Ex-football player suing Lake Erie College over injury

A former Lake Erie College football player is suing the Painesville school for allegedly failing to provide proper medical care after an injury.

Sandusky resident Will Rickard filed a complaint for medical malpractice recently in Lake County Common Pleas Court.

Rickard was a student at the private liberal arts college from the fall of 2015 until December 2016 and played football under a full-tuition scholarship for the Lake Erie College Storm.

After injuring his right wrist during a team practice on Sept. 14, 2016, he was treated by athletic trainers and never got to see Dr. Shana Miskovsky, the team physician, attorney Florence Murray said.

“He kept asking for an X-ray and he never got one,” Murray said, adding, “They kept sending him back out. Athletic trainers are not doctors.”

Head Athletic Trainer Molly Hoffman, Associate Athletic Trainer Zach Hoffman and Miskovsky, who oversees the trainers, are named in the suit along with the college.

Rickard did not get the proper medical treatment for a displaced nonunion fracture of the navicular bone of his right hand in time — placing him at an increased risk of harm for further injury to his wrist, Murray said.

Rickard transferred to Saginaw Valley State University in the spring 2017 semester expecting to receive a scholarship. However, he is reportedly no longer able to play football because of his injury.

Rickard is claiming the college was negligent by failing to properly train and supervise its employees to provide proper care and seeking unspecified damages.

“The college holds utmost confidence in its athletic training staff and is confident the facts in this case will show these claims are baseless,” said Michelle Kolk, Lake Erie College’s director of public relations.

Rickard declined comment.

The case has been assigned to Judge John P. O’Donnell.

In other news