Kelsey Conway, a Cincinnati Enquirer reporter who covers the Bengals, described the scene on the field as “horrifying” after Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed Monday night.
“It seemed very bad when they weren’t moving,” Conway told CNN’s John Berman early Tuesday, referring to the medical personnel attending to Hamlin.
According to Conway, medical personnel try to get players off the field as soon as possible based on games she has covered. But that wasn’t the case for Hamlin, who had a difficult time getting into the ambulance.
“It was just a really tragic, horrifying scene,” said Conway.
As she sat in the stadium’s press box, she couldn’t tell what was wrong with Hamlin as medical personnel rushed to help.
“It was difficult to tell what was going on. “We knew it had to do with the heart,” Conway said, adding that visiting Bills players and coach were in tears.
“You knew something tragic had happened, but you didn’t know what,” she explained.
Later, the Bills stated that Hamlin had a cardiac arrest and was in critical condition early Tuesday. After standing up from an open field tackle on Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins, Hamlin collapsed on his back Monday night.
In response to Hamlin’s collapse, the NFL’s Emergency Action Plan was activated, according to Conway. According to her, the plan included an ambulance, a nearby highest Level 1 trauma center, and airway traffic control.
“They never want things like this to happen, but they are prepared for them. “And they were able to get him to better care as soon as possible,” Conway said. “He had a police officer accompany him in the ambulance. So he arrived fairly quickly.”