(WSIL) -- Silence filled Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio and millions of homes after a football player collapsed during the NFL's Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game on Monday Night Football.
Bills safety Damar Hamlin made what appeared to be a routine tackle according to Ryan Lott, the head football coach for Pinckneyville Community High School.
"It was anything beyond that," Lott said. "And you saw grown men teared up afterwards. Definitely devastating."
Hamlin tackled a player in the first quarter and collapsed on the field seconds later, bringing the game to a halt. Hamlin was taken to a hospital and remains in critical condition as of Tuesday. The game was postponed.
Rob Womack, head football coach at Vienna High School, says it's a situation no coach wants to face.
"I've never seen a young man make a tackle... and go into cardiac arrest," Womack said. "You just want the player's safety more than anything."
What Hamlin experienced was a rare bout of commotio cordis, according to Dr. Roy Danks, medical director of trauma and acute care surgery at 九游体育 Illinois Healthcare.
"Commotio cordis is a latin term that means 'disruption of the heart or irritation of the heart'," Dr. Danks said.
The condition is caused by a direct blow to the heart. An average of 30 cases are reported each year according to the .
Dr. Danks says the condition is commonly seen in car crash victims and kids under 15-years old. Cases involving athletes are rare and Dr. Danks says everything has to fall into place for commotio cordis to happen.
"The blow to the chest has to be in the exact right place. It has to hit at a significantly narrow window of time in the cardiogram in the electrical current going through the heart," Dr. Danks said. "It's sort of a freak accident."
Dr. Danks says it's a good reminder to get yourself CPR-certified and learn how to use an automated external debfibrillator, or AED. Womack and Lott say all football coaches in Illinois must be certified in both.
But the hope is to leave those preparations on the sideline.
"If you're using it, it's kind of a life and death scenario. That's tough," Lott said.
Womack agreed with the decision to postpone the game and the shift in focus to Hamlin's safety instead of wins and losses.
"You coach it for the development of the young men and women that play the sport," Womack said.
"That's always your first priority."