Damar Hamlin safely transferred to Buffalo hospital: ‘We are ecstatic with his recovery’

Damar Hamlin continues to make a miraculous recovery. The 24-year-old Buffalo Bills player has left Cincinnati hospital just a week after suffering a cardiac arrest during an NFL game. Doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center reported Monday that Hamlin had left the intensive care unit and been transferred to Buffalo, New York, where he will continue his treatment at a local hospital. “Headed home to Buffalo today with a lot of love on my heart,” Hamlin tweeted.

On Sunday, as the Buffalo Bills were preparing to face off against the New England Patriots, Hamlin shared a photo of himself sitting up in his hospital bed, with the message “game time.” His team went on to win the game in New York, which was described as one of the most emotional in the history of the NFL. In honor of Hamlin, the entire Buffalo Bills team ran out on to the field with banners reading “Pray for Damar,” while the stadium’s Jumbotron screened a photo of the player. Fans throughout the stadium also wore Hamlin’s jersey and waved get-well messages. “Watching the world come together around me on Sunday was truly an amazing feeling,” Hamlin said in his message on Twitter.

As recently as last Tuesday, Hamlin was hovering between life and death after being revived twice by a defibrillator, once at the stadium and again on arrival at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The player, who was still unconscious at the time, needed a respirator to help him breathe. As the week progressed, he became less reliant on the ventilator, and on Thursday he regained consciousness. Hamlin was able to move his hand and wrote the doctors a question: “Did we win?” He was referring to the Buffalo Bills game against the Cincinnati Bengals, which was scheduled to take place last Monday. Hamlin had no idea that the game had been postponed due to his medical emergency, which shocked fans of the popular sport.

Since then, the speed of his improvement has amazed medical staff. On Friday, already on his feet, Hamlin made the first lap of the ICU floor with the help of his relatives, who have been by his side since his collapse. “He’s on a normal-to-accelerated trajectory. We continue to be ecstatic about his recovery,” William Knight, one of Hamlin’s doctors, said in a statement on Monday.

Hamlin is selling T-shirts with the message “Did we win?,” with all proceeds going to the UC Trauma Center and first responders. “I want to give back an ounce of the love y’all showed me,” he shared in a message on Twitter.

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