Meet Bills trainer Denny Kellington, the Oklahoma native who helped save Damar Hamlin

Andy Collier grabbed his cell phone and punched up the text reply from earlier this week.

It had come from a lifelong buddy and fellow Midwest City High grad Denny Kellington ― the Buffalo Bills assistant athletic trainer now credited with saving the life of safety Damar Hamlin on Monday night.

Collier, now the director of student activities in Mid-Del Schools, had reached out to Kellington to tell him how proud he was, and Kellington, a born-and-bred Oklahoman, responded with thankfulness and humility.

“Definitely a stressful situation,” Collier said, reading Kellington’s words off his phone. “Relied on our training and the hands of God.”

Collier smiled.

“When you ask what type of person he is … that should tell you everything you need to know,” Collier said.

Kellington is being hailed as a hero, and rightfully so. Thursday afternoon, doctors who have been treating Hamlin at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center since he was injured during Monday night's game against the Bengals announced he was not only awake but also responsive. He was squeezing the hands of medical staff and loved ones as well as communicating in writing.

Among his first questions?

“Did we win?”

“The answer is yes, Damar, you won the game of life,” Dr. Timothy Pritts said.

“It’s not only that the lights are on; it’s that he’s home. All of the cylinders are firing right in his brain.”

Denny Kellington used CPR and AED to help Damar Hamlin

Pritts and other doctors said Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest, wouldn’t have had such positive outcomes if not for the Bills medical staff who rushed to Hamlin’s aid Monday night on the field in Cincinnati. They recognized his condition, and when he had no pulse, they started CPR and ultimately used an automated external defibrillator to restart Hamlin’s heart.

The one administering the CPR: Kellington.

“Let’s praise this name and person for reviving our brother Damar on the field,” Bills lineman Dion Dawkins wrote on Twitter. “Denny gave CPR and chest compressions to get his heart back beating.”

Collier knew as much Monday night as he watched the game with his kids. As soon as he saw Kellington’s face as he attended to Hamlin, Collier, who played quarterback on Midwest City’s last state championship football team in 1995, knew things were bad.

“You could tell he knew it was something serious,” Collier said.

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But in that moment, he also thought of how Kellington was the perfect person to be on that field attending to Hamlin. Kellington, after all, knew he wanted to be an athletic trainer before he knew how to drive.

Collier grew up with Kellington, going to school and playing football with him.

“He was a really good, really good offensive lineman,” Collier said.

Then as a sophomore in high school, Kellington decided to quit playing so he could focus on being a student athletic trainer. That year spent working alongside longtime Midwest City trainer Dick Bobier solidified in Kellington’s mind his future calling.

The next year as a junior, he returned to playing football, but as soon as the football season was over, Kellington went right back to athletic training, helping with the winter and spring sports.

“He knew that’s what he wanted to do,” Collier said.

After playing football, Kellington pursued athletic training at Oklahoma State

Kellington went to Oklahoma State where he earned his bachelor’s degree in health and human performance in 2000. But the entire time he was in Stillwater, he worked as a student athletic trainer on the football team.

Matt Davis, now assistant director of facility operations at OSU, was a student equipment manager at the same time Kellington was a student athletic trainer.

“Back then, it was not a thousand people around here,” Davis said. “It was more of a tight-knit deal. … We all kind of had to work hand-in-hand because we’re all behind-the-scenes people.”

Davis appreciated the way Kellington went about his job.

“There’s a lot of things that you have to do, early mornings, late nights,” Davis said. “It’s a thankless job.

“And you know, he always had a smile on his face and he always had a great attitude.”

While still at OSU, Kellington got his first chance to work in the NFL. In 1999, he was an offseason intern for the Denver Broncos. He was again in 2000, then worked as a season intern in 2001.

The next year, he became an assistant athletic trainer with NFL Europe’s Amsterdam Admirals.

Kellington then went to Ohio State where he got his master’s degree in sport and exercise, then moved to Syracuse as an assistant athletic trainer. He remained there until 2017, and during that tenure, he became the head athletic trainer for football.

He left Syracuse to join the Bills in 2017.

'We were raised to take care of each other'

For nearly six years in Buffalo, he worked in relative obscurity.

That changed Monday night when Kellington saved a man’s life as millions of people watched.

“Growing up in Midwest City and being a part of athletics in Midwest City, we were raised to take care of each other,” Collier said, “and that’s the coolest part.

“He put others in front of him.”

Collier hopes other kids in Mid-Del Schools will learn from Kellington. He proved that a kid from the east side of the Oklahoma City metro can go anywhere and do anything, but he also showed that no matter what you do, you are going to affect others.

Are you going to do something that has a good effect?

Kellington did.

“We’ve been blessed in Mid-Del; we’ve got pro athletes, we’ve got many, many people in very high stages,” Collier said. “But this one was life and death.”

Follow Jenni Carlson on Twitter @jennicarlson_ok

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Denny Kellington: Bills trainer saved Damar Hamlin via CPR at NFL game