Former Major League Baseball star Avisail Garcia is suing the University of Miami over a medical diagnosis he claims led to a career-ending injury. Garcia alleges that Miami physicians neglected to treat the injury that ended his career – a stress fracture in his lower back – for over a year.
According to Garcia’s lawsuit, doctors at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine failed to order a necessary CT scan after an MRI showed a pars defect, or stress fracture. The 2017 American League All-Star says he instead treated with rigorous physical therapy and injections to relieve muscular or disc discomfort, which made the condition worse.
His attorney, Jorge Silva, told NBC 6 South Florida that “the radiology report making the proper diagnosis with the proper recommendation fell through the cracks.”
The lawsuit faults doctors for “failing to properly examine, evaluate, diagnose, and treat Avisail Antonio Garcia” and “failing to communicate the correct diagnosis to Avisail Antonio Garcia.”
“Had the defendant, by and through its multiple physicians, acted appropriately based on the findings on the MRI of June 4, 2023, which unambiguously and clearly reported ‘bilateral L5 pars interarticularis defect,’ Avi would have had a targeted plan of treatment for his specific condition,” the lawsuit claims. “Instead, for over one full year, his treatment consisted of injections and therapy that was dramatically deleterious, including weightlifting and high-intensity baseball. All Avi needed was rest and possibly a back brace.”
It wasn’t until after Miami released him that he got proper treatment
The lawsuit goes on to state that after the Miami Marlins released him, a New York physician performed “extensive back surgery,” stabilizing the affected area with plates and screws. Garcia’s attorneys contend that if the initial imaging and treatment course had been different, they may have avoided the treatments that caused more damage. The lawsuit claims that the misdiagnosis cut Garcia’s career short and the delays in diagnosis and treatment left him with chronic discomfort.
Avisail Garcia announced his retirement in February, almost two years after the Marlins designated him for assignment and released him, despite signing him to a four-year, $53 million deal before the 2022 season. In his final, mostly healthy season, Garcia played in 135 games and hit 29 home runs with 86 RBI for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2021.
The Miami Herald reports that lawyers for the University of Miami doctors claim Garcia “was fully informed of the risks of the treatment provided to him and, with appreciation of those risks, voluntarily participated in conduct that exposed him to the damages now complained of…”