Researchers at Western University are working to better understand the conditions behind many of the lethal injuries that could affect players and athletes. After the incident with 24-year-old Damar Hamlin who plays for the Buffalo Bills, students and researchers have sparked an even greater interest in wanting to know more about these conditions and also how to prevent them.
The Buffalo Bills player had what researchers believe to be a condition known as Commotio cordis. A rare phenomenon in which a sudden blunt impact to the chest causes rapid death in the absence of cardiac damage.
“What is happening with Commotio cordis is that an individual is experiencing an impact, typically over the heart region. The impact has to occur during a very specific time frame of the heartbeat, and during that time the heart is considered vulnerable. If an impact occurs during that time frame, it can cause the heart to essentially stop beating leading to the collapse of the athlete.” said Grant Dickey Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Western
According to Dickey, the use of chest protectors is critical when it comes to preventing conditions such as Commotio cordis, but for him today in a lot of these sports shoulder protection is what gets prioritized. “When you look at a Hockey player or a Football player, the shoulder pads they are wearing do contain protection on the chest but it is usually very thin and not designed to prevent conditions like Commotio cordis”, he added
Left to right – Kewei Bian, Grant Dickey, Haojie Mao, and Sakib UI Islam
Grant is currently working along with Supervisor and Assistant Professor Haojie Mao, and two other colleagues Kewei Bian, and Sakib UI Islam, both Mechanical and Material Engineers. Together the group has been learning more about these lethal conditions and working on developing better protective equipment to help reduce risks to athletes using the research and data they have gathered.
Professor Haojie Mao explains their research and development process, “First, we understand what happened during the accident, then we understand that during the incident, the lower left heart reached a damaging level of force. Once we know where the damage is, then we design effective protectors that can protect the lower left heart, and with this protector when a player gets hit, the impact will hit under the heart, a safe area,” he added.
Dickey says that one of their biggest goals is to be able to work along with bigger companies like the NFL or NHL to implement the data they have to the current equipment. “What we would like to see is the use of our research and in collaboration with sports companies or organizations to figure out ways that we can use our data and our research to improve on these chest protectors and ultimately completely prevent these incidents from happening.”
Grant adds that there are still some concerns with the cases of Commotio Cordis. “There is something really concerning in the sense that a lot of cases actually go unreported. There are most likely a lot of cases worldwide now and people don’t know what happened and are unfamiliar with the condition.” Dickey reinforces the importance of creating awareness and educating the public, to ultimately establish ways to make these sports safer for everyone.
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