The sports world received some welcomed news on Monday that Bills safety Damar Hamlin had been discharged from the hospital in Cincinnati and was returning to Buffalo just a week after suffering cardiac arrest on the field.
Hamlin had made remarkable progress in the days after his injury, and he was able to watch the Bills-Patriots game from his hospital room at UC Medical Center. The game, of course, got off to an unbelievable start with Nyheim Hines returning the opening kickoff for a touchdown. We read Hamllin’s awesome reaction on social media, but it turned out that his in-person response to the play was even better.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Dr. Timothy Pritts described Hamlin as being so excited that he set off every alarm in the ICU.
This is great!
Docs on Hamlin: "We have permission from him and his family to let you know he watched the game on Sunday. He was beyond excited."
"When the opening kickoff was run back he set off every alarm in the ICU." pic.twitter.com/68NHbBia2W
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) January 9, 2023
Pritts said:
“We have permission from him and his family to let you know that he did watch the game on Sunday. He was beyond excited and feels very supported by the outpouring of love from across the league and especially from the Buffalo area. We’ve learned this week that the Bills Mafia is a very real thing, and we feel the love from you all in Western New York. He watched the game yesterday. When the opening kickoff was run back, he jumped up and down, got out of his chair, set every alarm off in the ICU in the process. But he was fine. It was juts an appropriate reaction to a very excited play.”
CHILLS.
📺: @NFLonCBS pic.twitter.com/9uXnx91reb
— Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 8, 2023
We can only imagine what that must have been like. NFL fans particularly enjoyed that story from the medical team.
This was how Twitter reacted
😂 not every alarm https://t.co/NOwm0lAci8
— B. (@bee_angelle) January 9, 2023
Hamlin was like this at the hospital https://t.co/CfSWT9KxCL pic.twitter.com/b46VPYPEQV
— Aaron (@avelarde2) January 9, 2023
When I saw that magical opening kickoff return in the @BuffaloBills vs @Patriots game, I wondered if @HamlinIsland was watching, & if so, the ICU alarms that monitor his vitals must have been going crazy! #DamarHamlinStrong https://t.co/EQVLybbNou
— Anand S. Iyer, MD, MSPH (@anandiyermd) January 9, 2023
the visual of him jumping out the chair and setting off the alarms has me cackling, happy for him man https://t.co/Gx8c8m7rbQ
— D4LT (@NSRd4ltmsz) January 9, 2023
The best!! https://t.co/qyY5eDslSc
— Megan Salle (@MeganSalleTV) January 9, 2023
Well this is just fantastic. https://t.co/m5g9Ep3kAe
— NFL Philosophy (@NFLosophy) January 9, 2023
Not happy about the outcome of the game🙄but very happy Damar got to experience it and is in full recovery mode https://t.co/yq5hQUWQSt
— JD (@spiderdudee) January 9, 2023
Yea this is great. Hamlin is a legend now. https://t.co/QnaDXrhAMt
— Josh Lukin ☕️🏈 (@coffeeonthe50) January 9, 2023
This is hysterical. https://t.co/4ufCB6W4hZ
— Dina Natale (@RecruiterDina) January 9, 2023
We’ll always have his tweet to look back on as that happened too.