Kansas City Chiefs defensive end BJ Thompson is awake and improving, according to Rick Burkholder, the team’s vice president of sports medicine and performance.
Thompson, 25, reportedly suffered a seizure and cardiac arrest Thursday during a special teams meeting at the Chiefs’ practice facility. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, put on a ventilator and heavily sedated overnight.
Burkholder said the ventilator was due to Thompson’s sedation.
“With BJ, when he had the attack [Chiefs kicker Harrison] Butker immediately ran to the training room and grabbed Julie Frymyer and David Glover, and then grabbed me,” Burkholder explained Friday. “We went into the room, eventually Tiffany Borton and Evan Kraft came in, and with this facility we came too inside. We have a doctor’s office down the hall, and Dr. JP Darche from the Kansas University Health System was there and helped us. As a team we tried to stabilize BJ and put him on the ground.
“He was still having a seizure and then he went into cardiac arrest, so our team from that group of people gave him CPR. He had one AED shock and came back, so he probably only had cardiac arrest for a minute, minute, and a half.”
Thompson was brought out of anesthesia on Friday and Burkholder said he is alert, awake and “definitely heading in the right direction.”
“We don’t have a diagnosis, and in medicine sometimes you don’t have one,” Burkholder added.
The Chiefs canceled practices and media availability after the incident. It was unclear at the time whether a player or staff member was involved.
Thompson was selected by the Chiefs in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL Draft out of Stephen F. Austin. He played in one game in 2023, mostly on special teams, and made two tackles.
The Chiefs are wrapping up OTA practices this week. The mandatory mini-camp starts on Tuesday before the official training camp starts in July.
