The National Collegiate Athletic Association and Rice University have been sued by the parents of Dale Lloyd II, who died two years ago after drinking shakes containing the nutritional supplement creatine.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association and Rice University have been sued by the parents of Dale Lloyd II, who died two years ago after drinking shakes containing the nutritional supplement creatine.
Lloyd, then a 19-year-old freshman defensive back on the Owls' football team, had sickle-cell disease, a trait found in one of every 12 African Americans and that can be diagnosed with a blood test. Rice failed to adequately screen black athletes, including Lloyd, his parents said in the complaint. Creatine has been linked to an increased risk of rhabdomyolysis, a condition that breaks down muscle fibers and releases harmful substances in the bloodstream of people with the disease.
As reported by Bloomberg News, the complaint says Lloyd and other team members were given creatine shakes on Sept. 24, 2006, and then ordered to run 16 individual 100-yard sprints. His parents claim the coaching staff ordered other players not to help Lloyd after he began having trouble breathing. Lloyd collapsed on the field after practice and never regained consciousness, dying the next day. Rice has since begun voluntary screening of athletes' blood; the NCAA is named in the suit because it has made no such changes to its policies since Lloyd's death.
