Triangle researcher discusses how rare Damar Hamlin's cardiac arrest is

In the field of serious sports injuries, the University of North Carolina is home to some of the country's leading research, as the Matthew Gfeller Center is under its umbrella, studying brain injuries in athletics.

The UNC System also has the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research.

"It is a really wonderful place to be and to collaborate if your area of research is sports," said Dr. Kristen Kucera, the center's director.

The focus on brain injuries and sports injuries comes as Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills suffered a cardiac arrest on the field Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals.

For Kucera, she wants to get down to why these events happen.

"We are really focused, from our center's perspective, on understanding why these kinds of events happen," Kucera said. "On what we can do to prevent them, and how we can have the best response possible when these events happen."

Kucera's team primarily handles tracking down serious sports injuries across the country. They also have a database available for anyone to submit information.

Kucera said they only know of 10 instances in similar to what happened to Hamlin last night.

Those instances are in football of all levels, across the country, since 2000. Accounting to fewer than one event every two years.

"They are rare and catastrophic sport injuries are rare," Kucera said. "Which is good, but when they do happen, the most important thing is a prompt recognition and response."

Kucera says she is a big believer in the value of sports. Even as a mom in her line of work, she is not deterred from letting her son play.

She said the best thing to do is ensure your child's team has an emergency action plan.

"Think about talking to the coach about their plans in the event of an emergency," Kucera said. "I think just asking questions and getting more information is one of the most important things we can do as parents."