Bills announce Damar Hamlin had breathing tube removed overnight, ‘continues to progress remarkably’

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who suffered a cardiac arrest during Monday’s game against the Bengals, had his breathing tube removed overnight and “continues to progress remarkably in his recovery,” the Bills announced on Friday, per the physicians at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

“His neurologic function remains intact and he has been able to talk to his family and care team,” the Bills said.

NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Hamlin delivered a message to the team Friday morning and spent time speaking to various teammates on FaceTime.

Damar Hamlin FaceTimed into our team meeting today to talk to players and coaches.

What he said to the team: “Love you boys.” ❤️ pic.twitter.com/8dorrWNaxt

NFL Network’s Cameron Wolfe spoke with the Hamlin family on Friday morning about the latest developments in Hamlin’s status.

“They are absolutely elated this morning, emotional that he’s had that breathing tube out, that he’s had conversations with what they’ve described as his brothers,” Wolfe said on NFL Network. “They said, ‘Look, we cannot describe the emotion as anything other than elated.’ “

Bills head coach Sean McDermott said it would be hard to “do it justice honestly with words” in describing the scene when Hamlin spoke to the team on Friday.

“Amazing, touching to see Damar, No. 1, through my own eyes,” McDermott said. “That’s something that I’ve been looking forward to, kinda needing to see, I guess — hate to say it that way, it sounds bad. But … to watch the reaction in the room with the players and the staff and the team, they didn’t know that we were going to do that and wanted to make sure that that was actually going to be able to happen with Damar’s medical schedule there. … When I said we had a treat in store … you could see the look on their eyes in anticipation of what was probably coming. To get the Zoom, and when he came on the screen — Tabani (Richards), our assistant trainer has done a phenomenal job out there helping facilitate that this morning as well — to see the players’ reaction, they stood up right away and clapped for him and yelled some things to him and it was a pretty cool exchange for a few seconds there.”

Hamlin did one of his trademark flexes when he appeared on the main video screen in the Bills’ meeting room, McDermott said.

“I can’t remember the order of things, and it was not a long interaction as you’d imagine with his situation, but he made hand signals, hand gestures,” McDermott said. “The thing that makes me laugh is he did this to the guys right away (flexes to camera). He flexed on ’em, I guess. He’s just got some staple things that they know him for and that he does. He made the heart symbol probably more than anything, then he gave them a thumbs up. Somewhere in the midst of that — and it was a little bit hard to hear, as you’d imagine — he said, ‘I love you boys.’ Of course, I think that got the guys.”

Doctors announced during a Thursday news conference that Hamlin had shown “substantial improvement,” which marked “a really good turning point in his ongoing care.”

Friday’s news is another step in a positive direction in Hamlin’s recovery.

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