OAN’s James Meyers
3:24 PM – Friday, June 7, 2024
The defensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, BJ Thompson, is now “awake and alert,” his agent told NBC News on Friday, after Thompson suffered a seizure and cardiac arrest the day before.
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The 25-year-old athlete reportedly had a seizure during a special teams meeting on Thursday and went into cardiac arrest, agent Chris Turnage confirmed.
This prompted an emergency response from teammates and staff, which included using a defibrillator shock to restart his heart.
“We don’t have a diagnosis. In medicine sometimes you don’t have that,” Rick Burkholder, the Chiefs’ vice president of sports medicine and performance, told reporters Friday. “He’s awake and alert and he’s headed in the absolute right direction. All things good in a little bit of a hairy situation.”
According to Burkholder, Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker “immediately ran towards the training room” after Thompson started seizing, and he informed the team’s athletic training staff members that an incident had occurred.
According to reports, a medical office was just down the hall from where Thompson was having the seizure, so a doctor rushed in to assist.
“As a team we tried to stabilize BJ and put him on the floor while he was still seizing. Then he went into cardiac arrest. Our team of that group of people provided CPR for him,” Burkholder said.
“He had one AED (automated external defibrillator) shock and came back. So he was only in cardiac arrest for less than a minute, minute and a half,” Burkholder said.
Later, the Kansas City Fire Department and paramedics brought Thompson to the University of Kansas Health System, where “he was heavily sedated through the night,” Burkholder said.
The Chiefs player was then placed on a ventilator overnight “just so he could breathe because he was so heavily sedated” and then Thompson was finally brought out of sedation on Friday morning.
Burkholder also claimed that the NFL mandates that teams perform emergency action plans that must be practiced a couple times a year.
“That’s a tough, tough situation,” Head Coach Andy Reid said at the press conference. “We’ve been through a couple of those before in my time and it’s never, ever fun. Thank goodness. I mean, if it had to happen, no better place than right here where you have a support unit that knows what to do.”
As a result of the emergency, all team activities were canceled on Thursday.
Reid said that he informed the team about what had happened after the incident took place, and he also offered support to those who need it. “They came back today with good energy,” the coach told reporters.
“I’m just glad to see that he’s doing good. When you have a guy go down like that, you never want that. For anyone,” Defensive end George Karlaftis said. “I’m hoping and praying for a speedy recovery for BJ.”
Thompson was a 2023 fifth-round pick and appeared in one game in his rookie season.
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