Ex-USC football player sues university, says coaches caused heart attack
Armond Armstead walks off the field after the game against the Oregon Ducks on October 4, 2008 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. / Jeff Golden/Getty Images
(CBS News) LOS ANGELES - A former University of Southern California football player is suing the university, claiming school coaches gave him painkillers that contributed to a heart attack.
Armond Armstead, now 22, claims that heart attack ruined his chances at professional football career, CBS Los Angeles reports. He is seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages in the suit, filed in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Armstead, once a 6'5" and 295-pound lineman, says the USC's team doctors and health center gave him ten injections of Toradol - a drug similar to ibuprofen - over the course of a few weeks to treat various injuries he endured in 2009 and 2010, according to CBS correspondent Suraya Fadel.
The suit claims that Armstead wasn't told of Toradol's potential side effects.
Dr. Shephal Doshi, director of Cardiac Electrophysiology at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, told CBS LA that he did not treat Armstead, but explained it would be very unlikely if Toradol was the source of the player's heart attack.
"In a young football player, you assume the player is very active, and when someone of that age develops a heart attack, we have to wonder what are the causes," Doshi said, adding: "It is pretty rare, or fairly rare and even reportable that someone can get a few doses of that medication at that young age and develop a heart attack."
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The main issue of concern is kidney damage but other problems have been reported.
Re: Heart damage, Here is a direct quote: "Taking an NSAID can increase your risk of life-threatening heart or circulation problems, including heart attack or stroke. This risk will increase the longer you use an NSAID."
Looks like the young man has a case.
Tom
Tom