January 3, 2009

By James D. Wolf Jr.

Post-Tribune correspondent

VALPARAISO — A former Chesterton High School football player alleges that a faulty helmet he was told to use has caused almost daily headaches and other complications.

Daniel Pinkus, 18, filed a lawsuit against both Chesterton High School and its school district, the Duneland School Corp., in Porter County Superior Court.

As is customary in Indiana, the lawsuit gives no specified damage amount that he’s seeking.

However, the suit states that he has suffered dizziness and cognitive impairment from a closed head injury received in the August 2005 football practice sessions.

Pinkus, who graduated from Chesterton, also needed to leave school for extended periods on advice of a doctor he saw in December 2005.

The suit said he reported to coaching officials that the helmet’s air-filled protector had broken Aug. 8, 2005. They told him to continue blocking drills, where he experienced head impacts.

Those resulted in headache, dizziness and cognitive impairment, the suits says.

At the next practice, Aug., 15, 2005, the headache reoccurred, and Pinkus also experienced nausea, photophobia and phonophobia, attorney Clark W. Holesinger wrote in the suit documents.

Duneland and Chesterton High School officials have been served with papers, according to court documents.

Holesinger declined to comment on the suit Friday.