Chiefs’ Thompson awake, responsive after cardiac arrest

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Chiefs defensive lineman BJ Thompson remained hospitalized but was awake and responsive on Friday, one day after the second-year pro experienced a seizure during a team meeting and went into cardiac arrest at the Kansas City practice facility.

Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said the 25-year-old Thompson was placed on a ventilator and heavily sedated Thursday night at the University of Kansas Health System. He was brought out of sedation on Friday and his prognosis is good.

“He’s alert. He’s awake. He’s coming through quite well,” Burkholder said. “We don’t have a diagnosis and in medicine sometimes you don’t have that. But he’s awake and alert and he’s headed in the right direction.”

Thompson, a fifth-round draft pick out of Stephen F. Austin last year, was in the meeting room before the Chiefs were scheduled to have their final voluntary workout of the offseason. He began to have a seizure and kicker Harrison Butker immediately ran to the trainer’s room and summoned assistant trainers Julie Frymyer and David Glover.

They were joined by Burkholder in helping Thompson as he went into cardiac arrest. Dr. Jean-Philippe Darche soon arrived from the Kansas Health Sports Medicine and Performance Center, which adjoins the practice facility.

“Our team of that group of people provided CPR for him,” Burkholder said. “He had one AED shock and came back. He was in cardiac arrest for less than a minute, a minute and a half. Our players, security staff, coaching staff — they were phenomenal in handling the crisis. We then turned him over to the Kansas City (Missouri) Fire Department.”

The NFL mandates that teams practice emergency action plans for a variety of situations, including cardiac crises like the one that Thompson experienced. The Chiefs had just completed their most recent practice session on Monday.

“I jumped in there from my office,” coach Andy Reid said. “I’m not much help; they had it under control. But that’s tough. That’s a tough situation. We’ve been through a couple of those in my time. It’s never fun. Thank goodness, though, that if it had to happen, no better place than right here, where you had the support unit that knows what to do.”

The Chiefs gave players the rest of Thursday off, pushing the final organized team activity to Friday. They have their mandatory three-day minicamp next week before breaking until training camp in late July in St. Joseph, Missouri.

“I think it was good to get them out of here yesterday,” Reid said, “and we’ve got support people here that can help them if they needed it for what they saw. That’s not a real pleasant thing to see. They came back today with good energy, but we kept them abreast all the way through, right to the end of practice there.”

Thompson played in only one game during his rookie season, the regular-season finale against the Chargers, when Kansas City already had clinched its playoff spot and the outcome was meaningless. Thompson had two tackles in that game.

“I’m just glad to see he’s doing good,” said Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, who is close to Thompson from playing at the same position. “You never want that for anyone and it’s hard, but I will say this, we’re blessed to have such great teammates and trainers to help him, and were able and ready for that situation.”

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