Hank Gathers' life might have been saved if the Loyola Marymount star's heart was shocked with a defibrillator within five minutes after he collapsed at a basketball game, a heart specialist said Friday.
Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, professor of medicine at Indiana University Medical School and a specialist in heart arrhythmia, also acknowledged there may have been medical conditions that prevented doctors from applying a shock in time to save Gathers."I can't second guess those people without more information about what was actually happening," Zipes said in a telephone interview.
However, he did say time was precious once Gathers fell to the floor and began having what appeared to be a seizure. The player - one of the best in the country - was pronounced dead less than two hours after collapsing on court March 4.
Autopsy results released Thursday said Gathers died of a diseased and scarred heart muscle and that there were no traces in his system of the prescription drug he was supposed to be taking - Inderal. However, further tests were still being conducted just to check for the presence of medication.
Zipes said that once Gathers lapsed into ventricular fibrillation - uncontrolled contractions of the heart muscle - brain death was certain within three to five minutes. That would happen, he said, unless Gathers received a shock from a defibrillator, which can help a failing heart regain normal rhythm, or received cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
He said the Los Angeles coroner's findings indicated Gathers suffered an episode of ventricular tachycardia, an abnormally rapid heartbeat or, literally, a fast heart. Such a condition can lead to ventricular fibrillation, which Zipes characterized as a heart "beating like a bag of squiggly worms."
Once that happens, there is an "inexorable progression toward death without some kind of intervention," Zipes said.
Symptoms of ventricular fibrillation include no blood pressure, no pulse, no breathing, turning blue and seizures, Zipes said. "What you see is an unconscious patient who stops breathing and starts to have seizure activity," he said.
Zipes, who has published more than 400 articles and written five books on heart arrhythmia, is president of the North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology, the largest organization of cardiologists and surgeons who deal with heart rhythm problems.
Asked to comment on Zipes remarks, Joan Gauline, Loyola Marymount's director of public relations, said, "We're not medical experts so we can't comment on that." She referred calls to the school's attorney, Martin Burke, who could not be reached by telephone.
Gathers had a pulse immediately after collapsing, Loyola trainer Chip Schaefer was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times last week. Gathers' heart stopped beating after he was put on a stretcher and carried off the court, the newspaper said.
"At first after his collapse he felt responsive, and you don't perform CPR on a person who has a pulse," Schaefer was quoted as saying.
The team doctor connected Gathers to a defibrillator, the Times said.