hamlin's collapse on the field. And obviously, the NFL is no stranger to injuries. But he says what happened overnight was something very, very different.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOE DANNEMAN, WXIX REPORTER: Well, it's interesting you mentioned the head injuries, because in a primetime game here in Cincinnati, earlier this season was when Tua Tagovailoa had his incidents. That was a big national talking point. So, that happened here in Cincinnati, just a couple of months ago. And now, you fast forward to this moment, happening right here and right now here in Cincinnati, it's kind of ironic that it both happened inside the same stadium. But you mentioned it, the head injuries, again, those are things that we see on a football field. It's a violent sport, the guys know what they sign up for. We see sometimes broken bones, knee injuries, spinal injuries, those are serious things, they happen. We don't see things like this happen. I can tell you, John, I've never seen medical staffs react with the

kind of urgency that I saw tonight, when they ran out of the field. I don't know if you showed the video of when Damar stood up and then collapsed back to the ground. You can see the players immediately motioning to both of their benches to get as many medical staff members out to the field as soon as possible. And they rushed out there, and they were opening up the equipment with the kind of urgency I've never seen before for somebody on a football field. And within 30 seconds, the stretcher was on the way out. And also, a back support in case that was the issue. And then, within a couple of minutes, the ambulance was out there. So, all of that is very unique, things we haven't seen before. And I think it does lead to this being a very unique and different kind of injury that we haven't seen before, at least I've never seen, on a football field, especially in the NFL.

BERMAN: You said you've never seen the medical staff get on to the field with the urgency that they did. And the training staff, these people are qualified and trained at many different levels. Normally, they're looking at knees or shoulders or arms. You know, this is a different type of situation. Did they appear to have the equipment and have the situation -- have a sense of what was going on the minute they ran out?

DANNEMAN: They did. I had an eyesight, John, of when the first medical staff member showed up, and they had a big heavy bag with a lot of medical equipment inside. And I remember the medical staff personnel ripping that open with the kind of urgency that, to me, was very eye opening and very shocking. And that, to me, signaled that this is different, this is something very serious. And they pulled out the medical equipment. At that point, the teams and other personnel from the team had gathered around him, and I didn't have an eye shot anymore from the sideline of what was happening.

I can mention this, too, Tee Higgins, who was the Bengals wide receiver that you mentioned who was part of that hit that kind of landed his head in his chest of Damar Hamlin. We saw him here in the hallway, his mother was out here when the Bengals -- some of the players were leaving here to leave the stadium for tonight. His mother was here, and they shared a very emotional moment, and walked out. You have to wonder how hard this is for him to deal with, considering he was in on the play. Again, just a football play, a wide receiver making a catch, turning up field, contact, and Hamlin fell, he bounced right back up, and that's when things went wrong when he collapsed to the field. It looked like a normal football play with a guy getting hit in the chest, that's why they wore shoulder pads, right? But this one, obviously, created some kind of damage that we're not used to seeing on a football field.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:40:10]

BERMAN: And that was Joe Danneman from WXIX in Cincinnati. We have much more coming up on the condition of Buffalo Bill safety Damar Hamlin. His teammates, his opponents, athletes across the United States reacting after he collapsed on the field. Stay with CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So, more on the breaking news this hour, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin is in the hospital in critical condition after collapsing during Monday Night Football. The Bills put out a statement saying he suffered cardiac arrest, but his heartbeat was restored on the field before he was taken to the hospital. They say he is currently sedated and listed in critical condition. Hamlin fell on his back moments after making a tackle on the first quarter of the game against the Cincinnati Bengals.

[02:45:08]

With me now is former NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth. Donte, thanks so much for being with us. Again, we just received word in the last hour of the actual event itself, it was a cardiac arrest. Damar Hamlin's heartbeat was restored on the field. He is now sedated in critical condition. So, that's an update on the situation at hand. The Buffalo Bills returning to Buffalo. What's it going to take for these players to get back on the field next week? What will it be like for them when they -- for the Bills, they play the Patriots next weekend? You know, what's it going to be like?

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER NFL PLAYER: It's going to be difficult. And the only thing that I can even remotely compare it to is when I was a member of the New Orleans Saints in 2005. And Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, and hit the Gulf Coast. And we didn't want to play. And this was -- you know, this was during the summer. This was, I think two weeks before the season began. We had a preseason game coming up in a couple of days. And so, this situation is completely different, obviously, for a number of reasons.

But it's the only thing that I can relate it back to. And I know that the players didn't want to play, we weren't in the right mindset to play. Especially a preseason game, we just weren't in the right mindset. A lot of guys wanted to make sure that their families were OK, they wanted to make sure that the people in New Orleans were OK, and wanted to go back and even help any way we could, kind of like the guys in New York did during 9/11, and immediately after 9/11. So, you know, that's about the closest thing I can compare to because this is just an unprecedented issue.

But for the guys to get back on the field, it's going to be -- it's going to be tough, because that's all they're thinking about right now. They're not -- they're not thinking about the playoffs, they're not thinking about the magnitude of how big that game was coming into that game tonight, Monday Night. It was a really big game for playoff implications. And I can just tell you, those guys, they're more concerned about Damar than they are anything else. And honestly, I don't -- I don't -- I really don't have the answer for how they're going to be able to even come back and try to go to work this week, and get ready for -- you know, for the last game of the season. I honestly can't answer that. I just don't know.

BERMAN: Actually, Donte, I think it's a really good comparison. Because basically, at its heart, it is your mind is on something else than playing football, there is something more important to you right now than a football game. So, I think it's an interesting comparison. And added to that this time, is maybe new questions about your own mortality when you get out on a football field. And you see your friend fall down like that.

STALLWORTH: You know, 100 percent. I can tell you when I played, I played -- you know, I wasn't afraid of contact that I actually enjoyed it. I was, you know, a guy that was -- I've kind of felt like I was a tough receiver out there. And receivers aren't usually looked at as tough. But, you know, once I retired now, I watched the games, and I just kind of shriek at every little hit that I see. And so, my mindset is completely different now that I've been removed from the game nine, 10 years. I'm looking at these guys, and I'm looking at, you know, where they're going to be 10, 15, 30 years down the road as opposed to what's going to happen the next play.

And that's the mindset that those players, unfortunately, they have to have. But this is a different situation. And like I said, it's unprecedented. So, it's really going to be tough to see how these players can regroup if they can regroup, and how the NFL handles it, how the teams and the -- and the head coaches handle it, and how the players handle trying to move forward from such a traumatic experience.

BERMAN: And Donte, you can also help us understand something. We say the training staff ran on the field, and that's a generalization, you know, we think of trainers being people who tape up knees. But talk to us about how sophisticated these training staffs are, the people who ran on the field to maybe hopefully, let's hope, save the life of the Damar Hamlin.

STALLWORTH: Yes, these folks in the training staff, they are a part of the team, they literally are there every day with the players. Some of the players are closer to the training staff than they are with their -- with their own coaches. I mean, that's how close they are to the team. They are literally inside the -- inside the team facility every single day, they are treating the players. They are a part of the team.

And so, for them to act as fast as they did, for them to be on point, and really, you know, listening to the medical professionals and listening to how crucial and how critical each second was in that moment, it really just underscores the professionalism and the urgency that they acted with. And obviously, you know, you give them kudos for not only doing their job but doing their job under pressure. They usually -- they usually doesn't come across, or come around where they have to do their job under immense pressure as they did tonight. And they handled extremely well.

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BERMAN: They did. Let's hope, let's just hope it was enough for Damar Hamlin at this point. Donte Stallworth, thank you so much for lending your expertise here.

STALLWORTH: Thanks, John. BERMAN: This is CNN Special Coverage. The NFL, of course, the entire country hoping for recovery for Damar Hamlin after he collapsed on the football field. We'll have the latest details about what happened in his condition just ahead.

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[02:54:54]

BERMAN: All right. Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin is in critical condition after suffering from cardiac arrest on the field during the Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati. His heartbeat, we are now told, was restored on the field. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, that is according to a statement put out by the Buffalo Bills. He is now sedated in critical condition. Fans wanted to show support for Hamlin, and had been donating to a fundraiser he set up. He actually set up a GoFundMe site. It's a Christmas toy drive aimed at bringing joy to children in need in his hometown in Pennsylvania. This is footage of him, meeting fans, signing autographs, posing for photos at that toy drive last month.

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DAMAR HAMLIN, BUFFALO BILLS SAFETY: It's something I've always been into just giving back, something I've been doing back at home in Pittsburgh. For three years, I've been doing toy drives, so just being able to extend it to Buffalo now, it's just something I love doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, since Hamlin's injury, donations have just been pouring in. It was several thousand dollars before the game. At last check, it is now more than $3.1 million. $3.1 million, most of that just over the last few hours. We will keep our eye on that and the health of Damar Hamlin. That's all for this hour. I'm John Berman. Our live coverage continues with Rosemary Church right after this.

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