It was a steamy August day in Louisville, Ky., and 15-year-old Max Gilpin was sprinting. Despite the 94-degree heat, Pleasure Ridge Park High School football coach David Jason Stinson had the team running short sprints. Players call them “gassers,” but when Max collapsed on the field, he hadn’t simply run out of gas. His body temperature had soared to 107 degrees. Max was rushed to hospital, but he died three days later of heatstroke, a bacterial infection, and multiple organ failure.
Earlier this month, Stinson went on trial for Max’s death in 2008. The former coach faced charges of reckless homicide and wanton endangerment. Although some of Max’s teammates testified that “gassers” had made a number of students ill, others said the sprints were a normal part of practice. Max was ill that day, and he was taking creatine, a dietary supplement, and Adderall, a drug prescribed for attention deficit disorder. Medical experts testified that his illness and the medication may have contributed to his death.
It took 90 minutes for the jurors to come back with a verdict of not guilty. Max’s death was a tragic accident, the jury decided, but Stinson was not responsible for it. The Stinson trial prompted Kentucky to pass a law requiring coaches to take a four-hour course on how to handle emergencies, heat-related injuries, head injuries, and first aid. Even so, some people are crying foul.
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