GREENSBORO, N.C. — During the Monday Night Football game, number 85 for the Bengals, Tee Higgins, caught a pass and ran up the field.
Number 3, Damar Hamlin ran up to make a tackle. After the tackle, Hamlin stood up and immediately fell back down.
Hamlin was administered CPR on the field and taken away in an ambulance.
It was later made known by the Buffalo Bills that Hamlin suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.
The key word is sudden. Not only did this incident happen out of nowhere, but the response on the field was also equally as quick.
Medical professionals said it's the response that may have saved Damar Hamlin's life.
Pediatric Cardiologist for Novant Health, Dr. Bill Hammill says first off, events like this are very rare.
Dr. Hammill said the quicker you are to start CPR, the better.
He said, "the hope and prayer are that if that was done within the first few minutes and then it’s likely that he can recover and be okay."
Dr. Hammill also talked a lot about Commotio Cortis which is a sudden blow to the chest.
This is a term that’s been thrown around since the incident happened.
Now, we still don’t know the details as to why Hamlin went into cardiac arrest, but Dr. Hammill wanted to explain one possibility that can lead to cardiac arrest.
“If it, if the heart is sort of stimulated at the wrong moment in time, there’s a very vulnerable period When the heart is kind of recovering electrically, and if you stimulated that wrong period of the time at one in 1 million things you can certainly go into an abnormal rhythm,” Dr. Hammill said.
Again, neither the team nor Hamlin's family has said what caused the cardiac arrest.
Glenn High School athletic trainer Camille Woods said she got an eerie feeling when she saw the video.
She said athletic trainers don't go to work thinking, 'today could be the day something bad happens,' but they are always prepared.
"We are always prepared for that. Worst case scenario like last night, which is definitely the worst case we are always prepared for it. We just kind of hope and pray that it doesn't happen and even in a non-game situation even during practice days I'm still always a little on edge because you never know what could happen," Woods said.