Former Vero Beach High School football standout Zeke Motta has filed a personal-injury lawsuit claiming that inadequate treatment and professional negligence by doctors following a violent on-field collision in December 2013 cost him his budding NFL career.
The suit was filed in State Court in Dekalb County in Georgia, where Motta played for the Atlanta Falcons until a potentially life-threatening spinal injury ended his rookie season and resulted in two cutting-edge surgeries in which steel plates were implanted to stabilize his neck.
According to Motta’s complaint, the failure of the Falcons’ team physician and an Atlanta-area chiropractor to adequately examine, properly diagnose and correctly treat the initial C-1 vertebra fracture – at the top of his spine – allowed the damage to worsen from an “inconvenient injury to a devastating and permanent one …”
The complaint alleges that Dr. Spero Karas and chiropractor Joseph Krzemien, through their actions and inactions, not only robbed Motta of any chance to play football again, but they also left him suffering from “substantial and persistent” pain that impacts his daily life.
Motta, who turned 26 last month, “continues to experience chronic pain and discomfort, including persistent tingling in his arm, resistance in his neck movement … and stiffness when sitting,” the complaint states, adding that the lingering effects of the injury hinders his “ability to drive and to adequately perform a desk job.”
Citing multiple counts of “professional negligence” against the doctors and the “vicarious liability” of their employers – Emory Healthcare (Karas) and Georgia Spine and Sports Rehab (Krzemien) – Motta is requesting a jury trial and seeking unspecified damages as compensation for pain and suffering, past and future economic losses, and the “loss of enjoyment of life.”
Motta’s Atlanta-based attorney, Stacey Carroll, said the case is still in the discovery phase, which he expects to continue for another six months before it is set for trial.
Motta, who left his job as an insurance adjuster in Pompano Beach in April and returned to Vero Beach to ponder another profession, did not mention the lawsuit, which was filed last November, in recent interviews and seemed to be caught off-guard when asked about it.
“I knew it would become public eventually, but I was hoping to keep it under wraps, at least until after the depositions,” Motta said. “It’s not something I want to talk about right now.”
The lawsuit is a reminder of an NFL career cut short and a boyhood dream shattered by a cruel twist of fate.
After receiving All-State recognition in high school, Motta earned All-America honors at Notre Dame, where, as a senior, he helped the Fighting Irish reach the 2013 national championship game. Three months later, he was drafted by the Falcons and signed a four-year, $2.2 million contract that included a $46,000 signing bonus and an annual salary of $550,000.
As a rookie in 2013, despite being a seventh-round pick who was used mostly on special teams, Motta played his way into the Falcons’ starting lineup and his football future seemed more promising than most expected.
Then, while covering a second-quarter kickoff in a Dec. 8 game at Green Bay, he was left dazed after a jarring collision.
A week later, Motta made his first NFL start and recorded five tackles in the Falcons’ one-point victory against the Washington Redskins. He was expected to start again in the next game at San Francisco, but the pain in his neck worsened during practice and a consulting team physician, Dr. Jeff Webb, sent him for a MRI exam.
The scan revealed a Jefferson fracture of Motta’s C-1 vertebra, as well as traumatic bulging discs between his C-4 and 5, C-5 and 6, and C-6 and 7 vertebrae. The fracture was so serious that doctors said it could impair his ability to breathe and even result in death.
Though the 15-millimeter separation in the vertebra was painful, it had not yet affected Motta’s respiratory system. Two surgeries later – the first in late December 2013, the second in July 2014 – the damage was repaired with plates and the vertebra was bolstered with a bone graft.
After both operations, Motta began to rehab the injury in hopes of getting back on the field. However, team doctors refused to medically clear him to play, claiming the risk of permanent or fatal injury was too great, and the Falcons cut him in April 2015.
In his lawsuit, Motta claims he was not put through the NFL’s concussion protocol after the initial hit Dec. 8 in Green Bay, nor was he examined by Karas before being sent back into the game.
Motta played the rest of the game despite “continued neck pain and ongoing signs and symptoms of concussion,” the complaint states, adding that Karas offered medication and ordered X-rays the next day but did not request an MRI exam or CT scan, medically prohibit Motta from returning to practice or refer him to a neurologist.
Instead, Karas referred Motta to Krzemien, who, according to the complaint, provided chiropractic adjustments on Dec. 15 and Dec. 17 “without ordering any additional X-rays” or reviewing the X-rays taken at the Falcons’ facility at the Georgia Dome on Dec. 9.
The lawsuit states that C-1 Jefferson fractures, if displacement isn’t too wide, can often be treated conservatively, such as with a neck brace that must be worn until the fracture heals.
However, because no MRI was performed, Motta’s fracture wasn’t discovered until after he endured the rigors and risks of practicing the week after the Dec. 8 game, starting and playing throughout the Dec. 15 game, and undergoing chiropractic manipulation that aggravated the injury – all of which, the complaint alleges, contributed to the “displacement of the fracture beyond the point where conservative treatment was possible.”
To bolster Motta’s case, Carroll attached an affidavit from Vero Beach orthopedic surgeon and spine specialist Dr. Johnny Benjamin, an NFL Accountability and Care Committee member who has been treating Motta since February 2015.
In his affidavit, given after examining the available medical records connected to the case, Benjamin stated that Karos “breached the applicable standard of care” in care and treatment of Motta.