April 28, 2008 - Parents Sue University of Tulsa for Son's Wrongful Death

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April 28, 2008 - The parents of Devin Adair, a University of Tulsa football player who died in April 2006, filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Friday against the University and a local orthopedic center that treated their son.

The 21-year-old from Manhattan Beach, California, died soon after starting school at the University of Tulsa in January. He had just completed spring football drills.

Adair died as a result of a flesh-eating bacteria, which his parents claim could have been successfully treated with penicillin.

The lawsuit claims that health care providers were negligent in treating Adair and that the University was negligent by failing to instate adequate policies and procedures for the treatment and well-being of student athletes. The lawsuit also alleges that the University was negligent in supervising its coaching staff because it allowed coaches to impose punishment drills on athletes.

The University and the orthopedic center both declined to comment on the case.

The head coach at the time of Adair's death, Steve Kragthorpe, who currently coaches for the University of Louisville, was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks for compensatory and punitive damages in excess of $75,000.

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