TOLEDO, Ohio — Local sports medicine experts continue to weigh in on the importance of emergency protocols after Damar Hamlin's injury Monday in a football game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals.
Brian Jones, the University of Toledo's director of sports medicine, said the incident will surely have an impact on the college's athletics program.
"We are with them day in and day out, through the highs and lows," Jones said. "For my staff, the reward or the pat on the back comes from seeing that student-athlete that had a significant injury get back on the court and excel in the sport and do what they love."
Jones, who oversees 17 sports in his position, said Hamlin's sudden collapse on the field and the subsequent life-saving measures from first responders highlight the importance of being prepared for emergency situations that can happen unexpectedly.
"The key to responding to an emergency is practicing," Jones said.
When an emergency situation occurs, surrounding people need to be assigned specific duties to make helping the injured person more efficient.
For example, if one person begins evaluating the injury and tending to the person, someone else should be assigned to call 911, Jones said.
Someone with CPR certification should always be on standby during contact sports, too. Jones said the UT has 13 CPR-certified athletic trainers who attend every game.
"The good thing about our staff is that all of our facilities and all of our sports are covered by a certified athletic trainer that is certified in CPR and also AED, and so are our coaches," he said.
Preparation doesn't end with knowing what to do when an emergency situation arises, either. Preventing medical emergencies includes testing athletes and looking into family history to understand and account for any warning signs.
Roger Kruse, ProMedica's director of sports medicine, said his department does physical examinations of UT athletes, along with conducting EKGs -- an abbreviation of electrocardiogram, which tests for heart conditions using electrical signals.