The National Football League goes to great lengths to prepare and react to the very situation that occurred Monday night in Cincinnati with Buffalo Bills safety and McKees Rocks native Damar Hamlin, conducting a meeting before every game with the medical and training staff from each team in addition to emergency medical personnel on site and two game officials. The gathering, called the ‘60 Minute Meeting,’ is held an hour before kickoff and is mandatory at every NFL game, according to various medical sources. It specifically deals with what to do if there is a cardiac arrest event on the field, which is what happened with Hamlin in the first quarter of the Bills’ nationally televised game against the Bengals. The meeting identifies which person will handle certain responsibilities in the event of cardiac arrest, including who will attempt to resuscitate the victim and who is responsible for airway management if someone is having an issue with breathing. It also identifies where the ambulance is located in the stadium and how a player is to be loaded into the ambulance. ‘Every game, every week, every time, this exact scenario is discussed,’ said an NFL team medical doctor who attends those meetings and spoke on the condition of anonymity. ‘We identify who is exactly responsible for what.’ The NFL conducts the same meeting with all medical personnel before every Steelers game at Acrisure Stadium, as well. Not only is the Steelers medical staff trained to respond to emergencies, but several units from City of Pittsburgh EMS are on site for all home games. The Steelers list five members of their medical staff in the team’s directory: orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Bradley, orthopedic surgeon Dr. Craig Mauro, neurosurgeon Dr. David Okonkwo, sports and internal medicine physician Dr. Aaron Mares, and sports medicine physician Dr. Jeanne Doperak.

Read the full story at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.