| SuspicionVandit |
17 year old kid lies about his age to enter a cage fight, gets beat 17/19ths the way to death, comes out crippled.
no healthcare.
where was nancy pelosi.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100228/NEWS/2280337/1001/NEWS/One-fight-at-age-17--20-000-in-medical-bills
| quote: | Seventeen-year-old Jerod Botts lied about his age to fight his first and only time.
No one at the amateur competition in Waterloo last September asked for proof that he was 18. Asked whether he'd trained, the teen answered yes, for nine months.
"Which meant he was at the gym bopping around with his friends," said his father, Kirk Botts of Waverly. "Not working with a trainer."
Jerod Botts eagerly paid $10 to enter a contest with a man who was similar in weight but was a couple of years older and had experience in the cage. Jerod signed a waiver agreeing not to hold the promoter liable, but he was not given a copy.
"I know kids are all hyped up about this stuff," Kirk Botts said. "They don't realize what can happen."
Jerod lasted two rounds before the referee called the fight because the teen was bleeding from his nose.
"The ref said, 'Are you OK?' and he said, 'I think I'm OK' ... and they let him walk out the door," the father said.
Kirk Botts said the promoter at the event at the Cattle Congress grounds never spoke to his son after the fight. No medical staffers were at the event, he said, which isn't required under Iowa law.
Jerod was too weak to walk, so his friends carried him to the car and took him home.
His father took one look at the teen's swollen and bruised face and took him to the Waverly hospital. A doctor there said the wounds weren't life-threatening, but recommended care at University of Iowa Hospitals.
Jerod slipped in and out of consciousness on the trip to Iowa City, while his father worried about brain damage. Surgeons there said he had a slight concussion, his nose was broken in three places, the bones in his left eye socket were cracked, and because of muscle damage, the double vision in his left eye might not heal.
Kirk Botts, a widower who is self-employed as a custom picture framer, and his son had no health insurance to pay for the $20,000 in medical expenses.
Jerod still trains a couple of hours a night, and he looks and feels better because of the mixed martial arts workouts, his father said.
"He swore to me he will never step in the ring again," Kirk Botts said. "Me, as a father, I think it's a brutal sport, and I think it should be discontinued. But I realize when I was younger, I enjoyed watching stuff like that." |
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