When Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during Bills-Bengals there was a sense of helplessness from everyone in attendance and watching on Monday Night Football.
The 24-year-old was transported to the local hospital after nearly 30 minutes on the field, receiving CPR as paramedics and medical personnel attended to him. The game was ultimately postponed, which was the right call as there could be no reasonable expectation to ask players on either team to try and play football any further after seeing a friend, teammate, and colleague suffer a life-threatening medical emergency.
As everyone waited on an update on Hamlin, hoping to learn that he had improved after the only initial, official update stated he was in critical condition at the hospital, many fans found a way to try and do something positive and found Hamlin’s GoFundMe for a toy drive he hosted prior to Christmas. Within minutes, hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the GoFundMe, with it sitting at just over $737,000 as of writing at 10:48 p.m. ET.
It’s an incredibly kind gesture from fans seeking out any way to offer positivity and support for Hamlin. Hopefully the young man can make a full recovery and those donations can be put to great use in the future for more toy drives and other ways to help the community that he clearly cares about so deeply.