I've always wondered who wins the day every Sunday during the NFL season. Does God or football reign supreme with most Americans on the Lord's Day? Only God knows. But he must have been smiling down as a medical miracle happened before our eyes during a game in Cincinnati recently.
The sports world came to an abrupt stop on Monday, Jan. 2 when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after a play in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Heroic efforts first by the Bills training staff kept him alive. He was rushed to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. That game was halted, as team and league officials mulled over the options for a potential resumption of the game. That never happened, as the league decided to cancel the game.
This past Monday, he was transferred to Buffalo General Medical Center to continue his recovery. Miracles have happened along the way. It’s a miracle that Hamlin is still alive. Doctors diagnosed him as having gone into cardiac arrest and he was resuscitated. While in Cincinnati, doctors said he experienced “a remarkable recovery.”
In what looked to be a long road to recovery in medical centers turned out to be short-lived. On Wednesday morning, the Buffalo Bills organization announced that Hamlin was released from the hospital in Buffalo, following multiple tests. Truly a miracle.
Stories like this remind us of the miracles of two things — modern medicine and prayer. Both his teammates on the Bills and the opposing Bengals gathered around the medical professionals and prayed. It looked like a field full of Tim Tebows. What a beautiful thing.
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Many times, these miracles are not often talked about publicly, but there’s a guarantee that they happen on a daily basis. And this one played out on national television.
This is a good moment to stop and thank those workers that help make these types of miracles possible — first responders, doctors, nurses, physical therapists and occupational therapists, just to name a few. They didn’t go into their profession knowing that they’d be performing miracles, but rather to help people. And help people is exactly what they did on Jan. 2 — more specifically, they helped save the life of one young gentleman, Damar Hamlin.
Miracles come in all forms, big and small. Celebrate these miracles when they happen in your life. Especially if they’re a miracle like bringing back life in a young 24-year-old football player with a lot of life left in him. The moral of the story is this: No matter how much bad is happening in the world, no matter how much stress is being caused by the forces beyond your control, celebrate the small things in life. Celebrate the daily miracles that happen in your life. Life is very precious and fragile. Praise God that Damar Hamlin appears to be on the road to recovery! Whatever his future holds, on or off the field, this miracle will not soon be forgotten.
We take comfort in knowing that, due to a series of miracles, he is still with us.
Scott Hennen hosts the statewide radio program “What’s On Your Mind?” On AM 1100 “The Flag”, AM 1090 KTGO “The Flag” and AM 1460 KLTC. Email him at ScottH@FlagFamily.com
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum's editorial board nor Forum ownership.
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