Lawyer threatens lawsuit after student-athlete death report
(AP) The Latest on an independent investigation into the heatstroke death of a 19-year-old football player after training at a Kansas community college (all times local):
4:15 p.m.
Attorneys for the family of a 19-year-old football player who died of heatstroke after conditioning practice at a Kansas community college says they plan to sue the school, unless it wants to discuss a settlement.
Kansas attorney Chris Dove spoke Thursday after the college released a scathing independent report on Garden City Community College’s conduct the day Braeden Bradforth died. Dove calls it a damning investigation.
He says it would be in the best interests of the teen’s mother’s mental and psychological state to not drag it out much longer.
Bradforth, a 315-pound defensive lineman, was found unconscious outside his dormitory after practice on Aug. 1, 2018. The New Jersey native died that night at a hospital.
The mother’s attorney in New Jersey, Jill Greene, says the report is their ammunition.
Jeff Sims was the head football coach in Garden City at the time. He’s now the head coach of Missouri Southern’s football team.
12:15 p.m.
An independent investigation into the heatstroke death of a 19-year-old football player who collapsed after the first day of conditioning practice at a Kansas community college has found “a striking lack of leadership.”
Braeden Bradforth, a 315-pound defensive lineman for Garden City Community College, was found unconscious in an alley outside his dormitory after practice on Aug. 1, 2018. The New Jersey native died that night at a hospital.
The scathing report highlights a lack of oversight, a failure to assess athletes prior to the conditioning test and a lack of attention paid to Bradforth’s personal fitness.
Staff didn’t consider whether he had acclimatized to the higher altitude and wasn’t prepared to deal with exertional heat illness. The reports says no staff or emergency personnel treated his escalating symptoms of heat stroke.