Damar Hamlin cardiac arrest: Two years ago, Bills S collapsed on the field after taking a brutal hit from Bengals WR Tee Higgins

In March 2025, safety Damar Hamlin re-signed a one-year contract worth $2 million with the Buffalo Bills. After suffering a pectoral injury in practice, he was placed on injured reserve on October 11, 2025.

The Bills opened Hamlin’s 21-day practice window on January 7, 2026. He was limited in practice. “Seems in good spirits,” head coach Sean McDermott said via Sydney Ciano of NFL Network [Buffalo Bills]. “But medically, it’s obviously moving in the right direction.”

Two years ago, Hamlin had collapsed on the gridiron after taking a brutal hit on the chest from Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins. This one moment left the whole NFL nation worried and scared. Let’s talk about that in depth.

Damar Hamlin reportedly suffered from Commotio Cordis which required immediate CPR

Sam Ghali, an ER doctor and MD in Emergency Medicine practicing in Jacksonville, detailed Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest from two years ago when the Buffalo Bills played the Cincinnati Bengals in the 2023 NFL season.

Tee Higgins just caught a pass. Damar Hamlin sprints over, tries to make a play, and gets an angle on him, cutting him off. With his arms out to the side, he wants to make a tackle. Higgins sees Damar has the angle, so instead of letting him get set and take the hit, Higgins runs straight at him, puts his shoulder down, and hits him.

Ghali says, “There’s nothing wrong with this. This is perfectly legal. This is just football. But what ends up happening is notice Damar’s feet are not yet set when boom! He takes a big hit right to the chest. His head snaps back. And then momentum carries him, and he rolls and tackles made.

Now, here’s where things get interesting: Damar is on his knees. He uses his left foot and leg to stand up, takes a few shuffle steps, and uses his right arm to adjust his helmet. He stands there for a few seconds, then suddenly collapses.

He has lost perfusion [blood circulation] to his brain at this point. Notice how his arms go up and to the side; this is classic syncope [fainting] from V-fib, or ventricular fibrillation [life-threatening abnormal heart rhythm], which is presumably what happened because he was defibrillated [AED (Automated External Defibrillator) - controlled electrical shock to the heart] on the field.

If you told me Damar was just standing there and suddenly collapsed from V-fib cardiac arrest, that would be a different scenario. This happened right after significant blunt force trauma to the chest.

In my opinion, this is Commotio Cordis until proven otherwise. It is a rare phenomenon where significant blunt force trauma to the chest occurs during a narrow 20 to 40 millisecond vulnerable period in the conduction system during repolarization [heart muscle’s reset phase], leading to an R-on-T phenomenon [premature or extra heartbeat] and ultimately V-fib.

This delay of a few seconds is also classic, because it takes a few seconds to go into V-fib and then a few more to lose perfusion [blood supply] to the brain. When you are down like this, seconds matter.

You need immediate CPR [Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation] and early defibrillation [AED]. And that’s exactly what he got. And thank God, he survived neurologically intact.

I’m gonna leave you with this message: Life is precious, please learn CPR.”