A spokesperson for Damar Hamlin said the Buffalo Bills safety faces a long recovery weeks after he suffered a cardiac arrest on the field during a Jan. 2 game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Hamlin spent five days in a Cincinnati hospital and was released, walking and breathing on his own, after doctors said his condition had improved. Doctors also said the 24-year-old second-year player showed no signs of neurological damage.
‘Despite being out of the hospital, Damar still has a lengthy recovery,’ Hamlin’s marketing representative, Jordan Rooney, told the Associated Press. ‘Damar still requires oxygen and is having his heart monitored regularly. He has visited with the team a few times but he still gets winded very easily.
‘He’s upbeat and positive and ready to continue to overcome this.’
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Bills head coach Sean McDermott said this week that Hamlin is taking it ‘baby step at a time’ and ‘was dipping his toe back in here and getting on the road to just getting back to himself.’
Hamlin has made multiple visits to the team facility since his release from a Buffalo hospital as the team prepares to take on the defending conference champion Bengals in the AFC divisional game on Sunday.