Lawsuit claims turf gave prep football player MRSA

An Ohio high school football player has filed a lawsuit against two school districts after sustaining a cut during a game he claims led to a staph infection.

Brycen McWilliams, a running back at Somerset High School, received the injury during a November 2013 game against Newport Central Catholic. The game was played on the field at Newport High School, which the lawsuit claims wasn’t clean and led to the Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:

The lawsuit filed in Campbell County Circuit Court claims the cut 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 just south of Lexington, spent weeks in the hospital and missed part of the spring semester as the infection festered, his attorney Tad Thomas said. The infection was 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.

An attorney for one of the districts named in the suit claims the school staff regularly disinfects the field and follows the manufacturer’s guidelines, according to the article. He said McWilliams can’t prove the MRSA came from the artificial turf.

The article did not specify exactly what McWilliams is asking for in the lawsuit.

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