Athletes expect that their athletic trainers will be able to assess their injuries and look out for their best interests. In fact, under Illinois law, when a person takes a job in which they are responsible for providing a service to another person, and they fail to use reasonable care in carrying out that service, and as a result an injury occurs, that is enough to potentially hold the person liable in an Illinois personal injury lawsuit.
As per a recent report by MSNBC, that’s exactly what happened earlier this month when a public school district agreed to pay a $4.4 million settlement to a former high school athlete who suffered a head injury playing high school football, and now must communicate through a keyboard. The facts in the case alleged that the boy sustained a concussion in an earlier game, but athletic trainers responsible for his care allowed him to participate with the concussion in a later game that caused his permanent injury.
At the time he was hurt, the young man was a high school senior and a linebacker on his school’s football team. He took a prior hit to the head, and, as per MSNBC‘s report, the team’s head coach ignored signs that he was in distress. According to deposition transcripts from the case, an assistant athletic trainer for the school reported that symptoms of a concussion were ignored; in the deposition, the assistant trainer said that, a week before the injury, the young man complained to the team’s athletic trainer about having headaches, which caused him to miss certain parts of practice, and that, just a few minutes before the game, the boy asked if he could sit out the first quarter because his head was hurting, but the coach refused to take him out of the game, reported MSNBC.