An Ohio state court has ruled that Bowling Green State University was not liable for the death of a student athlete, who while at football practice suffered cramping and subsequently died.
Specifically, the court noted that because of the football player’s sickle cell trait condition, the athletic trainers could not have been expected to act any sooner than they did in trying to save the player.
On September 15, 2004, Aaron M. Richardson left football practice after he began to experience cramping in his legs. Once in the locker room, Student Assistant Coach Gerald Berry, who was tending to Richardson, sent another assistant to get a trainer. At that point, the cramps moved up to Richardson’s abdomen. “Barry admitted that he thought about calling 911 at that moment but that he did not feel he had the authority to do so,” noted the court. The trainer arrived, and finding Richardson’s pulse to be very weak decided to call 911. As she was placing the call from an adjacent room, one of the other assistants called for help because Richardson had stopped breathing and had no pulse.
Davidson grabbed the Automatic Electronic Defibrillator (AED). “In the next few minutes they attempted to revive Aaron,” wrote the court. “AED records indicate that the device was activated at 3:44 p.m. The ambulance arrived at 3:47 p.m., left with Aaron at 3:48 p.m., and arrived at the hospital at 4:05 p.m. Aaron never regained consciousness and he was pronounced dead at 5:35 p.m.
A lawsuit was filed by Richardson’s family.
In providing background, the court noted that “Aaron’s brother, Jaron, was diagnosed with sickle cell disease at birth. When Aaron was tested for the disease at the age of seven it was determined that Aaron had sickle cell trait but not sickle cell disease. The medical experts who testified in this case agree that sickle cell is a genetic abnormality affecting the blood. The red blood cells in sickle cell patients experience a diminished capacity to carry oxygen. A crisis occurs when the red blood cells become hypoxic and collapse into a sickle shape. The deformation of the red blood cells causes the blood vessels to become clogged. The pressure in the blood vessels causes significant pain in the affected area and the restricted blood flow can result in ischemic injuries to muscle tissue and vital organs.
“A patient with sickle cell disease inherits the abnormal gene from both parents whereas a sickle cell trait patient inherits the gene from just one parent. Patients with sickle cell disease experience sickling and related physiological problems throughout their lives and they require lifetime treatment. Sickle cell trait patients rarely experience adverse effects from the disease and may never require treatment. Indeed, while Jaron had endured more than 300 sickle cell crises in his 19 years, Aaron had never experienced a single such crisis.”
The plaintiff’s argument was that “when Aaron first complained of cramping while stretching on the practice field, the standard of care required an immediate evaluation of his condition by a qualified athletic trainer. The plaintiff alleged that a competent evaluation at or about 3:00 p.m. would have alerted the training staff to the possibility that Aaron’s condition was more serious than simple exertional cramping. The plaintiff posits that a call for emergency medical attention made at or near that time would have assured that Aaron would receive life-saving treatment.
“Given the proximity of the practice field to both the local emergency squad and an emergent care facility, it is reasonable to conclude that a squad would have arrived at the field within five or ten minutes of the emergency call and that Aaron would have arrived at Wood County Hospital for life-saving care within 20 to 25 minutes of the call. Indeed, the evidence is that the local emergency squad arrived just five minutes after Davidson dialed 911 and that Aaron arrived at the hospital 23 minutes after the call. The time of cardiac arrest is fixed by the testimony and other evidence at approximately 3:43 p.m., which is when Aaron stopped breathing and lost consciousness.”
After reviewing the evidence and the expert testimony from both sides, the court concluded that “the standard of care did not require defendant’s training staff to perform an examination of Aaron before he left the field.” The court agreed with the defendant’s expert, Michigan State University Head Athletic Trainer Stephen Monroe, a past president of the National Association of Athletic Trainers, who suggested that “cramping in the lower legs is a common condition among practicing athletes and that an athlete who complains of calf pain after having run pre-practice gassers, need not be evaluated by training staff.”
In addition, it noted that “the defendant’s training staff could not have had knowledge that Aaron had sickle cell trait or even that he suffered from any other medical condition that would have put him at risk of a more serious problem. In short, while it may have been prudent for the coaches to inform the training staff of Aaron’s complaints before ordering him off the field, the plaintiff has failed to prove either that the standard of care required an immediate, on-the-field evaluation by defendant’s training staff or that such an evaluation would have resulted in a different course of action.”
Turning to whether university employees should have immediately called 911, the court wrote that “the weight of the evidence establishes that the dramatic downward spiral in Aaron’s condition from the point in time when he first experienced whole-body cramping to the time of his death was so precipitous that Aaron’s survival was unlikely. While the evidence does not permit the court to pinpoint the moment in time when Aaron’s life was irretrievably lost, the evidence persuades the court that such a point in time was much earlier in the course of events than plaintiff suggests.”
“Additionally,” noted the court, “the medical evidence suggests that sickle cell patients who experience a crisis due to exertion have a lower survival rate than those whose sickling can be attributed to other causes. As noted by several of the medical experts who testified in this case, the survival rate for sickle cell trait patients who experience an exertional sickling crisis, such as Aaron, is unknown. In a negligence action, the plaintiff has the burden of establishing the essential element of proximate cause. See Mussivand v. David (1989), 45 Ohio St.3d 314, 318, 544 N.E.2d 265. The plaintiff has not met that burden.”
Estate of Aaron M. Richardson, etc. v. Bowling Green State University; Court of Claims of Ohio; Case No. 2005-10179, 2010 Ohio 3475; 2010 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 135; 7/26/10
