A High Court judge ruled that Tottenham "breached its duties to a 17-year-old player who suffered cardiac arrest in his first game for the club and was left brain damaged," according to James Orr of the London INDEPENDENT. Radwan Hamed "collapsed during the youth team game in Belgium in August 2006" and sustained traumatic brain injuries. Hamed's father, Raymon, claimed that "his injuries resulted from the negligence" of Dr. Peter Mills, a cardiologist who screened his son, and of the club -- through Dr. Charlotte Cowie and Dr. Mark Curtin, specialist sports physicians it employed. Damages, which could reach £7M, "are to be decided next week" (INDEPENDENT, 2/16). The BBC reported in a screening before he signed to the club, an ECG showed his heart to be "unequivocally abnormal" but he was not stopped from playing. In his ruling, the judge said that Cowie, who was head of the medical services department at the club, "made a serious error of judgment when she concluded that the teenager bore no risk of an adverse cardiac event" (BBC, 2/16). In London, Riath Al-Samarrai wrote a Tottenham spokesperson said, "The club wholeheartedly regrets that a former employee, as adjudged, was remiss in their duties to Radwan. This judgment will hopefully now secure the best possible treatment and care for him." Tottenham "is vicariously liable" for the actions of Cowie and Curtin, but it was agreed during the case that it would be indemnified by the doctors’ insurers in respect of any damages (DAILY MAIL, 2/16).
