Why does some young sportsperson suffer cardiac arrest?
Key takeaways:
- American football player Damar Hamlin is the latest sportsperson to experience heart issues during competitive play.
- The 24-year-old fell to the floor after clashing with an opponent during the primetime match.
Medics assured him he had gone into cardiac arrest – indicating his heart had stopped beating correctly and was incapable of pumping blood around the body.
Damar Hamlin undergoes heart problems:
Critical resuscitation was needed on the ground to help save his life.
American football star Damar Hamlin is the latest sportsperson to experience heart issues during competitive play.
The 24-year-old fell to the floor after clashing with an opponent during the primetime match.
Doctors reveal what precisely was wrong with Damar Hamlin:
He is now in a crucial condition in hospital.
Doctors treating him have not yet defined the precise underlying cause.
Blunt trauma is one case, initiating something called commotio cordis.
In this rare case, a direct blow to the chest can result in cardiac arrest, causing the heart to go into an abnormal, life-threatening tempo.
It’s foreign to a heart attack, which occurs when the blood supply to the heart muscle is clipped off.
Another case with blunt trauma is a significant structural injury to the heart from the impact force.
It’s not yet learned what internal wounds Hamlin may have sustained from the incident and whether there has been any substantial injury to his heart.
Source – BBC
