HAMPTON, VA (WTKR)- Hampton head football athletic trainer Willie Phillips was watching Monday Night Football. He stepped out of the living room, but hustled back when he heard a player was down on the field.
"I was just in shock," Phillips said. "This actually happened in the NFL. It's something that we don't see often."
Buffalo's Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after making a tackle on the Bengals' Tee Higgins. After standing up briefly, Hamlin collapsed on the field. He was given CPR and a defibrillator was used to revive the second-year safety.
"It's something that we train for and we train for, but we hope we never have to deal with that," Phillips said of CPR and heart-related incident.
The Pirates' head football trainer has put that training to use. He told News 3 that he has had to administer CPR during an athletic event before. Phillips and those involved went through counselling following that incident because of the emotional experience. It's something he said people may not fully understand until they find themselves in that situation.
"During the situation, you just respond," he said. "After the fact, you get them transported to where they need to go, feelings and emotions come on, so I felt for the medical staff for both teams."
Monday night's scary scene brought Hampton's own Emergency Action Plan (EAP) to the front of Phillips' mind, as was probably the case with countless other athletic trainers across the country. He and his Pirate staff work diligently to keep themselves sharp and prepare for any and every situation.
"Every month we come out there and we just go over our EAP and we practice scenarios, we practice removing equipment," Phillips noted. "If someone goes down, we have signals. We practice all of that. We train everyone to know where emergency equipment is and seeing that event just made me want to go back over all of that, call a meeting immediately and just start practicing."
Hampton has multiple athletic trainers on site for football games as well as paramedics. Trainers are present for all athletic events on campus and defibrillators are easily accessible. Phillips says that he, his staff and other medical personnel communicate through hand signals and walkie-talkies while treating injuries.
Football athletic trainers from Old Dominion and Norfolk State were unavailable for interviews on Tuesday, but an athletic department spokesperson from each school provided some details on their staff. The Monarchs have athletic trainers for each sporting event, with football games finding multiple trainers, EMTs and an ambulance on site. The Spartans also have athletic trainers and defibrillators at every event as well as paramedics for football and basketball.
"Athletic trainers being at all sporting events is crucial," Phillips noted, adding that the high school level is underserved when it comes to a training staff. "We are trained in those athletic injuries and more. It could be tracking the weather, making sure that it's not too hot or too cold, lightning. We're trained in all these aspects."
The Virginia High School League does not require medical personnel to be on site for its games, meets or matches, but does encourage schools to have a trainer or doctor present for practices and games, as well as an ambulance, according to a VHSL spokesperson who referenced the organization's handbook. Ultimately, decisions regarding medical staff lie with each individual school systems and school boards, though the VHSL provides the guidelines for best practices.
News 3 reached out to area school divisions and received responses from Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Hampton.
Norfolk Public Schools provided the following statement:
"Norfolk Public Schools has employed athletic trainers since 1989 and has partnered with local community sports medicine groups to provide a comprehensive sports medicine program that serves all teams.
"All home sporting events have athletic trainers on site. Each athletic trainer brings an AED to athletic events, and the schools have multiple units in the buildings. NPS has a comprehensive athletic emergency action plan for each school and venue where athletic events are held. Football is the only sport with on-site ambulance coverage. NPS requires ambulance coverage at all varsity, junior varsity and middle school home football games. Additionally, all varsity football games have sideline physician coverage.
"Norfolk Public Schools sends best wishes and healing thoughts to Mr. Hamlin. Students in the Lake Taylor High School sports medicine program will be writing letters of support to the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals Athletic Training Staffs to send out this week."
Chesapeake Public Schools replied that the school system has a contract with CHKD to provide trainers at all high school and middle school athletic contests. Trainers have defibrillators with them at these sporting events. In addition, EMS is present at varsity football games.
Hampton City Schools provided the following statement:
"Hampton City Schools has a primary Sentara Sports Medicine athletic trainer per high school as well as a Sentara Sports Medicine manager who oversees the program. The primary athletic trainer is on-site at all home and away football games for their respective high school. Additionally, we have a volunteer rescue squad (i.e., ambulance, paramedics) on site at each home football game. In regard to our other athletic events, the primary athletic trainer is on-site at home games. If the primary athletic trainer is scheduled to attend an away football game, a secondary Sentara Sports Medicine athletic trainer is assigned to that school to cover their home games. As far as having defibrillators present, yes, we have several AEDs at Darling Stadium (which is our home football stadium) as well as a minimum of two AEDs at each high school."
Portsmouth Public Schools says it has trainers or EMTs available for all sports (games and practices). All trainers and EMTs have defibrillators with them on site for all games as well as practices.
Specific to football games, (middle school, junior varsity, and varsity) a trainer and EMT is present. In addition, there is a doctor available on-call.
As of Tuesday night, Damar Hamlin remains in critical condition at University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
