Ex-football player Armond Armstead settles lawsuit with USC
Former USC defensive lineman Armond Armstead reached a settlement with the school and team doctor James Tibone after he accused the school's medical personnel of causing a heart attack by improperly injecting him with the painkiller Toradol, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The settlement now prevents the lawsuit from going to trial, which was scheduled to start Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
"Mr. Armstead believes that the use of Toradol has not been adequately researched with respect to possible long-term consequences, especially when administered to student-athletes by team doctors repeatedly over the course of a season," Armstead’s attorneys, Roger Dreyer and Robert Bale, said in a statement Wednesday.
Armstead sued the school, Tibone and the school’s health center in August 2012, claiming "fraud, concealment and negligence" after team doctors injected him with Toradol 10 times. The school had said that Armstead had suffered a heart attack the previous March.
Torodol is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug used to treat severe pain for a short period of time. The lawsuit claimed USC medical personnel gave Armstead 60 milligrams each of Toradol because of a shoulder injury suffered during his junior season.
Tibone testified during a deposition that said Armstead's heart attack had nothing to do with Toradol, adding that he had injected the drug into players for more than a decade and no one under his care had a heart attack.
Armstead did not get selected in the NFL draft after not playing his senior season. He signed as a free agent with the New England Patriots in 2013 and medically retired last year after suffering a second heart attack.
- Scooby Axson
