BJ Thompson made an appearance at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl ring ceremony on Thursday night – just four days after he was discharged from the hospital following a cardiac arrest.
Thompson, a 25-year-old defensive end, had a seizure in a special teams meeting and went into cardiac arrest last Thursday.
But after being released from the hospital on Monday night, Thompson appeared to be doing well at the Chiefs’ ring ceremony as he took a video of himself wearing the hardware.
As seen on his Instagram story, Thompson donned a light blue suit and tie with a fedora as he flashed his reward from the Chiefs’ 25-22 win over the 49ers.
He was also seen smiling on the red carpet at the event, which also attended by Kansas City stars Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes as well.
BJ Thompson smiled on the red carpet on Thursday at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl ring ceremony
BJ Thompson appeared to be in good spirits as he flashed his Super Bowl ring on Thursday
The team postponed OTAs last Thursday when Thompson went into cardiac arrest at the team’s practice facility.
Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder told reporters that kicker Harrison Butker was the one who raced out of the room to get aid for his ailing teammate.
Butker ‘immediately ran toward the training room’ in order to notify staffers of the situation.
Team doctors were able to get the 25-year-old defensive end’s heart back in rhythm using CPR and a single AED shock.
Burkholder said at the time that organization was not sure what caused the situation.
Thompson’s harrowing medical incident actually came at a point when the Chiefs had recently drilled into their staff the proper emergency procedure in case of such an incident.
Following an NFL mandate, the Chiefs practiced their emergency action plan for medical personnel on Monday.
Thompson was released from the hospital four days after suffering cardiac arrest
A company called Sports Medicine Emergency Management helped the team’s trainers practice responding to scenarios such as Thompson’s seizure.’
According to the team, every medical trainer and the teams physician helped with trying to keep Thompson alive.
‘We tried to stabilize BJ and then put him on the floor while he was still seizing and then he went into cardiac arrest,’ Burkholder said. ‘Our team of that group of people provided CPR for him. He had one AED shock and came back so he was only in cardiac arrest for probably less than a minute, minute-and-a-half.
‘Our players, our security staff, everybody involved coaches staff, they were phenomenal in handling the crisis. We then turn him over to the fire department and the paramedics. Those paramedics do those practice sessions with us so there was some familiarity there with those guys.’