Former Portland Timbers Goalkeeper Sues Oregon Sports Doctors, Alleging Botched Surgery Led to Career-Damaging Injury

The lawsuit says the surgery caused “pain, discomfort, disability, disfigurement, scarring, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, and a reduced capacity to pursue his professional soccer career.”

Jake Gleeson in 2015. (Ray Terrill / Wikimedia Commons)
By Tess Riski

Former Portland Timbers goalkeeper Jacob Gleeson filed a $10 million lawsuit July 6, alleging a botched surgery on a broken leg ended his career.

Gleeson's lawsuit, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges medical malpractice by Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center and Oregon Sports Medicine Associates, also known as Sports Medicine Oregon.

On Aug. 15, 2018, Gleeson underwent surgery to fix bilateral stress fractures to his tibia, according to the complaint.

Gleeson alleges surgical devices inserted in his body were not properly sterilized before the procedure, leading to bone infection and necrosis.

The hospital then failed to remove the infected metal implants during another procedure the next month. Gleeson says he currently—and perhaps permanently—suffers from "pain, discomfort, disability, disfigurement, scarring, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, and a reduced capacity to pursue his professional soccer career."

A representative for Sports Medicine Oregon, which employs doctors named in the lawsuit, did not respond to WW's request for comment before press deadline.

The lawsuit, against some of the most respected sports doctors in Oregon, echoes Portland Trail Blazers legend Bill Walton suing team doctors after he suffered a broken foot in 1978.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.