“The last thing I want to see,” How Damar Hamlin’s collapse brought back TRAUMATIC memories for an Indiana mother
Michael Gray
Updated on March 31, 2026
Damar Hamlin’s devastating injury negatively affected fans and athletes across the NFL, however, it also brought back crushing memories for one mother out of Indiana. Julie West was home on Monday night, and one of her close friends reached out to her via her cell and texted her, “Julie, can I call you?”
She responded with an “Of course”. Her friend rang her up and the first thing she asked her was if she “was watching the game?,” West’s friend told her that what she was about to see may be distressing to her and wanted to “forewarn her.” The incident that took place on Monday Night Football was one that he hoped West would not see.
The reason West was not watching the game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cincinnati Bengals was that she had no clue of what had transpired. Damar Hamlin had collapsed on the field and her best friend updated her on the whole situation. Her phone began to ring constantly as more and more texts kept on coming. All her close friends and family were asking her one thing, “Julie, are you OK tonight? Just checking on you. If you need to talk, I’m here.”
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Julie’s son Jake had passed away in an eerily similar situation:
When Julie saw what was happening, she could not help but think of the tragic September afternoon of 2013. It was the day her son Jake passed away after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest after he collapsed on LaPorte High School’s football field during practice. Medics were available, and they did rush to the field, however, it was of no use as he was already gone.
They kept trying to revive him, “hoping for a miracle,” which never really happened. It was later found that Jake had an underlying heart condition that had gone undetected and was due to that passed away. Today, Jake would have been 26 years of age.
On Monday, Damar Hamlin suddenly collapsed on the NFL field. Medics were swarming around him, attempting to revive him. His teammates and the players from the Bengals were shocked at the sight they were watching. Julie and Jake’s friends did not want her to watch this scene as it would bring back waves of grief.
“Thank you for telling me. That’s the last thing I want to see, not only for my own eyesight. I was thinking of all Jake’s friends who witnessed the same thing when it happened to him,” the grieving mother stated. Hamlin was initially administered CPR, given oxygen, and had to be stretched out of the stadium in an ambulance which took him to the hospital. A defibrillator had to be used on the field in order for his heartbeat to be restored.
The cause was determined to be a cardiac arrest, and Hamlin’s heartbeat was restored on the field before he was transferred to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center for testing and treatment. The team stated that he was sedated and remained in the ICU. His condition remains critical.
Julie’s son Jake had planned out his entire day on the 25th of September, 2013. He and the defensive line were scheduled to go to Buffalo Wild Wings as soon as practice concluded that day. West saw her son that afternoon to give her son money. The last words she heard from his mouth were, “Thanks momma, I love you.” She remains eternally grateful that she was there to witness him and talk to him before.
Jake collapsed in a similar fashion, but he had not been hit during a play. West received a message on her phone stating, “Jake is down on the field” and rushed to the school where he was already being put in an ambulance. Medical personnel did not allow her to see her son as he needed to be rushed to the hospital and even at the ER, West had to be held back by the police from seeing her son.
“It’s horrible. All you could do was beg, beg. That’s all we did. They worked a very, very, very long time on him. But they weren’t able to save him.” After his death, the family asked for an autopsy. It found that Jake had arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy or ARVC, a disease in which fatty fibrous tissue replaces normal heart muscle. ARVC interrupts normal electrical signals in the heart and causes an irregular and life-threatening heart rhythm. At that point, he was perfectly fine and had shown no symptoms until that moment.
When Jake collapsed, an AED was not there on the field. It was in his coach’s office. If an AED was there that day, there was a possibility that he could have been revived. Since his death, West and a team of other mothers have been doing everything in their capacity to get laws passed mandating athletic fields to get medical staff educated on sudden cardiac arrest.
Damar Hamlin’s situation was tough on the family. West hopes that AEDs are everywhere. At airports, casinos, athletic fields, schools, and everywhere, as one never knows when they could come in handy. Hopefully, Hamlin’s situation raises more awareness of heart situations
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