Wife of ex-Cowboys RB Ron Springs sues doctors

By Barry Horn and Jason Trahan
The Dallas Morning News
Wednesday, January 23, 2008

It was a tiny cyst on his left forearm. Ron Springs, feeling healthy and happy 7 ½ months after receiving a new kidney in a much publicized transplant from friend and fellow former Cowboy Everson Walls, was eager to have it removed. It would be the first step, he believed, in regaining the use of his atrophied arms and hands.

But something went terribly wrong before the cyst could be removed. While the anesthesia was administered, Mr. Springs lapsed into a coma. He has remained hospitalized at Medical City.

Tuesday morning, Mr. Springs' wife, Adriane, filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in state district court claiming gross negligence on the part of the anesthesiologist and plastic surgeon.

Hours later, Mrs. Springs, her stepson Shawn Springs, who plays for the Washington Redskins, and Mr. Walls held a news conference at the George L. Allen Sr. court building, where the suit had been filed.

Seated next to Mr. Walls was Washington, D.C., attorney Robert Peck, who in the coming weeks plans to represent the Springs family and about a dozen other plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit seeking to have the $250,000 cap the Legislature has placed on pain-and-suffering awards declared unconstitutional. It would be the first federal challenge to the Texas cap, which voters approved as a state constitutional amendment in 2003.

Neither anesthesiologist Joyce E. Abraham, referred to by Mrs. Springs' attorney Les Weisbrod as "a rookie" who he said had been three months removed from her residency, nor Dr. David M. Godat, the plastic surgeon, responded to later requests for comment.

Medical City, which has declined to comment on the case, issued a statement later in the day: "While we cannot discuss the patient's condition, Mr. Springs will continue to receive the highest quality care at Medical City. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Mr. Springs and his family."

Mrs. Springs refuses to give up hope that her husband may someday awake from the coma.

"He has brain damage but not severe brain damage," she said.

Mr. Weisbrod offered a different analysis: "I expect the medical testimony will be he will not come out of the coma."

Mrs. Springs, who was speaking for the first time since her husband lapsed into the coma, said he is not on a respirator.

"We don't know if he recognizes us," she said about the constant flow of visitors, including former Cowboys teammates. "But we do know he feels us."

Mr. Weisbrod said that Mr. Springs, 51, "is expected to live a long time. He is in pain. He will need a lot of care and treatment."

Mr. Peck, president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, is leading the effort to get the Texas cap on pain-and-suffering damages struck down. He said the cap "violates the federal constitutional right to trial by jury."

Jon Opelt, executive director of the Texas Alliance for Patient Access, which lobbied for the cap on behalf of medical professionals and institutions, called the case "a Hail Mary." He said it's "really a states' rights question."

Paul Waldner, president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, hopes to see a Springs victory in federal court. The Texas statute, he said, "protects those who have done harm to others."