Scott Wartman, Cincinnati Enquirer, May 20, 2015, Updated May 20, 2015
A Kentucky high school football player sued Newport Central Catholic High School after being infected with MRSA.
EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE:
The lawsuit filed in Campbell County Circuit Court claims the cut Brycen McWilliams sustained became infected with a virulent strain of the staph bacteria from the artificial turf on the field.
McWilliams, a junior running back from Somerset High School in south central Kentucky, spent weeks in the hospital and missed part of the spring semester as the infection festered, his attorney Tad Thomas said. The infection was Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which doesn't respond to antibiotics. He still suffers residual effects, Thomas said.
"It almost killed him," Thomas said.
McWilliams sued Newport Independent Schools, Newport Central Catholic and the Motz Group, a Cincinnati-firm the school had contracted the previous summer to clean the field after a flash flood.
"We're hoping schools will have a better policy for cleaning and maintaining these artificial turf fields," Thomas said.