Damar Hamlin starting to regain consciousness and is moving towards “substantial improvement”

• Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest during Monday’s game.
• Doctors say he is starting to regain consciousness and making progress.
• He can communicate by writing on paper or moving his head, Dr. Timothy Pritts says.

Damar Hamlin, a Buffalo Bills safety who experienced a cardiac arrest during Monday’s game against the Bengals, is starting to regain consciousness and has “substantial improvement in his condition over the past 24 hours,” according to two UC Health doctors involved in his care, who spoke on a conference call on Thursday.

“We had significant concern about him after the injury and after the event that happened on the field, but he is making substantial progress,” Dr. Timothy Pritts said on Thursday’s call, which covered Hamlin’s treatment, his current condition and his road to recovery. “As of this morning, he is beginning to awaken, and it appears that his neurological condition and function is intact. We are very proud to report that and very happy for him and for his family and for the Buffalo Bills organization that he is making improvement.

“He continues to be critically ill. He continues to undergo intensive care in our surgical and trauma ICU. He’s being cared for by ICU neuro-critical care teams, trauma surgery and a cardiology team, as well as our expert nurses and respiratory therapists. They are attending to him, and he still has significant progress that he needs to make. But this marks a really good turning point in his ongoing care.”

Pritts noted that for Hamlin’s condition to be changed from critical to stable, he must be able to have his breathing tube taken out and continue to make progress in his neurological and respiratory conditions.

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Pritts claimed on Thursday that they had talked with Damar Hamlin about what happened on Monday night. Due to his intubation, Hamlin is now unable to speak, but he can communicate by writing on paper or moving his head.

“He’s not quite at the point where we can have a conversation because, again, he still has a breathing tube in and is able to communicate [with a yes or no] by shaking his head, nodding his head or with brief notes,” Pritts said. “[Hamlin] expressed surprise that he had been not with the world for two days, and we talked to him about all the support that has been given from Cincinnati, Buffalo and really across the country for him and his family during this time.”

Pritts said that in Hamlin’s recovery process, doctors wanted to “gradually wake him up as the rest of his body was healing.” Hamlin was able to emerge Wednesday night, and upon doing so, the first question he wrote to an attending nurse was: “Did we win?”

“The answer is, ‘Yes, Damar. You won. You won the game of life.’ ” Pritts said. “That’s probably the most important thing out of this and we really need to keep him at the center of everything else that’s going on. And we really want to ensure a good outcome for him.”

Pritts added: “It’s not only that the lights are on. We know that he’s home, and it appears that all the cylinders are firing within his brain, which is greatly gratifying for all of us, for the nurses and the respiratory therapists and the care team that’s been at his side, for his family and for everybody else beyond.”

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