A South Sound football star died at 38. His family is suing St. Joseph Medical Center

The family of a former Bethel High School football standout who died from severe pancreatitis filed a lawsuit this month alleging St. Joseph Medical Center failed to respond to his rapidly deteriorating condition and bears responsibility for his death.

On Oct. 11, 2020, Jeff Parks, a 2001 Boise State University recruit who went on the play for Western Washington University, drove himself to the emergency room in Puyallup for extreme abdominal pain. He died three days later after he was transferred to St. Joseph in Tacoma for a higher level of medical care, according to the complaint filed in Pierce County Superior Court.

“He was in phenomenal physical shape,” one of the family’s attorneys, Jim Abernethy, told The News Tribune this week. “You don’t find 38-year-old men dying of pancreatitis like this.”

More than 200,000 people are hospitalized each year for acute pancreatitis, or severe swelling of the pancreas, mostly in connection to gallstones and alcohol use, among myriad other causes, according to research from Allegheny Center for Digestive Health housed at the National Library of Medicine. About 80% of patients are released within a few days and less than 2% of patients, who are generally older, die. Intravenous hydration to replace lost bodily fluids is the “most important step” in treatment.

Abernethy said he, co-counsel Dan Hannula and their legal team reviewed thousands of pages of medical records and look forward to deposing medical personnel in the coming months.

Court documents show the family declined to go to arbitration in February and seeks unspecified monetary damages for expenses associated with Parks’ treatment, death and funeral, as well as non-economic damages for pain and suffering he endured. The lawsuit also seeks damages for the loss of relationship suffered by Parks’ wife and children.

Virginia Mason Franciscan Health, which owns St. Joseph Medical Center, declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. It told The News Tribune in a statement from marketing and communications vice president Kelly Campbell, “Patient safety and privacy are our highest priorities.”

An attorney representing Parks’ main provider, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment.

A trial date has been scheduled for February 2024, according to court records. Neither defendant has filed a formal reply to the lawsuit.

Parks’ death left his three children without their passionate father and his wife, Graham-Kapowsin High School volleyball head coach Loni Parks, without the partner who held down the house as she molded her program into one of the best in the state, according to interviews and the lawsuit. Just over three years after Parks’ death, her team, led by the region’s best player, won the 4A state championship for the first time last fall.

“She literally is always running everywhere. She wants to keep his memory alive,” said Abernethy, listing a recent trip to Hawaii and an upcoming soccer tournament in Phoenix among the activities the family normally would have embarked on with Parks.

Known for his humble leadership and athleticism at middle linebacker, Parks was a two-time TNT all-area player and led one of the state’s best defenses in tackles and sacks on the way to the 4A state championship game in 2000.

Parks told The News Tribune before the title game, “I’m just going to take it all in, get some emotion off of it ... Playing there makes you want to get up more and more. I’m excited.”

The team was eventually bested by Pasco High School at the Tacoma Dome. He red-shirted the following year at Boise State and transferred to Division II Western Washington to be closer to home and earn more playing time.

Parks “just played with passion. Played hard. Didn’t really care about anything but the team,” said then-head coach Eric Kurle, recalling Parks’ 6-foot-3 frame both sprinting from sideline to sideline and bruising opponents on the inside. “More of an athlete playing linebacker.”

After football, Kurle said, he was most impressed by Parks’ relationship with his kids: two young daughters and a son, who has a disability. Parks and his wife decided to raise their family where they grew up in Graham, according to his obituary.

“He loved those kids and they loved being around him,” Kurle told The News Tribune recently.

Before Parks died, his family gathered around his hospital bed praying for a miracle, according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of his family. On the inside, his organs weren’t getting enough blood and the tissue was dying off.

A surgeon told them putting Parks under the knife would essentially be a Hail Mary, according to the complaint.

Parks arrived at St. Joseph Medical Center in an ambulance from Puyallup the evening of Oct. 11, 2020, the lawsuit states. When his wife arrived, Parks was in a dark room, shivering without a blanket. He wasn’t getting the fluids the emergency room had said he needed to recover. Hospital staff assured her he’d be OK and said she had to leave when visiting hours ended.

A nurse’s notes showed Parks reported severe pain later that night, topping out the 10-point pain scale at times, according to the lawsuit. A nurse practitioner responded to a page, which had also gone to Parks’ lead provider saying he needed to try all of his available pain medication before trying something new.

Overnight, Parks’ condition deteriorated, the lawsuit alleges. A routine morning blood draw around 3:40 a.m. showed he had worrisome levels of carbon dioxide and acidity. At 5:12 a.m., the night-shift nurse practitioner ordered fluids to increase his hydration and requested further evaluation by a medical provider.

Later that morning, Parks’ main doctor, noted he was stable and his pain had reportedly improved from the day before but ordered his transfer to the progressive care unit, a step down from intensive care, the lawsuit states. A nurse then wrote that Parks was pasty gray, breathing at about twice the normal rate and required immediate transfer to the ICU.

Around 2:30 p.m., a senior physician examined Parks after he went into cardiac arrest and had to be revived by medical staff. The doctor determined Parks met the criteria for severe sepsis — when the body responds to infection by releasing too many chemicals into the bloodstream, triggering extreme inflammation and potentially organ failure — around 6 a.m. According to the lawsuit, the doctor noted his brain function was impacted and his kidneys were failing by the afternoon.

A surgeon wrote, “Discussed with wife at bedside. He has low chance of survival with or without surgery, but surgery offers him the best chance.”

Parks died two days after the operation on Oct. 14, 2020.

His wife of 12 years and friend since junior high let out a blood-curdling scream, the lawsuit states. His younger brother sobbed over his body and assured him he’d take care of his family. His father said they struggled to leave the room.

Later, according to the lawsuit, Parks’ wife wondered aloud, “Who will help take care of the children?”

The family held a funeral service in Spanaway nine days after Parks passed away.

Hannula, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys whose own family is heavily connected to Pierce County athletics and the Parks family, said he has handled medical negligence cases in the region for more than 30 years and sees the case as a rarity.

“It clearly appears there were indications that they needed to really look at (Parks) and increase his care,” Hannula said. “They ignored all sorts of warning signs” over the course of hours, not minutes.