Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. is seen on a cruise together with his household in 2023. He died July 12, 2024, after his first soccer apply at Bucknell College.
Calvin and Nicole Dickey
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Calvin and Nicole Dickey
The household of a Bucknell College soccer participant who died after his first soccer apply final July has filed a lawsuit in opposition to the college, Bucknell officers and athletic employees, alleging his dying was the results of a hazing ritual for freshmen gamers.
Calvin “CJ” Dickey, 18, was doing “up-downs” together with his teammates within the Lewisburg, Pa., college’s Pascucci Crew Heart on July 10, 2024, when he collapsed, in accordance with the lawsuit that was filed within the Court docket of Frequent Pleas in Philadelphia County on Wednesday.
Dickey died two days later after being handled at a hospital for a excessive coronary heart price earlier than being recognized with “train collapse related to sickle cell trait,” rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure, in accordance with an post-mortem report issued in January by Montour County and obtained by NPR.
Rhabdomyolysis, additionally known as rhabdo, is a situation when proteins and electrolytes from broken muscle tissue are launched into the bloodstream, straining the kidneys. Docs warn that sickle cell trait, an inherited blood dysfunction, might be deadly when coupled with rhabdo.
Within the lawsuit, Dickey’s dad and mom, Calvin Dickey Sr. and Nicole Dickey, and their legal professional, Mike Caspino, say Bucknell athletic trainers and coaches knew their son had sickle cell trait and “did not take the steps vital” to make sure precautions have been in place to forestall hurt. They are saying they need the college and athletic employees to take accountability for his dying and to offer a full account of what occurred main as much as it.
“Now we have requested repeatedly for not only a high-level overview of what occurred that day, however for the main points, the precise totally clear particulars of what occurred to him that day,” Nicole Dickey tells NPR.
“We have reached the purpose with Bucknell the place we don’t really feel that we will get that,” she says. “The one path for us to get that reality is to file the civil lawsuit.”
CJ’s mom provides, “We’re doing this for our youngster as a result of for us … like an enormous piece of my coronary heart is gone. I’ve acquired to get justice for my youngster.”
Throughout a press convention after the lawsuit was filed, Caspino claimed Bucknell is “doing the whole lot it may possibly to cover the information surrounding CJ’s dying.”
“I dare to ask, what on the planet are they hiding? What’s so dangerous that they cannot inform the dad and mom, the grieving dad and mom of a son who died, what occurred and do not wish to share it with the world?,” he stated.
What the lawsuit alleges
Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. together with his dad, Cavin Dickey Sr., throughout a go to to Bucknell College in November 2023.
Nicole Dickey/Calvin and Nicole Dickey
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Nicole Dickey/Calvin and Nicole Dickey
Dickey arrived at Bucknell on the morning of July 10, 2024, the place he was set to attend a workforce assembly, to satisfy with medical employees, have a “walkthrough” apply outdoor and go to the Pascucci Crew Heart health club for “a light-weight exercise with no weights” within the afternoon, in accordance with the lawsuit.
As soon as within the weight room, Dickey and different gamers have been advised to do the up-downs, an train the place an individual shortly goes all the way down to the bottom within the type of a pushup and stands again up, as a type of punishment as a result of among the freshmen athletes had “‘tousled’ on some drills,” the lawsuit says.
Mark Kulbis, a energy and conditioning coach on the time who was current through the exercise, pushed Dickey to proceed doing 100 up-downs though he was struggling and seemed to be in misery, witnesses, together with college students, say in accordance with the lawsuit. And an athletic coach was not current through the exercise as required by NCAA protocols, the lawsuit says.
The swimsuit alleges “it’s an annual ceremony of passage” for freshmen to carry out “intense, rigorous workout routines that extra senior gamers should not required to carry out. No goal is served apart from gratuitous cruelty. … Every should carry out or be benched or reduce. For CJ, that proved deadly.”
It additionally alleges that Bucknell President John Bravman, Affiliate Athletic Director for Sports activities Drugs Ian Wooden, Interim Vice President and Director of Athletics and Recreation Tim Pavlechko, Head Coach Dave Cecchini and then-Athletic Director Jermaine Truax, knew of Kulbis “cruelly abusing freshman gamers on the primary day of apply” and that they “accepted of and condoned Kulbis’ reckless conduct.”
Three months after Dickey’s dying, one other freshman offensive lineman “suffered rhabdomyolysis following considered one of Kulbis’ abusive conditioning periods,” the lawsuit additionally alleges. “That participant survived however suffered severe damage.”
Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. in his dorm room at Bucknell College on Jul. 9, 2024, a day earlier than he collapsed at soccer apply.
Calvin and Nicole Dickey
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Calvin and Nicole Dickey
Bucknell advised NPR in an announcement, “the dying of a scholar is all the time a tragic loss” and it’s conscious of the lawsuit.
“Whereas the College is not going to touch upon pending litigation, we once more lengthen heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s household, and we’ll proceed to deal with our most vital precedence — the well being and security of all Bucknell college students,” the college stated in an announcement.
Requested about allegations within the lawsuit and whether or not he knew Dickey had sickle cell trait, Kulbis advised NPR: “Clearly, a tragedy. You realize, my coronary heart goes out to that household … simply horrible” and declined additional remark.
NPR additionally reached out to Truax, Cecchini, Pavlechko and Wooden for touch upon Wednesday however has not obtained a response.
A uncommon and deadly mixture
Dickey performed sports activities since he was 5 years outdated, together with Little League Baseball, whereas dwelling in Tampa, Fla., in accordance with his household. However as he acquired older, soccer grew to become the aspiring pharmacist’s ardour.
“It was like a pure wildfire for him. He simply gravitated towards soccer,” Calvin Dickey Sr. says.
Dickey was wholesome and didn’t have any sicknesses whereas enjoying sports activities however was recognized with sickle cell trait by means of obligatory NCAA testing earlier than his first day at Bucknell, his household says.
Sickle cell trait is inherited from an individual who has a sickle cell gene, and whereas it may be present in anybody it’s distinguished in Black and Latino Individuals. About 1 in 13 infants within the U.S. who’re Black are born with sickle cell trait, in accordance with the Nationwide Coronary heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Individuals with the trait could not have signs however can have durations of ache like these with sickle cell illness. All infants born within the U.S. are screened for sickle cell trait and sickle cell illness, in accordance with the American Society of Hematology. Practically 2.5 million Individuals have sickle cell trait.
After Dickey collapsed, he was recognized with rhabdomyolysis at a neighborhood hospital and transported to Geisinger Medical Heart, a trauma heart. His well being quickly declined and he developed kidney failure, in accordance with the lawsuit. Muscular tissues in his arms and calves additionally started to swell from compartmentalization, having to be reduce open to alleviate strain. Throughout surgical procedure, Dickey went into cardiac arrest a number of occasions earlier than his household requested docs to cease efforts to avoid wasting his life, the swimsuit says.
His explanation for dying was “dilated cardiomyopathy difficult by rhabdomyolysis,” in accordance with the post-mortem report by Montour County. Sickle cell trait and an “elevated physique mass index,” that means his weight was larger than what is taken into account regular for his peak, have been listed as contributing components.
When he was admitted to the hospital, Dickey was 291 kilos however he weighed over 350 kilos when he died, in accordance with his dad and mom. Dilated cardiomyopathy is when the center turns into enlarged and its muscle groups weakened, resulting in the center not having the ability to pump sufficient blood to the physique.
Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. on the soccer subject throughout his senior yr at Carrollwood Day College.
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Calvin Dickey/Calvin and Nicole Dickey
A separate personal post-mortem, carried out on behalf of the household, additionally concluded that sickle cell trait contributed to his dying.
Individuals with sickle cell trait are at the next danger of creating exertional rhabdo, in accordance with Dr. Crawford Strunk, a employees doctor with the Cleveland Clinic who was not concerned with the case and didn’t deal with Dickey. That is when muscle tissue breaks down due to extreme train, bodily coaching or work.
“Sadly, when you may have rhabdomyolysis to the extent that this younger man did, it’s usually deadly,” says Strunk, who can be vice chief medical officer for the Sickle Cell Illness Affiliation of America. “It’s normally 48 hours after the collapse, as a number of organ methods fail regardless of the medical groups’ makes an attempt at stopping the rhabdomyolysis and offering enough therapy.”
Athletes with sickle cell trait or sickle cell illness can face quite a few well being points, together with blood clots, in accordance with Dr. Jervis Yau, an orthopedic surgeon who has been a workforce doctor for a number of sports activities groups in California and can be unconnected to the therapy and litigation.
“Sickle cell illness can have an effect on varied joints, giant and small, in addition to different elements of the musculoskeletal system,” Yau says.
The most effective therapy is prevention
Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. together with his mom, Nicole Dickey, and father, Calvin Dickey Sr., on Easter in 2024 in downtown Tampa, Fla.
Calvin and Nicole Dickey
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Calvin and Nicole Dickey
Dying in sports activities from sickle trait and rhabdo is uncommon, however it has led to the deaths of different school athletes.
Since 2014, no less than 10 school athletes have died from issues of sickle cell trait, together with one associated to rhabdo, in accordance with the Nationwide Heart for Catastrophic Sport Damage Analysis. Seven of these deaths have been due to exertional sickling, a life-threatening situation during which purple blood cells grow to be formed like a sickle or “C” throughout intense train.
After the 2006 dying of Dale Lloyd II, a Rice College soccer participant who collapsed throughout a exercise and died from issues of sickle cell trait, the NCAA required testing of all Division I athletes for the situation as a part of a settlement together with his household. The NCAA now requires all athletes be examined for sickle cell trait.
Athletic departments are additionally required to have emergency plans and protocols for these with sickle cell trait. The NCAA Sports activities Drugs Handbook additionally recommends that athletic departments “don’t use train and conditioning actions as punishment.” The Dickeys say a protocol for athletes with the situation was not shared with them by Bucknell’s athletic trainers and coaches.
The easiest way to deal with rhabdo in athletes with sickle cell trait is stopping it from occurring, Strunk says. That features dad and mom, gamers, coaches and athletic coaching employees being conscious of sickle cell trait and its dangers. He says there also needs to be a exercise plan with gamers with sickle cell trait and ongoing discussions with them about their limitations in coaching and exercises.
Gamers must be eased into exercises step by step, particularly when beginning a brand new season, says A.J. Duffy III, president of the Nationwide Athletic Trainers’ Affiliation.
“It is having the coaches — energy and conditioning coaches — working with the athletic coaching employees in order that through the transition interval, you are at a gradual enhance in exercise so the physique acclimates not solely to warmth, however to the stresses which are positioned on it throughout these preseason practices,” Duffy says.
Calvin Dickey Sr. and Nicole Dickey say they hope sharing what occurred to their son will stop it from taking place to extra athletes, will result in change in sports activities conditioning at Bucknell and different faculties and lift consciousness of the hazards of sickle cell trait in sports activities.
“This could by no means have occurred. It was 100% preventable. And if we preserve silent and we’re not upfront and trustworthy about it, then it may possibly occur once more,” Nicole Dickey says.
