Editing Dick Schaap (section)

==Death==
Schaap died on December 21, 2001, at [[Lenox Hill Hospital]] in New York City of complications from [[hip replacement]] surgery that September.<ref name="la obit">{{cite news |last=Penner |first=Mike |date=22 December 2001 |title=Dick Schaap, 67; Sports Journalist (obituary) |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-22-me-17249-story.html |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807031812/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-22-me-17249-story.html |archive-date=7 August 2020 |access-date=31 May 2025}}</ref> Schaap's final regular television appearance was on the September 16 broadcast of ''[[The Sports Reporters]]'' on the Sunday after the [[September 11 attacks]] on New York City and [[Washington, D.C.]] That weekend, all major American college and professional sporting events had been cancelled, and Schaap and his panelists discussed the diminished role of sports since the tragedy.

After Schaap's death, his estate and members of his family filed a lawsuit against three physicians and Lenox Hill Hospital, alleging that his death had been caused by [[medical malpractice]]. Specifically, they alleged that, for two years before his surgery, Schaap had been given a powerful medication called [[amiodarone]] to treat an irregular heartbeat. Amiodarone can cause lung damage (known as "amiodarone [[pulmonary toxicity]]") and, according to the plaintiffs, an X-ray of Schaap's chest that had been taken before the surgery indicated that he had lung damage. Three days after the surgery, Schaap began having difficulty breathing, and he was subsequently diagnosed with [[acute respiratory distress syndrome]].  He died three months after the operation, never having left the hospital. Among other claims, the plaintiffs contended that Schaap's surgery should have been postponed, that he should have been taken off the amiodarone, and that his lungs should have been given time to heal before the performance of the surgery.

The court dismissed the claim against the hospital on the ground that the physicians were not employees of the hospital. The plaintiffs' claims against the three physicians went to trial in 2005 in [[Manhattan]]. On July 1, 2005, after nine days of deliberations, a jury found that all three physicians had been negligent, but also found that the negligence of only one of the physicians had caused Schaap's death. That physician was a cardiologist who the plaintiffs had contended was negligent by not looking at the pre-operative chest X-ray. The jury awarded the plaintiffs a total of $1.95 million in damages.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/01/AR2005070101794.html Family of Dick Schaap Awarded $1.95 Million], ''[[The Washington Post]]'' (July 2, 2005). Retrieved on October 27, 2013.</ref><ref>Andrew Jacobs, [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/02/nyregion/02schapp.html Jury Awards Family $1.95 Million in Dick Schaap's Death], ''The New York Times'' (July 2, 2005).  Retrieved on October 27, 2013.</ref><ref>Andrew Jacobs, [https://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/nyregion/23schaap.html Jury Deliberates Lawsuit Over Death of Dick Schaap], ''The New York Times'' (June 23, 2005).  Retrieved on October 27, 2013.</ref>