Juan is a promising basketball player that shows exceptional skills. He is offered a scholarship to play Division I ball at State University. He is very excited for the opportunity, as he sees this as his ticket to fame and fortune. Sometimes when he plays ball he has a hard time catching his breath and has chest pain, but he attributes that to late night parties. He resolves to get more sleep and party less with his friends. Juan doesn't mention this to anyone and has managed to pass the medical tests required for all athletes to play at State. The team plays very well and by January they are expected to win their conference and qualify for March Madness. After a monster triple-double game Juan tells his coach that he had times on the court where he cannot catch his breath and feels dizzy. The coach tells him initially to rehydrate and get a good night's sleep. The next day at practice Juan feels better but asks to see the team doctor, assuming that the coach spoke to him but he hadn't. The team doctor is employed by the university and the associated hospital, The coach sees the doctor with Juan and at that point he tells the doc to "perform the works to make sure Juan is good to go to play tomorrow." This was overheard by Juan's girlfriend Laura. The doctor does a quick examination on Juan. He notices that Juan's heartbeat is erratic and draws some blood for some tests. Although he asked for the tests to be completed as soon as possible he doesn't follow up with State's hospital center, which is adjacent to campus. He doesn't perform any other tests. The hospital lab subsequently misfiles the blood as a standard order and does not complete the tests for two days. The day after meeting with the doctor Juan's extended family drives up to watch him play. During warmups for the game, Juan suffers a cardiovascular event and collapses on the court. Juan's mother sees it happen and also requires emergency medical attention.

Directions:

1The purpose of this assignment is to develop an outline that you will use as a framework for the final paper.

2. INTRODUCTION. will include:

A. Summary of the main facts of the case.

B. Identification all the potential legal issues (i.e. cause of actions) in the fact pattern,

C. Thesis sentence on the focus of the paper.

3.BODY of the paper.

A. What is the responsibility of medical doctors in screening student-athletes?

B. What duty does a doctor owe a patient?

C.Is the hospital (employer of the doctor) liable?

D. What defenses are available to the doctor and the hospital? I.E., what can they argue to defend themselves?

E. As a member of the hospital administrative team, what three concrete changes can you recommend to processes and procedures to prevent something like this from happening again?

4. CLOSING paragraph.