Former Dallas Cowboy Among Those Challenging Malpractice Award Cap

Former Dallas Cowboy Ron Springs, who has been in a coma since the fall following surgery to remove a cyst, is one of 11 plaintiffs challenging Texas’ medical malpractice cap in a lawsuit filed Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Marshall, challenges the 2003 Medical Malpractice and Tort Reform Act that limits awards in Texas. The lawsuit asks the court to declare the cap unconstitutional.

The law caps awards for pain and suffering at $250,000 for doctors, $250,000 for hospitals, and $250,000 for nursing homes and other institutions for a maximum of $750,000 per claimant.

The plaintiffs are asking for class action status.

In January, Springs’ wife filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two doctors she says caused brain damage to her husband during a routine surgery to remove a cyst.

Springs, who suffered from Type 2 diabetes, had received a kidney from his former Cowboys teammate Everson Walls last February. Les Weisbrod, Springs’ attorney in the medical malpractice lawsuit, has said the coma had nothing to do with the kidney transplant.