Mother and father sue Bucknell alleging hazing led to freshman soccer participant’s demise : NPR

The household of a Bucknell College soccer participant who died after his first soccer apply final July has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the varsity, Bucknell officers and athletic workers, alleging his demise was the results of a hazing ritual for freshmen gamers.

Calvin “CJ” Dickey, 18, was doing “up-downs” together with his teammates within the Lewisburg, Pa., faculty’s Pascucci Crew Heart on July 10, 2024, when he collapsed, based on the lawsuit that was filed within the Court docket of Widespread Pleas in Philadelphia County on Wednesday.

Dickey died two days later after being handled at a hospital for a excessive coronary heart price earlier than being recognized with “train collapse related to sickle cell trait,” rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure, based on an post-mortem report issued in January by Montour County and obtained by NPR.

Rhabdomyolysis, additionally referred to as rhabdo, is a situation when proteins and electrolytes from broken muscle tissue are launched into the bloodstream, straining the kidneys. Medical doctors warn that sickle cell trait, an inherited blood dysfunction, may be deadly when coupled with rhabdo.

Within the lawsuit, Dickey’s mother and father, Calvin Dickey Sr. and Nicole Dickey, and their lawyer, Mike Caspino, say Bucknell athletic trainers and coaches knew their son had sickle cell trait and “did not take the steps vital” to make sure precautions had been in place to forestall hurt. They are saying they need the varsity and athletic workers to take accountability for his demise and to offer a full account of what occurred main as much as it.

“We now have requested repeatedly for not only a high-level overview of what occurred that day, however for the small print, the precise absolutely clear particulars of what occurred to him that day,” Nicole Dickey tells NPR.

“We have reached the purpose with Bucknell the place we don’t really feel that we will get that,” she says. “The one path for us to get that fact is to file the civil lawsuit.”

CJ’s mom provides, “We’re doing this for our little one as a result of for us … like a giant piece of my coronary heart is gone. I’ve acquired to get justice for my little one.”

Throughout a press convention after the lawsuit was filed, Caspino claimed Bucknell is “doing all the pieces it could actually to cover the information surrounding CJ’s demise.”

“I dare to ask, what on the earth are they hiding? What’s so unhealthy that they cannot inform the mother and father, the grieving mother and father of a son who died, what occurred and do not wish to share it with the world?,” he stated.

What the lawsuit alleges

Dickey arrived at Bucknell on the morning of July 10, 2024, the place he was set to attend a workforce assembly, to fulfill with medical workers, have a “walkthrough” apply open air and go to the Pascucci Crew Heart fitness center for “a lightweight exercise with no weights” within the afternoon, based on the lawsuit.

As soon as within the weight room, Dickey and different gamers had been informed to do the up-downs, an train the place an individual shortly goes right down to the bottom within the type of a pushup and stands again up, as a type of punishment as a result of a few of the freshmen athletes had “‘tousled’ on some drills,” the lawsuit says.

Mark Kulbis, a power and conditioning coach on the time who was current in the course of the exercise, pushed Dickey to proceed doing 100 up-downs though he was struggling and seemed to be in misery, witnesses, together with college students, say based on the lawsuit. And an athletic coach was not current in the course of the exercise as required by NCAA protocols, the lawsuit says.

The swimsuit alleges “it’s an annual ceremony of passage” for freshmen to carry out “intense, rigorous workout routines that extra senior gamers usually are not required to carry out. No objective is served aside from gratuitous cruelty. … Every should carry out or be benched or reduce. For CJ, that proved deadly.”

It additionally alleges that Bucknell President John Bravman, Affiliate Athletic Director for Sports activities Drugs Ian Wooden, Interim Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Tim Pavlechko, Head Coach Dave Cecchini and then-Athletic Director Jermaine Truax, knew of Kulbis “cruelly abusing freshman gamers on the primary day of apply” and that they “accepted of and condoned Kulbis’ reckless conduct.”

Three months after Dickey’s demise, one other freshman offensive lineman “suffered rhabdomyolysis following certainly one of Kulbis’ abusive conditioning classes,” the lawsuit additionally alleges. “That participant survived however suffered severe damage.”

Bucknell informed NPR in a press release, “the demise of a pupil is all the time a tragic loss” and it’s conscious of the lawsuit.

“Whereas the College is not going to touch upon pending litigation, we once more prolong heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s household, and we’ll proceed to give attention to our most vital precedence — the well being and security of all Bucknell college students,” the college stated in a press release.

Requested about allegations within the lawsuit and whether or not he knew Dickey had sickle cell trait, Kulbis informed NPR: “Clearly, a tragedy. You understand, my coronary heart goes out to that household … simply horrible” and declined additional remark.

NPR additionally reached out to Truax, Cecchini, Pavlechko and Wooden for touch upon Wednesday however has not obtained a response.

A uncommon and deadly mixture

Dickey performed sports activities since he was 5 years previous, together with Little League Baseball, whereas dwelling in Tampa, Fla., based on his household. However as he acquired older, soccer grew to become the aspiring pharmacist’s ardour.

“It was like a pure wildfire for him. He simply gravitated towards soccer,” Calvin Dickey Sr. says.

Dickey was wholesome and didn’t have any sicknesses whereas enjoying sports activities however was recognized with sickle cell trait by obligatory NCAA testing earlier than his first day at Bucknell, his household says.

Sickle cell trait is inherited from an individual who has a sickle cell gene, and whereas it may be present in anybody it’s distinguished in Black and Latino People. About 1 in 13 infants within the U.S. who’re Black are born with sickle cell trait, based on the Nationwide Coronary heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Individuals with the trait might not have signs however can have durations of ache like these with sickle cell illness. All infants born within the U.S. are screened for sickle cell trait and sickle cell illness, based on the American Society of Hematology. Practically 2.5 million People have sickle cell trait.

After Dickey collapsed, he was recognized with rhabdomyolysis at a group hospital and transported to Geisinger Medical Heart, a trauma middle. His well being quickly declined and he developed kidney failure, based on the lawsuit. Muscular tissues in his arms and calves additionally started to swell from compartmentalization, having to be reduce open to alleviate strain. Throughout surgical procedure, Dickey went into cardiac arrest a number of occasions earlier than his household requested medical doctors to cease efforts to avoid wasting his life, the swimsuit says.

His explanation for demise was “dilated cardiomyopathy sophisticated by rhabdomyolysis,” based on the post-mortem report by Montour County. Sickle cell trait and an “elevated physique mass index,” that means his weight was better than what is taken into account regular for his peak, had been listed as contributing components.

When he was admitted to the hospital, Dickey was 291 kilos however he weighed over 350 kilos when he died, based on his mother and father. Dilated cardiomyopathy is when the center turns into enlarged and its muscle groups weakened, resulting in the center not having the ability to pump sufficient blood to the physique.

A separate non-public post-mortem, carried out on behalf of the household, additionally concluded that sickle cell trait contributed to his demise.

Individuals with sickle cell trait are at a better danger of growing exertional rhabdo, based on Dr. Crawford Strunk, a workers doctor with the Cleveland Clinic who was not concerned with the case and didn’t deal with Dickey. That is when muscle tissue breaks down due to extreme train, bodily coaching or work.

“Sadly, when you will have rhabdomyolysis to the extent that this younger man did, it’s usually deadly,” says Strunk, who can be vice chief medical officer for the Sickle Cell Illness Affiliation of America. “It’s often 48 hours after the collapse, as a number of organ techniques fail regardless of the medical groups’ makes an attempt at stopping the rhabdomyolysis and offering satisfactory therapy.”

Athletes with sickle cell trait or sickle cell illness can face quite a few well being points, together with blood clots, based on Dr. Jervis Yau, an orthopedic surgeon who has been a workforce doctor for a number of sports activities groups in California and can be unconnected to the therapy and litigation.

“Sickle cell illness can have an effect on varied joints, massive and small, in addition to different components of the musculoskeletal system,” Yau says.

The perfect therapy is prevention

Demise in sports activities from sickle trait and rhabdo is uncommon, but it surely has led to the deaths of different faculty athletes.

Since 2014, at the least 10 faculty athletes have died from problems of sickle cell trait, together with one associated to rhabdo, based on the Nationwide Heart for Catastrophic Sport Damage Analysis. Seven of these deaths had been due to exertional sickling, a life-threatening situation by which purple blood cells grow to be formed like a sickle or “C” throughout intense train.

After the 2006 demise of Dale Lloyd II, a Rice College soccer participant who collapsed throughout a exercise and died from problems of sickle cell trait, the NCAA required testing of all Division I athletes for the situation as a part of a settlement together with his household. The NCAA now requires all athletes be examined for sickle cell trait.

Athletic departments are additionally required to have emergency plans and protocols for these with sickle cell trait. The NCAA Sports activities Drugs Handbook additionally recommends that athletic departments “don’t use train and conditioning actions as punishment.” The Dickeys say a protocol for athletes with the situation was not shared with them by Bucknell’s athletic trainers and coaches.

One of the simplest ways to deal with rhabdo in athletes with sickle cell trait is stopping it from occurring, Strunk says. That features mother and father, gamers, coaches and athletic coaching workers being conscious of sickle cell trait and its dangers. He says there must also be a exercise plan with gamers with sickle cell trait and ongoing discussions with them about their limitations in coaching and exercises.

Gamers must be eased into exercises steadily, particularly when beginning a brand new season, says A.J. Duffy III, president of the Nationwide Athletic Trainers’ Affiliation.

“It is having the coaches — power and conditioning coaches — working with the athletic coaching workers in order that in the course of the transition interval, you are at a gradual enhance in exercise so the physique acclimates not solely to warmth, however to the stresses which are positioned on it throughout these preseason practices,” Duffy says.

Calvin Dickey Sr. and Nicole Dickey say they hope sharing what occurred to their son will stop it from occurring to extra athletes, will result in change in sports activities conditioning at Bucknell and different colleges and lift consciousness of the hazards of sickle cell trait in sports activities.

“This could by no means have occurred. It was 100% preventable. And if we preserve silent and we’re not upfront and sincere about it, then it could actually occur once more,” Nicole Dickey says.