Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin was brought to tears at the 2023 ESPYs on Wednesday when he honored the on-field medical team who saved his life after he suffered a cardiac arrest in January.
Hamlin cried onstage at the ceremony as he presented the Pat Tillman Award to the training staff who resuscitated him on the field.
Nathan Breske, head athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills, accepted the award on behalf of the emergency responders and other members of the training staff who helped provide aid after Hamlin’s medical emergency. Some of those responders stood onstage behind him.
“I’m humbled and honored to be speaking tonight, representing the Buffalo Bills athletic training and medical staff,” Breske said. “By the grace of God and divine intervention, we had the best outcome we could’ve prayed for or imagined.”
“Damar, first and foremost, thank you for staying alive, brother,” he said with a laugh as he looked at Hamlin.
Prior to presenting the award, Hamlin appeared in a video that featured him reflecting on his medical emergency.
“Thanks to their training, their poise, their commitment to serve others, the Bills training staff kept me alive,” Hamlin said in the footage, according to E! News. “I didn’t wake up that morning in January thinking that I would need someone to save my life that day, and I doubt that the training staff thought that they would have to do what they did either.”
Hamlin, 25, collapsed on the field after making a tackle during a football game on Jan. 2. Emergency responders administered CPR and resuscitated him before transporting him via ambulance to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
The Buffalo Bills player was transferred to a hospital in Buffalo before he was discharged home after a remarkable recovery just over a week after the cardiac arrest.
Hamlin announced on April 18 that he learned his cardiac arrest was due to commotio cordis. The American Heart Association defines commotio cordis as a “rare cardiac arrest immediately following a blow to the chest.”
The safety also said at the time that he had planned on making a “comeback to the NFL.” The Bills had announced that same day that he was “fully cleared” to return to the sport.