Philadelphia Flyers hockey player sues team, doctor over care of injury

Ex-NHL star, team will square off in a rare medical malpractice case against the team physician.

By Tanya Albert, AMNews staff. May 20, 2002.

A professional hockey player is taking his former team physician and the team's owners to court, accusing the doctor of medical malpractice and the team and the doctor of fraud.

Dave Babych, who played with the Philadelphia Flyers in the late 1990s, claims that the team physician in April 1998 told him his foot injury was "more of a bone bruise than a broken bone, so it could heal on its own," according to court documents.

About 10 days later, he said, he got an injection in his foot, laced up his skates and went out on the ice before the season's first playoff game. But he still felt pain, so he went back to the locker room and removed his skate.

He told the coach he couldn't skate even with the injections. According to the court documents, Babych said team physician Arthur Bartolozzi, MD, an orthopedic surgeon, suggested another injection so he wouldn't be able to feel his foot during the game.

"I asked Dr. Bartolozzi if my foot would be 'all right' and Dr. Bartolozzi told me that my foot could not get hurt any more," Babych said in court documents. "Coach [Roger] Neilson said you got to play." Babych said he played in the next four games.

In his lawsuit, the former NHL player claims the decision to let him play led to a career-ending injury.

Dr. Bartolozzi's attorney, John A. Talvacchia, said Babych's fracture healed normally, pointing out that Babych went on to play the next year with the Flyers and the Los Angeles Kings. In the 1999-2000 season, he played briefly in Europe. [...]