Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin cleared to resume full activities

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (WKBW) — Buffalo Bills General Manager Brandon Beane addressed the media Tuesday morning as the team began voluntary offseason workouts and announced that safety Damar Hamlin has been cleared to resume full activities.

"He is cleared, resume full activities just like anyone else who is coming back from an injury. So he's fully cleared, he's here... he's in a great head space to come back and make his return," Beane said.

Hamlin suffered a cardiac arrest on the field in January. His heartbeat was restored on the field and he was hospitalized for just over a week. He made his return to Highmark Stadium ahead of Buffalo's AFC Divisional round matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals on January 22. He released a special message to the public on January 28.

According to Beane, Hamlin has seen multiple specialists and they are all in agreement on what occurred in January and that he is cleared to resume full activities.

You can watch Beane's full comments below:

Later Tuesday afternoon Hamlin addressed the media and said the diagnosis of what happened to him was commotio cordis, which is described by the Cleveland Clinic as "Commotio cordis consists of an abnormal heart rhythm (ventricular fibrillation) and cardiac arrest right after getting hit in the chest. In most cases, the cause is a baseball, hockey puck or lacrosse ball hitting the left side of your chest. Immediate CPR provides your best chance of surviving commotio cordis."

Hamlin continued on to say in part "this event was life-changing, but it's not the end of my story, so I'm here to announce that I plan on making a comeback to the NFL."

Hamlin also said, "some people might say that coming back to play isn’t the best option but that’s their opinion and like I said, I’ve been beating statistics my whole life, so I like my chances here.”

You can watch Hamlin's comments below:

Bills head coach Sean McDermott also spoke to the media and said in part "we're super excited for Damar. He's moving forward one step at a time here, he's been cleared from a physical standpoint and we'll provide all the mental help we can from a mind, body, and spirit standpoint. Just happy for him that he's been able to check some of those boxes to this point and we're moving forward but taking it one day at a time."

You can watch McDermott's full comments below.

In February, Hamlin was announced as the winner of the NFLPA’s Alan Page Community Award and he paid tribute to those who had a hand in giving him a second chance at life at “NFL Honors.”

Since then, Hamlin has launched the #3forHeart CPR Challenge in partnership with the American Heart Association which aims to promote CPR training and education, which saved his life, in an effort to save more lives.

He also recently went to Washington, D.C. to support the 'Access to AEDs Act' and met with President Joe Biden.