A Florida court has ruled that the family of Ryan Costello, a 23-year-old minor league baseball player who died in 2019, may proceed with their medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor who cleared him to play—despite signs of a dangerous heart condition.
A Promising Career Cut Short
Ryan Costello, a third baseman originally drafted by the Seattle Mariners and later traded to the Minnesota Twins, underwent a medical evaluation in Fort Myers in 2019 before spring training. During that evaluation, an electrocardiogram (EKG) showed signs of Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome—a potentially fatal but highly treatable condition. According to the complaint, the examining physician, Dr. David Olson, misread the EKG and cleared Costello as “normal.” No further action was recommended.
Later that year, the Twins sent Costello to New Zealand to play in a developmental league. He was found dead in his hotel room just months after the evaluation. An autopsy revealed that he died of cardiac complications linked to WPW.
The Lawsuit & Jurisdiction Fight
Attorneys Gary Fox and Michael Levine represent the Costello family. The malpractice suit has been ongoing for four years, complicated in part by a legal challenge from the defense. Dr. Olson’s legal team argued that Minnesota’s workers’ compensation law barred the lawsuit, citing the shared affiliation between the doctor and Costello through the Minnesota Twins organization.
However, Judge Alane Laboda of Florida’s 20th Judicial Circuit rejected that argument, ruling that Florida law applies since the medical evaluation occurred in the state. “The court finds that it is clear that the alleged conduct giving rise to the injury occurred in Florida; despite the death occurring elsewhere,” Judge Laboda wrote.
Fox said he expected a different approach from the start. “That’s how things like this normally play out in our litigation world,” he told Law.com. “But for some reason, that didn’t happen here. Instead, the doctor and his lawyers came up with the idea that we couldn’t proceed because, under Minnesota workers’ compensation law, they claimed our case was barred. That was their position four years ago, and they were dead wrong.”
A Preventable Tragedy
Treatment for WPW is highly effective, with a success rate of over 99% in healthy individuals. “The very sad thing about Ryan’s case is that the life-threatening condition he had … was very, very treatable,” Fox said in the Florida Record. “This young man should not have died.”
He also spoke about the emotional cost borne by Costello’s family.
“They never had a chance to say goodbye to him,” Fox added. “Nobody knew he was ill, much less that he had a life-threatening condition,” he said in the Florida Record.
The case is now scheduled for trial in Lee County, Florida in June. Fox and Levine will argue that had the EKG been properly reviewed and a referral made to a specialist, Ryan Costello would still be alive today.