CINCINNATI — Few people can understand the tremendous team effort that it took to save the life of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin better than Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval.
Besides being married to a physician, he was inside Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati when the now-infamous incident occurred.
Pureval said he believes Hamlin wouldn’t be alive today, let alone able to attend last weekend’s Bills-Bengals playoff game, if it weren’t for the “heroic” and “decisive” actions taken by UC Health and other medical professionals.
To recognize those actions, Pureval on Thursday honored the UC Health medical providers who cared for Hamlin with a key to the city of Cincinnati.
“But for a handful of heroes who rushed to the field and in front of a live national audience saved Mr. Hamlin, it’s just extraordinary,” Pureval told the assembled crowd of medical personnel and media members inside the entrance to UC Medical Center.
What You Need To Know
- Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval presented the UC Medical Center staff with a key to the city for saving the life of Bills safety Damar Hamlin
- UC Medical treated the 24-year-old for a week after he suffered cardiac arrest during a game between the Bills and Bengals
- Pureval credits the UC Medical Center staff with saving Hamlin's life as well as those of dozens of others every year
The praise for UC Health stems from their actions in the first quarter of the Jan. 2 game. Hamlin, a 24-year-old safety, made a routine tackle on Bengals receiver Tee Higgins, but then, after briefly standing up and taking a few steps, he collapsed to the turf.
It was learned later that Hamlin went into cardiac arrest and was administered CPR on the field. Medical staff used an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to restore his heartbeat. He was then rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the region’s only Level 1 trauma center, in critical condition.
The freak play, as the mayor described it, resulted in a stadium of more than 60,000 people being frozen, Pureval said. “Frozen in place, frozen in fear, frozen in anxiety.”
The first-term mayor noted in his remarks that the “top-rated health care professionals represent the absolute best in their field,” stating local trauma care patients benefit from their care “every single day.”
UC Medical Center care teams serve the community during other times of medical emergency, including the Fountain Square mass shooting in September 2018 and the Cameo nightclub mass shooting in 2017.
Between July 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, UC Medical Center had 106,746 emergency department and trauma visits. The entire UC Health system had 2 million total visits and admissions during that same period.
Rob Wiehe, executive vice president and COO UC Health, called the receipt of the award an “incredible honor” that represents the daily work of “all the extraordinary teams at the UC Medical Center and within our entire whole system.”
“As our community’s only adult Level 1 trauma center, UC Medical Center is uniquely equipped to provide and coordinate the highest level of complex care for our region,” added Wiehe, who also serves as chief administrative officer for UC Medical Center.
Dr. Randy Marriott, medical director for the Premier Health EMS Center of Excellence in Dayton, praised medical personnel’s immediate response to the Hamlin situation. That includes the UC Health team, but also the paramedics and athletic trainers.
Every minute that goes by without a shock being delivered lowers the chances of survival by roughly 10%, Marriott told Spectrum News days after the Hamlin incident.
“If someone may not get to that individual with a defibrillator for 30 minutes, even with good CPR, the chances of their survival are extremely low,” he said.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10 Hamlin returned to western New York for treatment at Buffalo General Medical Center.
While the Bills lost their playoff rematch with the Bengals, Hamlin’s appearance at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Sunday provided an emotional lift to fans and players.
That appearance was only possible, Pureval believes, because of the quality 24/7 care he received at UC Medical Center.
Pureval admitted he could never truly understand what it feels like, or what it takes to save someone’s life. He receives a small taste of it watching his wife, Whitney Whitis, a hospitalist. She did her training at UC Medical Center and its internal medicine residency program.
That glimpse into their world, he said, affords him an idea of what went into saving Hamlin’s life on the field, and the dedication of a team of more than 50 people who cared for him during his week-long stay at the uptown hospital.
Pureval went to praise the entire UC Medical Center team who look after Hamlin and others every day — nurses, specialists, surgeons, doctors, pharmacist, anesthetists, and “all the other kinds of -ists” involved.
“(UC Medical Center’s) outstanding teams take pride in providing unmatched advanced medical care to every member of our community who needs us every day,” Wiehe said. “Thank you again for recognizing that.”