Parents win judgment in Alonso baseball player's death

A lot has happened over the half-decade since 17-year-old Matthew Miulli, running a mile as part of an Alonso High School baseball tryout session, collapsed and died on the spot.

This week the latest chapter in the tragedy was written when the youth's parents won a $2 million judgment against the Hillsborough County school district and a pediatrician. It was a melancholic victory that forced the parents to relive dark memories.

Jim and Kathleen Miulli had gotten a call on the afternoon of Jan. 19, 2005 that something was very wrong at the Alonso High practice field. They arrived as the coach continued CPR on their teenage son.

"We were driving up to the field," Jim Miulli said during an emotional interview Wednesday afternoon. "There were 300 kids there. There were baseball players, girls' softball players, soccer players."

"Walking up to him, you don't even feel your feet on the ground," Kathleen Miulli said. "I knew he was gone by looking at his eyes."

The teenager was the picture of health and fitness, but beneath it all was a life-long heart condition that had kept him from playing other sports, though he had been medically cleared to play baseball.

What might have saved his life, maybe, was a defibrillator readily accessible at the workout. The school had one, but it was inside.

Now, defibrillators are all around due to legislation passed a year after Miulli's death. The Gordon and Miulli Act, named for the local teen and a South Florida youth who also died on a practice field, put defibrillators in most of the state parks, in equipment rooms of Little League fields across Florida and in the dugouts and on sidelines of high school sporting venues.

Defibrillators now are as common in sports medical satchels as athletic tape, icepacks and rolls of gauze.

Miulli's parents were responsible for many those changes, including having mandatory physicals for athletes trying out for sports and not just for those who are on teams.

After their son's death, they embarked on a crusade that would eventually lead to changes they say help protect other student athletes.

"We put a face to what the Tampa Bay area needed and why," Jim Miulli said.

Besides the new law, the Miullis count these accomplishments: They talked the county into buying two more ambulances that over the past six years probably have saved hundreds of lives. And they got the state to close loopholes in policies involving physicals for public school athletes.

And then they won the lawsuit this week. On Monday, a civil court jury awarded the Miullis a judgment of just over $2 million. They had sued the Florida High School Athletic Association, the Hillsborough County school district and the youth's pediatrician.

In 2008, the FHSAA won a motion to dismiss and it was dropped from the case.

After the teen died, but before the law was passed, the FHSAA made it mandatory for every school in the state to have at least two portable defibrillators at all district, region and state events. The action was a direct result of Miulli's death, his parents said.

Another mandatory change imposed by the FHSAA was that every school must have on file a student-athlete's parental consent and release form and a pre-participation physical evaluation form before that athlete can participate in any type of physical conditioning, even tryouts.

"The important thing that came out of this tragedy," said attorney Bryan Caulfield, who represented Miulli's family in the lawsuit, "was better rules that benefitted the safety of every Florida student-athlete."

The verdict was delivered Monday, he said, after the jury deliberated for four hours. It awarded $2,025,000 to the Miullis, Caulfield said. The school district was assessed 5 percent of the total award; the teen's pediatrician, Erwin Shartz and his employer, Healthpoint Medical Group, were assessed a total of 35 percent.

The jury also found Kathleen and Jim Miulli largely culpable because they were aware of the condition. They were responsible for 60 percent of the total, the jury found, and the award was reduced by that percentage. So, they are due about $800,000.

"I respect totally their decision," Kathy Miulli said Wednesday.

She said her son suffered from aortic stenosis, a condition that had been diagnosed right after his birth. The family was aware of the risks and the teen knew to watch for symptoms. But his love for the game overcame caution, his mother said. They thought he would be fine.

He was an active teen who had played baseball his whole life, starting in Little League, she said. Miulli had transferred to Alonso from Tampa Catholic and was eager to make the baseball team, she said. He played junior varsity baseball at Tampa Catholic the year before.

"He was a great kid who loved the game of baseball," his father said.

Caulfield said the court case is far from over.

"We're still in a fight," he said. "This is just the jury's verdict. Experience tells me that they will appeal this."

Attempts to reach the attorneys representing Healthpoint and Shartz were unsuccessful Wednesday.

"We're not making any comments on it," said district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe.

But the court fight, Caulfield said, is only part of the story.

After the teen's death, his parents made numerous trips to Tallahassee to urge lawmakers to make changes, the attorney said. And it paid off. Legislators unanimously passed the Gordon and Miulli Act and authorized the Florida Department of Health to make grants available so leagues and districts could buy defibrillators.

Coaches and trainers also were taught how to use the devices.

"They are simple tools that save lives," Jim Miulli said.

Defibrillators restore a normal heart rhythm when the heartbeat becomes irregular.

The American Heart Association estimates one in every 200,000 high school athletes dies during play. More than 200,000 Americans die each year of cardiac arrest. But up to 50,000 of those deaths – one in four – could be prevented if a defibrillator is immediately used, according to the American Red Cross.

If the jury verdict withstands any appeals, the Miullis plan to use the money to establish scholarships at Tampa Catholic and for college-bound Alonso High graduates.

"And maybe," Jim Miulli said, "set up a baseball tournament in Matt's name."