Damar Hamlin’s scary medical emergency on “Monday Night Football” prompted widespread discussion about how the NFL can and should handle such situations, and drew comparisons to similar incidents across the world’s biggest sporting stages. Below, we’ve compiled a look at some of those incidents and how the people involved handled them.
Christian Eriksen
During Denmark’s opening match of the 2020 Euros, star Christian Eriksen suddenly fell face-first toward the turf and it was later confirmed he had suffered a cardiac arrest.
Eriksen, then 29, required emergency CPR treatment on the field for 13 minutes. Teammates linked arms to form a protective wall around Eriksen and the medical professionals as they worked on him.
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Denmark team doctor Morten Boesen later explained: “He (Eriksen) was gone. And we did cardiac resuscitation. It was a cardiac arrest. How close were we? I don’t know. We got him back after one defibrillator. That is quite fast.”
As Eriksen was lifted onto a stretcher, German photographer Friedemann Vogel took a photo through a gap separating the Danish players that showed Eriksen sitting up and receiving oxygen as he was taken off the field. The picture went viral on social media before any official updates were given on Eriksen’s status.
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The match was suspended for two hours before ultimately resuming after Eriksen’s teammates spoke with him on a video call and he encouraged them to finish. The final five minutes of the first half were played before a five-minute halftime and then the second half as Finland won 1-0.
The Athletic reported that UEFA informed the two sets of players of two different options: finish the game on the night or play at midday the following afternoon.
Eriksen was fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator to monitor his heart rate and within a few weeks, confirmed he planned to keep playing. He couldn’t return to his club team, Inter Milan, because it is forbidden in Italy for anybody who has been fitted with a pacemaker to play professional soccer. But he landed in the Premier League with Brentford on a six-month contract, making his debut in February 2022.
“If there was any anxiety, I wouldn’t go back,” Eriksen said at the time. “If I wasn’t fully committed and felt like I (was) trusting of the doctors, trusting of my heart, trusting of my ICD in me, then I wouldn’t go back. No, I feel 100 percent secure to go back.”
He later signed with Manchester United and represented Denmark at the 2022 World Cup.
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Jay Bouwmeester
St. Louis Blues defenseman Jay Bouwmeester, then 36, collapsed on the bench after suffering a “cardiac episode” in the first period of the team’s game against the Anaheim Ducks on Feb. 11, 2020, at Honda Center. He was stabilized by medical personnel from both teams, taken off on a stretcher and transported to UC Irvine Medical Center, and the game was postponed.
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Like Eriksen, Bouwmeester had an ICD placed in his chest. He retired within a year of the incident.
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“I knew I was done essentially when it happened, to be quite honest,” he told The Athletic at the time. “I wouldn’t say it’s been totally smooth sailing but generally, I’ve been pretty good. I’ve generally been able to do whatever I want to do and I’ve stayed pretty active.’’
“It’s not an injury. As a hockey player you’re wired where something happens, I’ve had hip problems and things like that, and you’re like ‘When will I be good to play again?’’’ Bouwmeester added. “This was like: No. 1, you’re glad you’re not dead and No. 2, what does it this mean for quality of life moving forward? Hockey got pushed to the back pretty quickly.’’
It was the third such incident to occur in the NHL in recent years.
In 2005, Detroit’s Jiri Fischer collapsed on the bench, and immediate attention from the Red Wings’ medical staff was credited with saving his life. The NHL strengthened its emergency medical standards after that incident, requiring each team to have two doctors near the benches at every home game, and at least one trained in hockey-specific trauma management or advanced trauma life support. Each club was also required to have one AED on the home bench and another in an ambulance.
In 2014, the Dallas Stars’ Rich Peverley also experienced a cardiac event and was stabilized after the use of a defibrillator. That incident led the league to mandate that each team have three doctors at each home game, and at least one must have training in ATLS and advanced cardiac life support.
Chris Pronger
Years earlier, in the 1998 NHL playoffs, Blues defenseman Chris Pronger collapsed after a slap shot by Red Wings defenseman Dmitri Mironov hit him near his heart. Pronger initially fell down, covered the puck, and got back up. But after a couple of steps, the Hall of Famer collapsed and fell unconscious for around 20 seconds. He was taken to the hospital and spent the night there before playing again less than a week later.
The impact from the puck had caused Pronger’s heart to skip a beat. He suffered no other lasting effects.
“All that happens is your heart skips one beat, that is how much oxygen is pushed through your body in one heartbeat,” he told The Athletic in 2019. “My heart skipped one beat and I collapsed, which I find really odd that there is that much oxygen being pumped through your blood system like that. With one beat. You miss that one beat, that’s the lack of oxygen, and boom you’re done.”
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Other NHL medical incidents
Buffalo fans have witnessed multiple other dire injuries to hockey players. Sabres goalie Clint Malarchuk’s carotid artery was sliced open by a skate in Memorial Auditorium in 1989. He returned to the net less than two weeks later after receiving hundreds of stitches. In 2008, Panthers forward Richard Zednik suffered a similar injury in what’s now KeyBank Center. He returned to play the following season.
Ryan Shazier
(Photo: Charles LeClaire / USA Today)Paycor Stadium (then known as Paul Brown Stadium) previously saw a serious medical emergency occur on the field in 2017 when Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a spinal cord injury making a routine tackle on Bengals receiver Josh Malone. Shazier fell to the ground, legs not moving. He was carted off the field and taken to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the same facility treating Hamlin. The game carried on and the Steelers won.
Shazier was diagnosed with a spinal contusion and underwent spinal stabilization surgery, ending his season. He was temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. The team announced he would not play in the 2018 season, but after extensive rehabilitation, Shazier re-learned how to walk and in an unforgettable moment, walked onto the stage with his now-wife at the 2018 NFL Draft to announce the Steelers’ first-round pick. He jogged for the first time that November.
Shazier officially retired from the NFL in 2020.
“The last few years I’ve been working my tail off to come back,’’ Shazier said at the time. “I just felt it was time to transition and focus on my family more and my next steps.”
Chuck Hughes
Former Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes is believed to be the only NFL player to die on the field. As he was going back to the huddle in a 1971 game against the Chicago Bears, Hughes collapsed. Other players called for medical personnel. Hughes was taken off the field in an ambulance and later pronounced dead of a heart attack at a local hospital.
He had taken a hard hit a few plays earlier. The autopsy revealed a clogged artery, which caused the heart attack.
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Keyontae Johnson
Former Florida basketball star forward Keyontae Johnson, then a sophomore, collapsed minutes after tipoff in a game against Florida State in December 2020 and was stretchered off the court. His teammates were asked if they wanted to finish the game and opted to do so. Johnson was hospitalized for over a week and placed in a medically induced coma. He didn’t play for Florida again before transferring to Kansas State last August.
(Top photo of Christian Eriksen: Danielle Parhizkaran / USA Today)
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