High school senior suffers brain injury while playing in a school football game
A high school senior from San Marcos, California has been in a permanent vegetative state since his 2007 brain injury. The high school senior, who played football for the high school, suffered a traumatic brain injury after collapsing during a school football game. Evidence in a pending lawsuit against the school district suggests that the school was aware of the student’s health problems and that his injury could have been avoided.
An assistant student trainer at the school has come forward and stated that the senior football player had complained to the school’s athletic trainer about headaches in the days before his injury.
Under oath, the assistant student trainer stated in a deposition that the injured senior complained about severe headaches to the school’s athletic trainer and had even skipped a few practices the week before his injury. The assistant student trainer also stated that, on the day of the game, the injured senior asked the school’s athletic trainer if he could sit out for the first part of the game. According to the student trainer, the injured student even told the athletic trainer that he was having trouble seeing the football.
The assistant student trainer also claims that the school’s athletic trainer brought these health concerns to the head coach of the football team. Regardless of these warning, the coach had the senior play right away. He collapsed 45 minutes into the game.
For more on this story, please visit the San Diego Union Tribune.
While the cause of the senior’s brain injury is unreleased, trauma, such as a concussion or contusion, is one of the leading causes of PVS (permanent vegetative state). According to the Times, high school football players suffer 43,000 to 67,000 concussions per year.
