Middle schooler dies after basketball game

The Associated Press
11/21/02 8:12 PM


SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- A 14-year-old boy collapsed and died after he fell during a middle-school basketball game.

Gordon Matthew Gantt Jr. was helped off the court after falling in Wednesday night's game. He gave a "thumbs-up" sign to his parents and went for a drink of water and later returned to the bench. But after the game he collapsed and was airlifted to University Hospital.

A preliminary report from the Bexar County medical examiner's office said the boy died of complications from liver lacerations in an area of a malignant tumor, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

"It was not until after the game that he experienced the problem," Cole Junior High assistant principal Linda Monk told San Antonio's WOAI-TV.

Gantt's family had moved to San Antonio from Fort Polk, La., about a month ago.


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law suits
 

this is the kind of thing where the parents will probably sue everyone who was in the building, officials,coach,AD, conference, etc....

Lets Hope
 

Let us hope that the parents in this situation are understanding, and realize that they have lost a son due to extreme sircumstances that were out of everyone's control. God bless the boy and his family.

Re: law suits
 

I do not see how? It is true that you can sue anyone for anything, but it is kind of hard to sue people that played no part in the kid collapsing. Maybe the doctor that gave a physical might be negligent, but not the officials, AD and possibly the coach more than likely had nothing to do with this. But until we know the cause of death, all of this is speculation. He could have died from something he ate and the game is where he reacted physically to the food. I am sure like anything in life, there is many sides to this story.

Just a thought.

Peace

Re: Re: law suits
 

The original post states that the child died from liver lacerations in the area of a malignant tumor.

This is a sad story but not an unpredictable one. I am a physician (Emergency Medicine) and I can assure you that it is nearly impossible to detect a situation such as this unless there were some type of symptoms that would lead the physician to investigate. There are many other examples of people collapsing on the court or playing field from congenital abnormalities that were never discovered because there were never any reasons to look for them. People get hit in the chest with a thrown ball and develop a fatal abnormality of the heart rhythm. You cannot prevent what you cannot predict. It is impossible and unreasonable to attempt to test every individual for every possible abnormality which they may have.

<b>You cannot prevent what you cannot predict. It is impossible and unreasonable to attempt to test every individual for every possible abnormality which they may have.</b>

If more people would realize this, perhaps our health care costs would not be so high as a result of so much litigation.

Of course, we can sue someone else for not preventing what we can predict. I can predict my kids will get fat by eating McDonald's Happy Meals for every meal for 15 years. I think I'll sue them...

Try telling that to the damn law professor here at GW who is leading the lawsuit(s) against McDonald's.