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Family of GCCC football who died after practice sues medical personnel

Source: , Posted On:   07 December 2020

Family of GCCC football who died after practice sues medical personnel

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - The family of a former Garden City Community College football player who died of heatstroke after an August 2018 practice has sued the medical personnel who responded to the emergency call and provided initial treatment for 19-year-old Braeden Bradforth.

The Garden City Telegram reported after the team’s first practice on Aug. 1, 2018, a teammate found Bradforth, a New Jersey native, in his dorm, in medical distress. He was transported to St. Catherine Hospital where he died about two hours after he was found.

Former GCCC Head Football Coach Jeffrey Sims said doctors believed a blood clotting issue led Bradforth to have a heart attack, but autopsy results showed it was heatstroke. Kansas City, Mo. NPR station KCUR reports the lawsuit, filed in late October in Finney County District Court, accuses the ambulance crew, the hospital, and the emergency department doctor of medical negligence.

The station reports that the lawsuit claims that the EMS crew who worked for Finney County failed to measure Bradforth’s core body temperature and didn’t timely and properly cool the 19-year-old. It also accuses the St. Catherine Hospital emergency department doctor of failing to timely treat Bradforth or get him to a specialist.

In late July, Garden City Community College announced that it reached a settlement with Bardforth’s family. KCUR reports that the settlement was for $500,000.

Last November, Garden City Community College released the findings of an external, independent investigation to Bradforth’s family and the public. The college said since Bradforth’s death, it has taken actions to help athletes, including modified practice times to account for potentially dangerous outside temperatures, as well as a protocol to better recognize and treat heat-related illness.

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