College sports are, for a lucky few, a gateway to a lucrative career in professional sports.  But for the majority of other student-athletes — who are not fortunate enough to pursue a career playing their respective sport — it is a great way to earn a scholarship for a free education.

Many times these same athletes suffer many personal injuries as result of their competitive play.   If their personal injuries are a result of playing a sport which the university brought them to play, the university would naturally cover all of the medical bills the athletes have, right?

Wrong.

Our firm’s San Diego personal injury lawyers know some colleges accept considerable amounts of responsibility for medical claims from their student-athletes, many others assume almost none.

Where does that leave you if you are a student-athlete with thousands of dollars in medical bills to pay?  Our personal injury lawyers have a resource page that can help you get medical treatment for your injuries or help you get your medical bills paid while you deal with recovery and being successful in the classroom.

Many university officials say they go out of their way to inform students about the limits of insurance, yet the situation has confused and frustrated athletes and their families, some of whom have had to pay unexpected medical bills.

Jason Whitehead, a former football player at Ohio University, was so badly personally injured during a workout in 2001 that he had to be airlifted to a hospital after he was temporarily paralyzed.

He said he took the medical bills not covered by his father’s insurance to the Ohio University trainers.  His father’s insurance and Ohio University refused to pay the claims.  Whitehead lost his scholarship one academic year after being medically disqualified by a team physician, per university policy.

But Whitehead, now a 28-year-old district manager for Frito Lay in the Cleveland area, said he discovered he owed roughly $1,800 in unpaid medical bills while reviewing paperwork to buy his first car about six years after his personal injury.

“The coach says: ‘You’re on full scholarship. If you ever get hurt, we’ll make sure to take care of you,’ ” he said.  “There’s a lot of us out there that get used.”

Our personal injury attorneys in San Diego believe that Mr. Whithead and many college athletes are unfairly treated and that the universities should cover medical bills if their athletes suffer a personal injury.  Is it fair that these young players — who put their bodies on the line — should have to cover medical bills for any personal injury they suffer while playing sports?

Please contact us for a free consultation with an experienced San Diego personal injury lawyer — we speak both English and Spanish — at (800) 655-6585.  Click here and you may also submit your case for a Free Review.  No fee if no recovery.

About Michael Pines

Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.