A Washington State appeals court has held that a high school should have been more compliant with a state law pertaining to concussions after one of its football players, who suffered multiple concussions, died from those injuries.
The claim was brought by the parents of Drew Swank, who was participating in a game for New Valley Christian School (VCS) on Sept. 18, 2009 when he suffered a head injury that led to severe headaches, and ultimately his death.
Allegedly, Swank was not examined by head coach Jim Puryear, assistant coach Mike Heden, or school headmaster Derick Tabish. But the following Monday, as the headaches persisted, he went to his Coeur d’Alene doctor, Tim Burns.
The doctor diagnosed a concussion and Swank was placed on “no practice, no play” restrictions.
Three days later, Swank told his mother that the headaches were gone. When she called Burns’ office to inform the doctor of the development, the doctor allegedly told a clinic employee to lift the restrictions without a follow-up exam. Swank practiced and then played in a game that night.
Swank played poorly, which the plaintiffs claimed was consistent with a player coming off a head injury. Coach Puryear allegedly called him to the sideline, where he “grabbed him by the facemask and proceeded to violently shake his head up and down in anger,” according to the complaint. Swank went back into the game and suffered a significant hit that caused his head to allegedly whip back and forth before crashing into the field.
Swank managed to get up from the hit, but collapsed after reaching the sideline. He was then rushed to a local hospital, and airlifted to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, where he died four days later.
The parents claimed, in the lawsuit, that the school failed to protect their son under the Zackery Lystedt Law, legislation signed into law in July 2009. The law specifies how schools in Washington state handle concussions, including the removal of student athletes suspected of having concussions from practice and games. It also requires that a student athlete receive medical clearance before being allowed to participate following a concussion.
“It’s our belief that the Lystedt law governs what happened in this particular case and it should apply,” Mark Kamitomo, an attorney for the Swank family, said at the time.
Appeals Court Judge Robert Lawrence-Berrey, writing for the unanimous three-member panel, seemed to agree.
“Although VCS argues it had a right to rely on Dr. Burns’ note that Drew was fit to play, the Zackery Lystedt law does not permit VCS to ignore observable signs that Drew continued to suffer from the concussion he earlier sustained and ignore its own (concussion plan) that required VCS to remove Drew from play,” he wrote.
