For those who were literally closest to Damar Hamlin when he collapsed—fellow players—the risk of PTSD is very real. Alex_Prewitt spoke to experts about the mental health challenge facing the Bills and Bengals, and how they can meet it
Kevin Chapman had briefly stepped away from watching Monday night’s Bills-Bengals game at his house in the Louisville area when his phone began buzzing. The texts were alerting him to the news that Bills safety Damar Hamlin had gone into cardiac arrest on the field.
“Those are the people who are going to be at the highest risk of having really adverse effects,” says Janis Whitlock, a developmental psychologist and a senior advisor at The Jed Foundation, a nonprofit focused on emotional health among teens and young adults. “Partly because of their connection with [Hamlin] as a friend, a teammate, a colleague, but also because it could’ve been any one of them, and they know it.
Here McDuff, who has held similar sport psychiatry roles for the Ravens and Colts , speaks from specific professional experience. In February ’03, Orioles pitcherduring spring training and later died of heatstroke due to multi-organ failure caused by use of the stimulant ephedra .
—a free and confidential crisis hotline in part overseen by The Jed Foundation—to the team-wide check-in calls that NFLPA leaders held with the Bills and Bengals this week. But experts emphasize that prolonged, proactive screening for symptoms is as critical as anything moving forward. “In situations like [Bechler’s and Hamlin’s], you have the ordinary levels of service-seeking,” McDuff says. “But in addition, you open your eyes and ears.
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