TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online
Email
Print
Mother Of Dead Boy Sues Youth Football League
News Channel 8 file photo
Jamell Johnson collapsed after running laps during football practice at Nuccio Park on July 12, 2006. He died nine days later.
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: July 3, 2008
Updated: 07/03/2008 08:00 pm
TAMPA – The mother of an 11-year-old boy who died two years ago after collapsing during practice with the Tampa Bay Youth Football League is suing the league over her son's death, charging officials didn't follow their own procedures.
Jamell Johnson collapsed after running laps during football practice at Nuccio Park and was rushed to the hospital July 12, 2006, as his temperature rose to 109 degrees. He died nine days later at St. Joseph's Children's Hospital. His death came four days after the death of another youth football player, Bobby Stephens Jr., who was 12 years old when he collapsed during practice.
While Johnson's death was attributed to heat stroke, the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner concluded Stephens died of hemoglobinopathy, a group of rare, inherited disorders involving abnormal structure of the hemoglobin.
Lawyer Christopher N. Ligori filed a lawsuit against the league on behalf of Connie Johnson on Wednesday. He said he filed a similar lawsuit last year in Stephens' death. Ligori said that experts have told him that Stephens' blood disorder, which he described as "very mild" sickle cell disease, would not have killed him if he had not been under excessive stress from the heat.
"All I know about Bobby Stephens is the autopsy and death certificate show he died of sickle cell anemia," said league president Scott Levinson.
Ligori said league coaches are trained specifically on how to prevent heat stroke, but did not follow the requirements in their own manual.
"They had the kids running around in a football helmet, and that's against league policy to do that on the first day of the practice," Ligori said. "They really didn't do anything they were supposed to do as far as protecting these children. It's no coincidence that two children were hospitalized and subsequently died within days of each other."
Levinson said the lawsuits would hurt efforts to help children.
"Our volunteers don't get paid," he said. "They never get paid, never have gotten paid. And I think it's pretty rotten that people that are trying to help the youth of America are now going to be scared to do it."
Ligori's allegations against the league "are his opinion," Levinson said. "I don't know how Mr. Ligori can make statements of fact when he wasn't there. Nor was I — I wasn't there, either.
"We feel deeply sorry for the families and we always will," Levinson added. "But anyone that's been involved in youth sports will tell you we also feel deeply sorry for the coaches that are having to go through this right now. They didn't ask for anything in this. And the shame of it all is if this continues and if lawyers keep doing what he's doing, are we ever going to have volunteers to keep our kids off the streets?"
Ligori said coaches are trained to know that they have to make the children drink fluids, even if they say they're not thirsty. "You're supposed to have very light and easy practices. They didn't follow that."
Ligori said the families are "not trying to bankrupt the league" with the lawsuits. He said the county required the league to have $1 million insurance policy for problems like this.
Levinson said Ligori was "not being honest" about this because Levinson, personally, as well as coaches, were named as defendants in the Stephens' lawsuit.
Bobby Stephens' family has filed a notice of claim against Hillsborough County, the first step in a lawsuit against a governmental body, Ligori said. No such claim has been filed in Johnson's death.
Because Stephens died after Johnson, league officials had to know there were problems, Ligori said.
"The big issue is this," Ligori said. "The difference they're trying to make in the case of Bobby Stephens is the blood disorder caused his death. It was just a freak thing; the 12-year old had a heart attack and died. The evidence doesn't support that and neither does the medicine."
Email
Print
TBO.com - Tampa Bay Online Member Agreement | Privacy Statement | Work With Us
