High School Football Injury

What is the name of your state?
Alabama

My son graduated from high school last year and is playing football and baseball in college. His Junior year of high school he injured his shoulder playing football. I took him to the hospital and they said he was okay. To be safe I also took him to our Orthopedic surgeon who is also the "Team Doctor". I was assured that he was fine. We made many visits to the same Othpedic Surgeon because he continued to have pain. They did x-rays, MRIs and the whole deal. All the while assuring both of us that he was okay to continue to play.
He continued to have the same problem after starting football at college. When he started college baseball his coach was concerned about this and had the team trainer get him into see an excellent Orthopedic Surgeon. Athletes from all over the world come to this doctor, he has done surgery on Michael Jordan, Bo Jackson and Jake Peavy just to name a few. When he saw my son's x-rays the first thing he did was to point to his collar bone and say "this should have never gotten to me". He said the collar bone had been fractured for a very long time and that injury had caused a whole host of other problems. He did surgery the next morning. It will be a long rehabilation but he thinks my son will be okay.
It is this doctor's opinion that this fracture was from the original injury his junior year in high school for which he had been seeing the other doctors for almost two years.
Is this grounds for a malpractice?
I am also very angry that the high school coach and the team doctor were telling not only my son, but a lot of others kids that they were released to play. I want this stopped more than anything!
Please lend some advice as to what actions I should take.

consult with an attorney who specializes in medical malpractice. is the current doctor willing to be part of a lawsuit as your expert witness to testify that the prior doctors committed malpractice? If you dont know, you should talk with the doctor and see if he is willing to back up his opinion.

The School

This may not be the correct thread to ask this, but another concern is that the coach would send all of his players to this same Orthopedic surgeon and he would always release them to play. There are quite a few kids that will have problems for the rest of there life because of this, and all over a stupid High School football game! I'm not really looking for any money out of this, I don't want this kind of thing happening to other kids. If a law suit is the only way to amke sure it stops, I am prepared to do that too.

HEYJUD
If I look at this from the point of the defense, I must point out the hospital's findings of no problem and the numerous x-rays, MRIs, etc. that also show no problem. The Orthopedic MD in question will have those diagnositic films and reports to substantiate his medical opinion that the child was able to participate in sports. The x-ray films and reports will speak for themselves. Unless you have copies of the films showing a fracture or displacement and unless you have the transcribed radiological reports that state the presence of a fracture of displacement, you have no chance of proving negligence.

I understand the college, or university's, athletes' MD saying it should never have gotten this far. The university does not want the liability of injuring a student. Your son should not have entered into a sports scholarship agreement while having current or chronic physical complaints.

As the parent of an athlete with college scholarship offers, I understand the desire to have one's child succeed in gaining the opportunities available to athletes. I do not understand allowing one's child to play for two years in high school with consistent complaints of unrelieved pain that is aggravated by playing sports. Parental responsibility is greater than sports MDs' responsibilities.

My athlete opted to go to a university with no Fast Pitch Girls Softball team, sigh, but she met her objective and recently graduated magna cum laude. Way to go #8!

Your son can do the same--take care of his health and protect his future.

EC