The Chiefs drafted Thompson in the fifth round out of Stephen F. Austin in 2023, and he made two tackles last season.
Burkholder said the 25-year-old began to have a seizure during a special teams meeting and that kicker Harrison Butker ran to the trainer’s room to alert two assistant trainers. Burkholder joined them, as did two more trainers and later Jean-Philippe Darche from the Kansas Health Sports Medicine and Performance Center, which is adjoined to the practice facility.
“As a team, 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 less than a minute, a minute and a half. Our players, security staff, coaching staff — they were phenomenal in handling the crisis.”
The NFL mandates teams practice emergency procedures, and Burkholder said his team did so as recently as Monday. After they provided CPR on Thursday, he said they turned Thompson over to the Kansas City Fire Department.
Burkholder said Thompson was then taken to a hospital, where he was heavily sedated overnight and placed on a ventilator to better facilitate his breathing in that condition. He was brought out of sedation Friday and removed from the ventilator.