Chiefs’ BJ Thompson is awake and responsive one day after an epileptic seizure and cardiac arrest

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

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

“He’s awake. He’s awake. He’s coming through it just fine,” said Burkholder. “We don’t have a diagnosis and in medicine sometimes there isn’t such a thing. But he’s awake and alert and on the right track.”

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

Burkholder joined them and helped Thompson when he went into cardiac arrest. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Jean-Philippe Darche arrived from the Kansas Health Sports Medicine and Performance Center, which is adjacent to the training facility.

“Our team from that group performed CPR on him,” Burkholder said. “He got an AED shock and came to. He was in cardiac arrest for less than a minute, a minute and a half. Our players, security, coaches – they handled the crisis phenomenally. Then we turned him over to the Kansas City (Missouri) Fire Department.”

The NFL requires teams to practice emergency plans for a variety of situations, including cardiac crises like the one Thompson experienced. The Chiefs had just finished their last practice session on Monday.

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

The Chiefs gave players the rest of Thursday off and postponed the last organized team activity until Friday. They have their mandatory three-day minicamp next week before taking a break until training camp in late July in St. Joseph, Missouri.

“I think it was good to get them out here yesterday,” Reid said, “and we have support people here who can help them if they need to when they see that. It’s not a pleasant thing to watch. They came back full of energy today, but we kept them updated the whole time, right up until the end of practice.”

Thompson played in just one game in his rookie season, the last of the regular season against the Chargers, when Kansas City had already secured its playoff spot and the outcome was meaningless. Thompson had two tackles in that game.

“I’m just glad he’s OK,” said Chiefs defensive end George Karlaftis, who is close to Thompson at the same position. “You never want that for anybody and it’s tough, but one thing I will say is we’re blessed to have such great teammates and coaches to help him and we were able and ready for this situation.”

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