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UofL Health emphasizes importance of CPR after Damar Hamlin's collapse

UofL Health doctors say it looks like a hit to the chest could have caused a disturbance in his heart's rhythm.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Monday night, Buffalo Bill's center Damar Hamlin collapsed in the first quarter of the football game after a play.

Now, UofL Health doctors say it looks like a hit to the chest could have caused a disturbance in his heart's rhythm.

Dr. Kim Williams with UofL Health said it could happen when a hard object hits the middle of the sternum, at a vulnerable time in your heartbeat, effectively stopping your heart.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and an automated external defibrillator (AED) can shock the heart back to life. An AED is used to deliver a shock to the heart to help get it back into a rhythm according to the American Red Cross.

The Bills say Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during their game against Cincinatti.

Williams says it shows how critical it is to know CPR.

"When it happens in the community, we have a huge ethnic disparity between survival of whites versus Blacks, because of our lack of knowledge in our community for doing the CPR immediately," he said.

He says this is a call for people to become CPR certified and to know how to use an AED.

If you want to look for CPR classes near you, click here.

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