094: Commotio Cordis and Baseball

Today we are talking about Damar Hamlin, commotio cordis and cardiac arrest, how it is relevant to baseball, and what if anything can be done to help prevent it.

We recently witnessed the clip of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsing after a collision with Bengals wide receiver in a NFL football game. People have speculated that Hamlin went into cardiac arrest from commotio cordis. Our understanding is that for commotio cordis to occur, the impact has to occur in the right place (right over the heart), at the right time in the heart’s rhythm, by an object of a specific size. In this case, an opponent’s shoulder. The treatment is immediately administering CPR,  and using an AED (automated external defibrillator) until medical professionals arrive.

The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE)
is an independent, non-profit organization that funded research to develop the world’s first performance standard to protect against commotio cordis in 2018. The performance standard applies to the protectors worn in the sports of baseball and lacrosse. Today, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) and NCAA require all catchers to wear protectors that meet the standard. Some of these products can include a traditional style chest protector but may also include compression shirts and coverings that are more suited for positional players or pitchers. For a complete list of current products that meet the standard, visit Safety Equipment Institute, which is the only entity that certifies equipment to NOCSAE standards.

Disclaimer: we are not medical professionals so please consider that anything shared in this episode is NOT medical advice. We are just moms wanting to keep our kids as safe as possible while playing the sport they love, and doing some google research for you.

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Articles used for this episode:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/01/05/commotio-cordis-mitigating-risks/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3445066/

https://www.sportsmedtoday.com/commotio-cordis-va-88.htm

https://www.chicagotribune.com/investigations/ct-chest-protectors-commotio-cordis-standard-met-20160408-story.html

https://nocsae.org

https://www.seinet.org/search.htmsection=SportsAthleticsandRecreation#sections=NOCSAE_collapse3,NOCSAE_Baseball_collapse31