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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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After Suing MLB, A-Rod Also Sues for Medical Malpractice

BRONX, N.Y. (CN) - A Yankees doctor failed to properly diagnose Alex Rodriguez's hip injury during last year's baseball playoffs, allowing him to further injure himself, the player claims in court.

The latest claim filed by the 14-time All-Star follows a $5 million lawsuit A-Rod hurled against Major League Baseball in Manhattan Superior Court. The new lawsuit is a medical malpractice claim in the Bronx, home of Yankee Stadium, against Christopher Ahmad and New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center .

In his complaint, Rodriguez says Ahmad performed an MRI on his hips, but failed to inform the ball player of a superior labral tear.

Ahmad then knowingly cleared Rodriguez to resume playing as a third baseman for the Yankees during the 2011-2012 playoffs, causing the player to further injure himself and require additional surgery, the lawsuit says.

Rodriguez "sustained great pain, agony, injury, suffering, disability, hospitalization, as well as mental anguish and emotional distress, according to the lawsuit.

Rodriguez had surgery on his left hip in January, four years after undergoing surgery on his right hip.

He was suspended in August, along with 12 others, after an investigation determined he used testosterone and human-growth hormones over several years. Although most of the players were suspended just for the remainder of the current baseball season, A-Rod drew a far stiffer sentence that, if upheld by a mediator, will keep him off the field through the end of the 2014 season.

Earlier on Friday, Rodriguez sued the MLB and Commissioner Allan "Bud" Selig in Manhattan Superior Court with claims that the league's $5 million promise to Biogenesis led to his unprecedented 211-game suspension.

In that lawsuit, Rodriguez said Selig and others have "been engaged in the tortious and egregious conduct with one, and only one goal: to improperly marshal evidence that they hope to use to destroy the reputation and career of Alex Rodriguez, one of the most accomplished Major League Baseball players of all time."

He also says Selig and the MLB sought to "make an example" of him and gloss over Selig's past "inaction and tacit approval of the use of performance enhancing substances in baseball (not to mention his multiple acts of collusion) in an attempt to secure his legacy as the 'savior' of America's pastime.

Rodriguez's lawsuit against MLBwas filed by Jordan Siev with Reed Smith LLP. His latest case was filed by Alan S. Ripka with Napoli Bern Ripka Shkolnik LLP.

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