On Sept. 28, 2020, plaintiffs’ decedent Cristian Navarro, 15, a student, was a participant in the first day of football practice at Patriot High School, in Jurupa Valley, where the temperature was 103 degrees. Cristian and others participated in conditioning drills and sprints outside. At the end of practice, Cristian laid down and told coaches that he was “tired.” When it was discovered that Cristian required assistance to rise, as he could not stand on his own, he was asked a series of simple questions, but he could not answer things such as his age or name. As a result, his mother was called, but Cristian was unresponsive by the time she arrived. Cristian was ultimately taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with exertional heat illness and remained in a coma. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on Oct. 1, 2020. Cristian’s parents, Mike Navarro and Cynthia Salcido, acting individually and as their son’s successor in interest, sued the operator of the school, the Jurupa Unified School District; and the athletic director, who was also one of the football coaches, Christopher Fowler. Cristian’s parents alleged that the defendants were negligent in the care and supervision of Cristian, causing his wrongful death. Plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that the school district’s coaches were negligent in their supervision of the practice. Counsel contended that Cristian was placed in the care of the coaches during the practice, where there was extreme heat and no areas of shade, and that the coaches failed to provide adequate hydration, as there were no sources of cold drinking water on the field. Plaintiffs’ counsel asserted that despite those conditions, Cristian’s coaches ordered him to finish the intense training session. Plaintiffs’ counsel contended that once the coaches saw Cristian’s deteriorating condition, they failed to try to cool him down, place him in the shade or provide him adequate hydration. Counsel also contended that the coaches did not observe basic health protocols, like checking Cristian’s pulse, and that instead of calling emergency medical services, the coaches delayed Cristian’s medical care by only calling his mother. Plaintiffs’ counsel noted that the coaches claimed that COVID-19 protocols prevented them from providing hydration, but that representatives of the Jurupa Unified School District alleged that no such protocols existed or prevented the participants from being provided hydration. The school district’s counsel asserted that the coaches at Patriot High School acted reasonably and that Cristian’s death was an unfortunate accident., Cristian suffered from hyperthermia, or overheating, a group of conditions where the body becomes too hot and cannot regulate its temperature due to the heat coming from the environment. By the time his mother arrived at the scene, Cristian was unresponsive, and slipping in and out of lucidity. As his condition quickly deteriorated, his parents called an ambulance. Cristian went into a coma while still experiencing causes related to his exertional heat stroke, which is caused by an increase in core body temperature brought on by intense physical activity in hot weather. He then remained unconscious throughout his three days of care and treatment from three different facilities.    Cristian was first brought to Riverside Community Hospital, a Riverside facility that offers emergency care, but it was determined that it was not equipped to handle the type of extreme exertional heat illness that Cristian had experienced. As a result, Cristian was airlifted to Children’s Health of Orange County Hospital, known as CHOC Hospital or CHOC Main Campus – Orange, in Orange. However, CHOC ultimately determined that Cristian was going into organ failure and that if Cristian required a transplant, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, in Los Angeles, would be the best place to get the transplant. Unfortunately, Cristian died at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on Oct. 1, 2020, three days after first suffering from exertional heat stroke.    Cristian’s parents sought recovery of wrongful death damages for the loss of their son’s love, companionship, comfort, care, assistance, protection, affection, society and moral support. (There was no claim for conscious pain and suffering, as it was filed before a new law that allowed for that recovery in 2021.)