NFL defends Eagles medical staff after Jalen Hurts played in London game with blood clot

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The NFL on Tuesday publicly and unequivocally defended how the Philadelphia Eagles managed the health of star quarterback Jalen Hurts after ultrasounds revealed blood clots had traveled to his lungs.

Hurts had been initially diagnosed with a superficial blood clot in his leg ahead of the Eagles’ game in London. He played every offensive snap of that game and flew back to Philadelphia, where he was subsequently diagnosed with bilateral pulmonary emboli and deep vein thrombosis and placed on blood thinners that will likely necessitate sitting out the remainder of the season.

On Monday, after the team and Hurts’ agent shared a joint statement detailing the diagnosis, critics questioned the decision to allow Hurts to play in the London game and take a transatlantic flight after a blood clot was discovered.

Throughout a 30-minute press conference on Tuesday at the NFL meetings in New York, Dr. Allen Sills, the NFL’s chief medical officer, repeatedly expressed his “tremendous confidence in the Philadelphia Eagles medical staff and all of our medical staff,” as well as the doctors at the Cleveland Clinic in London.

NFL executive vice president Jeff Miller rebuked what he called “considerable and uninformed speculation” which, on Monday, included reports that Hurts had not slept for 36 hours prior to the team’s game in London. The Eagles, like many teams playing abroad, had conversations with their players about the best way to handle the time difference between Philadelphia and London.

Sills pushed back on the implication that football factored into the medical care Hurts received while in London.

Jalen Hurts’ apparent season-ending injury leaves Eagles with tough questions about blood clots in his lungs

“Any idea or any suggestion that a team physician is ever being influenced by a coach, a general manager, a team owner, it just doesn’t happen,” he said.

However, several times he referenced the “shared decision-making” that doctors engage in with patients, seeming to imply that Hurts was an active participant of the process that led to him participating in the London game. He cited privacy concerns in declining to discuss Hurts’ situation specifically and resisted any sweeping hypothetical reviews of blood clot prognoses and procedures more broadly, citing the nuances of individual cases.

“We don’t have a protocol about this,” Sills said, contrasting it with established guidelines for issues like concussions.

The league does track blood clots and shares with the NFL Players Association.

“I don’t think you can take that outcome and say there was something flawed about the process,” Sills said. “Sometimes in medicine, we do all the right things and diseases progress and other things develop. I would look at the opposite side of that and say, in this case, everyone was incredibly conservative and incredibly vigilant and was very quick to make diagnoses of these conditions that might not have been diagnosed in a non-athlete.”

Asked specifically by CNN Sports whether the NFL conducted an investigation into exactly what did happen or whether they were simply confident that the Eagles’ staff did what should have, Miller said, “Both talking to the Eagles’ staff and making sure from people on the ground, tracking the case, talking to the independent hospital and doctors involved that we have, I think, a complete understanding of the course of events.”

On Tuesday night, however, the NFLPA put out a statement saying : “The NFLPA is not aware of any NFL investigation into the medical care provided to Jalen Hurts. In fact, the league previously informed the union that it did not plan to review the care he received.

“Before conclusions are drawn about how this situation was handled, there must be a full investigation into what occurred. Determining the facts is essential to ensuring players receive the highest level of care and protection going forward.”

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周二，NFL 公开且明确地捍卫了费城老鹰队在超声波检查显示明星四分卫杰伦·赫茨的肺部出现血栓后，对赫茨健康状况的处理方式。

在老鹰队伦敦比赛前，赫茨最初被诊断为腿部浅表血栓。他打满了那场比赛的每一次进攻回合，然后飞回费城，随后被诊断出双侧肺栓塞和深静脉血栓形成，并开始服用血液稀释剂，这很可能意味着他将缺席本赛季剩余的比赛。

周一，在球队和赫茨的经纪人发表联合声明详细介绍了诊断结果后，批评人士质疑在发现血栓后，仍然允许赫茨参加伦敦比赛并乘坐跨大西洋航班的决定。

在周二于纽约举行的 NFL 会议期间，NFL 首席医疗官艾伦·西尔斯博士在长达 30 分钟的新闻发布会上反复表达了他对“费城老鹰队医疗团队和我们所有医疗团队的极大信心”，以及对伦敦克利夫兰诊所医生的信心。

NFL执行副总裁杰夫·米勒驳斥了他所谓的“大量未经证实的猜测”，其中包括周一发布的报道称，赫茨在球队伦敦比赛前36小时未眠。和许多在海外比赛的球队一样，费城老鹰队也与球员们讨论了如何最好地应对费城和伦敦之间的时差。

希尔斯否认了足球与赫茨在伦敦接受的医疗护理有关的说法。

杰伦·赫茨的伤势显然将导致他赛季报销，这让老鹰队不得不面对关于他肺部血栓的棘手问题。

他说：“任何认为队医会受到教练、总经理或球队老板影响的想法或暗示，都是不可能发生的。”

然而，他多次提及医生与患者之间的“共同决策”，似乎暗示赫茨积极参与了最终决定参加伦敦奥运会的决策过程。他以隐私为由拒绝具体讨论赫茨的情况，并反对就血栓预后和治疗方案进行任何笼统的假设性分析，理由是每个病例都有其特殊性。

“我们在这方面没有相关规定，”希尔斯说道，并将其与脑震荡等问题的既定指导方针进行了对比。

联盟会追踪血栓情况，并与 NFL 球员协会共享信息。

“我不认为你能仅凭这个结果就断定整个过程存在缺陷，”希尔斯说。“有时候在医学上，我们明明做了所有正确的事情，疾病还是会发展，或者出现其他问题。我会从另一个角度来看，在这个案例中，每个人都非常谨慎、非常警惕，并且能够迅速诊断出这些在非运动员身上可能无法诊断出的疾病。”

当 CNN 体育频道专门询问米勒，NFL 是否对究竟发生了什么进行了调查，或者他们是否只是相信老鹰队的工作人员已经做了他们应该做的事情时，米勒说：“我们既与老鹰队的工作人员交谈，也从现场人员那里确保了这一点，追踪了案件，并与相关的独立医院和医生进行了交谈，我认为我们已经完全了解了事件的经过。”

然而，周二晚间，NFLPA发表声明称：“NFLPA并不知晓NFL对杰伦·赫茨所接受的医疗护理进行任何调查。事实上，联盟此前已告知工会，他们不打算审查他所接受的护理。”

“在对这起事件的处理方式得出结论之前，必须对事件经过进行全面调查。查明事实真相对于确保球员今后获得最高水平的关怀和保护至关重要。”