Jesse White Sued By Tumbler

Not the first time a personal injury attorney, Chicago and elsewhere, has had to deal with a tragic circumstances of a young person involved in a terrible accident causing personal injury.

Former Jesse White tumbler sues group after paralyzing injury

Jarvis Williams dashed forward in the red-and-white uniform familiar to anyone who’s seen the Jesse White tumblers defy gravity. Going last in a line of acrobats during the parade in Wheeling, he gathered speed, bounded off the trampoline and turned two-and-a-half somersaults.

Williams would say later he had done the same daring maneuver at least 50 times. The Fenger High School senior had learned to make the jaw-dropping stunts look routine, just as thousands of other youngsters had done as members of the famous team named after Jesse White, the Illinois secretary of state.

But on this particular day — the Fourth of July, 2008 — something went wrong. Williams said he turned the flips but over-rotated just before landing, coming down on the back of his neck after soaring about 10 feet off the ground.

“I started getting dizzy, and I couldn’t get up,” he said. “They just said my nerves were shot.”

A teammate picked him up over the shoulder, he said, and carried him to the team’s van.

His days as a tumbler were over. He had suffered a spinal cord injury and would never walk again, his lawyer and family members said.

In a lawsuit recently filed in Cook County Circuit Court against Jesse White Tumbling Team Inc., Williams claims the nonprofit group should have done more to treat him.

In many cases, inadequate care after an accident can make a bad situation worse, said Kimberly Archie, director of the National Cheer Safety Foundation.

In 2008, the foundation published a guide to prepare youth sports coaches and trainers for catastrophic injuries.

For spine injuries, it warns: “The athlete should not be moved unless absolutely essential to maintain airway, breathing and circulation. If the athlete must be moved … the athlete should be placed in a supine position while maintaining cervical immobilization.”

Proper medical treatment of a personal injury is obviously key. Our Chicago Personal Injury Lawyers wish the best for all involved.