How the NFL’s medical teams prepare for emergencies on the field

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• John Yang:

  On this final weekend of the NFL regular season, teams are showing support for Buffalo Bill's safety Damar Hamlin with warm up jerseys and by highlighting his uniform number three on the 30 yard line. Doctors say Hamlin is making steady progress after suffering cardiac arrest during a Monday night game. Today tweeting from his hospital bed. The urgency of that night is evident in recordings of the radio traffic.

• Man:

  We're going to need everybody, all call. All call. We need airway.

• Man:

  Call, bring everybody. We need an airway doctor, everybody. Bring the cop with the medics.

• John Yang:

  The incident has put a spotlight on a team that's at every game, but hopes it's never put on the field. the medical teams. Jordan Rodrigues is a reporter for The Athletic. She's at Lumen Field in Seattle, where the Los Angeles Rams are playing the Seattle Seahawks.

  Jordan, doctors say that on-field CPR is the reason that Hamlin's brain function has returned to normal. But that response wasn't just luck. How did they prepare for that?

• Jordan Rodrigues, Reporter, The Athletic:

  Yes, so it's called an emergency action protocol, and the NFL mandates this league wide. And so basically, when the team's athletic training staff rushes out to the field, they have the opportunity in severe cases of trauma to activate the emergency active protocol, which brings in trauma specialists of a variety of fields. And this is something that's jointly agreed upon by the NFL and NFLPA and rehearsed every year and gone over in detail before every game as well.

• John Yang:

  Talk about that preparation. They drill just like the players drill.

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  Yes. So, every game, it's called a 60 minutes meeting, literally at the 60 minutes mark. Medical professionals from both teams and also independent league appointed medical professionals, as well as positions from local trauma centers, paramedics and EMTs, they all meet at the middle of the field or in one of the tunnels to go over every step of the emergency protocol.

  And this is something that teams are also required to rehearse before the first preseason begins and also on site at the stadium and at their practice facilities.

• John Yang:

  How many members are on this team, for instance, today? How many medical personnel are in the stadium and on the field?

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  Yes. So up to 30 at every game, and no less than 20. Everyone from, again, two independently appointed teams of EMTs with the most advanced mandated ambulance care, basically described to me as a traveling emergency room in itself, airway specialists. This was absolutely crucial in the Damar Hamlin situation, as having a certified airway specialist to help in the instance of that cardiac arrest and then the subsequent breathing specialists ranging from dentists to ophthalmologists. In this case, this was a severe incident of cardiac arrest and severe trauma. And so those specialists were the ones to rush out onto the field after they were signaled to by the Buffalo Bills medical staff.

• John Yang:

  And even the ambulance at the stadium is not your garden variety ambulance, right?

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  Right. They're in the tunnel, and they have specialized cardiac arrest equipment and life support equipment within that ambulance. So when people watching this game from their couches and obviously in absolute horror at the situation unfolding and watched the ambulance sitting on the field, it wasn't just sitting on the field. It's equipped with cardiac arrest equipment, oxygen equipment, advanced special care, and certified EMT and paramedics on staff. And frankly, it's a traveling life support machine.

• John Yang:

  How long has this program been in place?

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  So this is perfected every single year by the NFL. They basically have third party medical professionals consult on how they can troubleshoot the process. It's been described to me by executives across the league as something that's really become way more advanced, especially in recent years, along with the advancement of medical technology and spotters and the booths and those types of things as well.

  And this is something that they are constantly having to get approval of every single year by third party consultants to make sure that the protocol is up to date and to make sure that it's, you know, in the worst case scenario, as was that night. You know, you hope it's never has to be utilized, but making sure that it's as advanced and up to date as possible and again approved by third party specialists.

• John Yang:

  And despite all the praise that this — the medical team is getting for what happened Monday night, are they going to review this, see if they can make it even better?

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  Yes, they will, because, like I said, every single time, even in the case of a successful operation, as I think we could say now, and doctors at the University of Cincinnati Hospital where Damar Hamlin is, have said that this protocol was, when going into place, was really what saved his life and restored his neurological function. It still will be reviewed. It still has to have separate approval in the offseason before it can be rehearsed and then deployed.

• John Yang:

  Jordan Rodrigues of The Athletic. Thank you very much.

• Jordan Rodrigues:

  Thank you so much.