As a child, John Bush Jr. boxed and played basketball and football. But on January 2, Bush was part of a squadron whose baton was the life of Damar Hamlin.
Bush, a Cincinnati native, has been a respiratory therapist on Paycor Stadium’s emergency response team since its inception in 2018. The team is a result of the Emergency Action Plan (EAP) that every NFL stadium must have in place in the event of a major trauma. Although Bush has been on the sidelines for every game since the NFL signed a contract with the Level 1 Trauma Center at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, he had never crossed the line on the field during a game.
That changed when Hamlin, a second-year safety with the Bills, suffered cardiac arrest during a “Monday Night Football” game between the Bills and Bengals. Bush and the UC team rushed to act in front of millions of spectators at home and more than 65,000 silent fans in the stands.
“The crowd didn’t exist at that moment, it was me, God and that kid,” Bush recalled almost a year later. “I looked at him like he was my child. He is 24 years old. I have a 22 year old daughter and a 29 year old son. My main goal was to get him home to his mother.”
But first, Bush had a more important task to accomplish. When he got to where Hamlin lay at midfield, Bush took the blue Ambu bag, a self-inflating manual resuscitator, and compressed it like a balloon, allowing Hamlin to breathe.
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The Bills’ athletic trainers began the life-saving relay, with assistant athletic trainer Denny Kellington first on scene to administer CPR. Then came the UC team, including Bush and Dr. B. Woods Curry, who served as co-director at the stadium that evening. Like Bush, Curry has been part of this team since 2018.
Curry is an emergency physician at UC Medical Center and a consultant for the Bengals’ EAP. Like the Bengals, the EAP team practices during the preseason and throughout the regular season, preparing for any possible emergency on the field. At home games, there are at least seven doctors on the field, as well as respiratory technicians like Bush, paramedics and at least two ambulance crews. The team must be prepared for anything.
“There were elements to this particular case that were a little different than any single case we’ve ever worked on,” Curry said.
It took nearly half an hour from Hamlin’s collapse to the time he was loaded into the ambulance. During this time, Kellington performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Bush used the Ambu bag, and Curry intubated Hamlin. As the ambulance left, Curry stayed behind in case the game continued. Bush, however, sided with Hamlin.
In the half hour the medical team spent on the field with Hamlin, the UC Medical Center trauma team prepared for Hamlin’s arrival. This was the final leg of the life-saving relay.
Dawn Schultz, an emergency room nurse, received a text from her husband: “They’re about to get busy.”
Schultz’s husband had been watching on television, as had Dr. Valerie Sams, an emergency physician and traumatic injury specialist. Sams’ husband sent a similar text message to his wife, although he was later saddened to learn that it was the third that Sams received. Several colleagues at the game were texting as the ambulance left the stadium for the five-mile drive to the hospital.
Without traffic, the drive on I-71 can take as little as eight minutes. How long did it take that night?
“It felt like forever,” Sams said.
“That was it,” Schultz said. “It felt like forever.”
But at this point, Sams, Schultz and the rest of their team were preparing to take the baton. The staff usually consists of an attending physician and three assistant physicians, nursing staff, respiratory therapists and medical professionals. Ventilators, monitors and IVs are provided and the x-ray department is alerted to an incoming patient. That’s just common practice, whether it’s an NFL player or the victim of a car accident. This happens every night in the emergency room.
“When that door opened and I saw a multitude of doctors, I felt comfort and satisfaction that we had gotten him where he needed to be,” Bush said.
If Bush felt comfortable at that moment, he was one of the few. The rest of the world wondered, worried and prayed for Hamlin. As it began to rain, a crowd of well-wishers gathered outside the hospital. Some lit candles, others led prayers. Everyone hoped Hamlin would defy the odds. However, few expected him to return to Cincinnati this weekend as an active NFL player.
In the months since, Bush’s friends have a better idea of what he’s doing. This also applies to the whole world.
Within a week of Hamlin’s injury, manufacturers of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the United States sold out of inventory. According to Curry, there is still a backlog of orders for the machines.
“Every single field in the United States of America should have an AEP and someone trained to perform bystander CPR and apply the AED immediately,” Curry said. “The National Football League has an amazing system. These fields are the safest places in the world to play sports. But if we could make a high school football field safer because of this incident, that would be an amazing result that goes beyond the amazing result that Damar achieved.”
Hamlin’s Chasing Ms Foundation organized a CPR tour, providing thousands of CPR training sessions while also providing AEDs for youth sports. Hamlin also helped introduce the Access to AEDs Act in the U.S. House of Representatives.
UC Medical Center has also expanded its CPR training program, reaching out to the community to teach people how to perform CPR using only their hands and use AEDs.
About 16 hours after his collapse, Hamlin woke up. Although he was still intubated, he was able to follow simple commands by wiggling his right toes and raising his left thumb. From that point on, everyone on the team felt better.
Curry said he couldn’t sleep until he got that call. Bush had slept the night before but woke up in tears because his heart was so heavy.
It wasn’t until that Friday evening, four days after Hamlin collapsed on the field, that Bush was able to see him in person again. At this point, Hamlin was no longer on the ventilator and his family joined him in the room. Bush recalled Hamlin “smiling from ear to ear” as he recounted how he had performed Hamlin’s breathing for him. The two then beat each other’s chest, a symbol of their mutual respect and new bond.
“It was a feeling of relief,” Bush said. “And I got to hug his mother.”
The Bills and Hamlin return to Paycor Stadium on Sunday night. On Saturday, Bush will celebrate with Hamlin, his family and many others at a steakhouse in downtown Cincinnati.
(Photo: Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
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