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Former Timbers 'keeper Gleeson files malpractice lawsuit against team doctors

Tim Clayton - Corbis / Corbis Sport / Getty

Former Portland Timbers shot-stopper Jake Gleeson filed a lawsuit against two team physicians Monday alleging that their treatment of his injuries in 2018 ended his professional career.

New Zealand-born Gleeson, 30, is seeking more than $10 million in economic and non-economic damages as part of the medical malpractice lawsuit that was filed in Oregon Circuit Court, per ESPN.

The lawsuit claims that Dr. Richard Edelson, Dr. Jonathan Greenleaf, Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center, and Oregon Sports Medicine Associates were responsible for criminal negligence and battery by opting for a risky procedure to correct bilateral stress fractures in his tibias.

Edelson and Greenleaf currently serve as head team doctors and chief medical officers for the Timbers.

According to Gleeson, the Timbers' team doctors suggested inserting metal plates in both shins after he suffered stress fractures in both tibias during summer 2018. That September, Gleeson developed an infection in his right leg that required surgery, but the doctors decided to leave the steel plate in. The infection returned, forcing doctors to surgically remove the plate after all before an infection was detected in his left leg that required another operation.

Gleeson's lawsuit alleges that there was "no clear orthopedic necessity to implant the devices" and claims that that the defendants initially failed to effectively sterilize the metal plates.

Gleeson sought care from other doctors and was diagnosed with necrosis and osteomyelitis in both shins, meaning sections of the bone had become infected and died.

Gleeson told ESPN that the doctors named in the lawsuit "took my life, took my livelihood, and what I dedicated my life to do, and kind of just left me there to pick up the pieces. It's been absolutely crippling, devastating. I wouldn't wish the last two years of my life on anyone."

Gleeson joined the Timbers as a 19-year-old in 2010 prior to the club's jump to MLS and spent five seasons as second-choice 'keeper before earning the No. 1 job in 2016.

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