GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
There are a lot of strong arguments against LSU’s medical staff and an Our Lady of the Lake Hospital doctor in former LSU football player Greg Brooks Jr.’s lawsuit filed last August in Baton Rouge.
It claims gross negligence for Brooks’ disabilities from an alleged botched brain surgery at the Lake to remove a cancerous tumor on Sept. 15, 2023, that left him possibly permanently disabled, and details an alleged misdiagnosis and improper care by LSU’s medical team.
GREG BROOKS JR. LAWSUIT VS. LSU, OUR LADY OF THE LAKE IS EXCRUCIATINGLY DETAILED
But the comments about LSU football coach Brian Kelly, who is named in the lawsuit, by Brooks’ father in a “Good Morning America” interview about the lawsuit Monday were categorically shot down by Kelly on Wednesday.
GREG BROOKS JR. TRIES TO SPEAK IN EMOTIONAL “GOOD MORING AMERICA” FEATURE
“My son almost lost his life, coach,” Brooks Sr. said in reference to Kelly in an emotional interview with GMA host Michael Strahan on Monday. “Where were you? Forget about football. Pick up the phone and say, you love the kid, man.”
That statement clearly got to Kelly, because he said he was there.
“That comment struck a nerve with me,” Kelly said at a press conference Wednesday, originally called to discuss staff and portal additions. But Kelly immediately opened with his pointed reaction to Brooks Sr.’s comments without a question.
“It hit my heart,” Kelly said. “Because that’s not why I’m in this business. I’ve been in it for our players. I’ll always be in it for our players, and it rattled me that somebody could possibly be so factually incorrect in stating that I was not part of Greg Brooks Jr.’s care and support. And the support was the entire university, the entire community. So, I needed to just make sure that that record was clear.”
Kelly, though, may have not realized the timeline context of Brooks Sr.’s comment.
“You say you haven’t heard from anybody from the LSU coaching staff since October of 2023?,” Strahan asked on “Good Morning America.”
“Specifically, Brian Kelly,” Brooks Sr. said, then made his above statement. Kelly may have been talking about his contact with Brooks Jr. in September and October of 2023 when he was at Our Lady of the Lake. Brooks Jr. was transferred to St. Jude Hospital in Memphis in October of 2023 before returning to Louisiana in 2024.
Still, Kelly seemed to focus on Brooks Sr. insinuating that he did not care about Brooks Jr., regardless of any timeline. It is unknown how much contact Kelly had with Brooks Jr. between October of 2023 and August of 2024 when the lawsuit was filed. Kelly would have been advised by LSU’s legal representation not to have contact with anyone in the Brooks family after the suit was filed.
“It was important for me to set the record clear as to my care and my love for Greg Jr. during this very difficult time,” Kelly said. “Look, you can question me as a football coach. You can question me in terms of the things that we do on the field. But off the field as a parent, as a husband, as somebody that is actively involved with every community that I’ve been involved with, this is where the line is drawn.”
Kelly said he was at Brooks Jr.’s bedside after the surgery in September of 2023.
“It is factually incorrect to state that I was not there by Greg’s side through this ordeal,” he said. “I was there on multiple occasions. We had somebody from my staff that was there virtually every single day (in 2023). We love Greg.”
Sources close to LSU and at LSU confirmed to Tiger Rag Wednesday that Kelly indeed visited Brooks Jr. at Our Lady of the Lake hospital in Baton Rouge and kept in contact with him at the time of the surgery in September and October of 2023.
Brooks Jr. filed the lawsuit against Lake surgeon Brandon Gaynor, whose neurology qualifications are questioned in the suit, Our Lady of the Lake Hospital, LSU football head athletic trainer Owen Stanley, LSU football team doctors Stephen Etheridge, Vincent Shaw and Tony Johnson II, Kelly, former LSU assistant football coaches Matt House and Kerry Cooks and the LSU Board of Supervisors. The suit is clearly aimed more at LSU and the Lake’s medical personnel than LSU’s football coaches.
The lawsuit specifies that LSU’s medical personnel repeatedly misdiagnosed Brooks Jr.’s condition as Vertigo after he vomited and experienced dizziness at a practice in August of 2023. LSU’s medical team also cleared him to continue practicing, and he was allowed to play in LSU’s first two games that season.
After five weeks of showing symptoms of neurological disorders and after Brooks Jr. played in two games, LSU finally scheduled him with a specialist on Sept. 13, 2023, and he had an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging test) on Sept. 14. And LSU, which is partnered with the Lake, rushed Brooks Jr. into emergency surgery at the Lake on Sept. 15.
In surgery, Brooks Jr., now 23, “suffered multiple strokes due to acts of malpractice, which are being addressed in a medical review panel proceeding,” the lawsuit states.
“Greg sustained severe and permanent injuries during the surgery and was transferred to Memphis (St. Jude’s Hospital) in October of 2023,” the lawsuit says.
Most of the lawsuit is aimed at Dr. Gaynor, LSU’s head trainer Stanley, and LSU doctors Etheridge, Vincent Shaw and Johnson II. Brooks Jr. started for two seasons at Arkansas in 2020 and ’21 before transferring to LSU and starting in 2022. He was one of LSU’s top defensive backs and headed for the NFL.
Kelly is the most well-known person named in the lawsuit, but only a small portion of it refers to him, such as here:
“LSU defendants undertook the duty to perform the following actions – coordinating and overseeing all aspects of team functions, including implementation of a system to protect student-athletes from foreseeable and preventable harm and ensuring that they receive adequate care when needed on a timely basis.”
A Kelly comment made Wednesday actually supports the above statement in the lawsuit.
“I want to be clear that any player that is part of this program, I am going to be involved in making sure that they receive the best care, the best support, and I’m part of that,” he said.
So, if LSU is judged in court to not have given Brooks Jr. the best care, Kelly could have just confirmed that he was involved in that negligent care.
The lawsuit mentions Kelly by name in an accusatory fashion only once when it says he “made public comments about Brooks Jr. and his medical condition in violation of his privacy rights in an effort to appear favorable in the public’s eye.” But compared to the rest of the lawsuit, that sounds like a technicality.
Kelly was obviously more concerned Wednesday with the comments by Brooks’ father – regardless of timeline – than anything in the lawsuit.
“We love him (Greg Brooks Jr.) for the person that he is, for the competitor that he is, and the battler that he is,” Kelly said. “And I only wish him continued progress as he goes through an incredibly difficult time.”
After changing subjects to his staff additions in his opening statement, Kelly returned to Brooks Sr.’s statement.
“It is unfortunate that we had to lead off in the manner that I did,” he said. “But I thought again it was absolutely crucial to address. When my integrity and character was being attacked, I need to respond. Again, if it was football related, if it was about play calling, or selection of recruits, that’s open for anyone. But when it comes to the care and the love for one of my former players, I needed to set the record straight.”
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