PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- College basketball star Hank Gathers, who collapsed during a game Sunday and later died, would have been prevented from playing under guidelines proposed five years ago by a national panel of cardiologists, a doctor said Thursday.
Dr. Paul D. Thompson, director of preventive cardiology at Miriam Hospital in Providence, said a panel of heart specialists concluded in 1985 that athletes diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy should not be allowed to compete.
Thompson, who served as a NBC television commentator during the 1988 Olympic Games, took part in the 1985 conference, which examined heart disease among athletes.
Gathers a 23-year-old Loyola Marymount star, died two hours after he collapsed during Sunday's West Coast Conference tournament game with Portland State. In December, he fainted during a game and doctors reportedly advised him to quit playing.
Cardiomyopathy is a rare condition in which an overgrown muscle in the heart may trigger an irregular heartbeat and stop the flow of blood through the heart.
'Anyone with this condition is at some risk. But when they pass out, then the sirens should go off. That's the red alert,' Thompson said.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting an unnamed cardiologist familiar with the case, reported Gathers was told not to play after a Dec. 9 fainting spell. The newspaper also said Gathers had missed a scheduled weekly treadmill test and is suspected to have not taken his heart medicine.
If Gathers had stopped taking his medication it would have made his condition much worse, Thompson said.
Drugs used to treat cardiomyopathy block adrenalin from reaching receptors in the brain. But the body reacts to the blockers by opening more receptors and if the patient stops taking the medicine, the body is flooded with adrenalin, making the heart pump faster.
Dr. Michael Mellman, who treated Gathers after the fainting spell, and Dr. Vernon Hattori, a cardiologist who had been seeing Gathers, issued a joint statement in response to questions about the player's care.
'Hank Gathers fainted on Dec. 9, 1989, and was initially hospitalized at Centinela Hospital by Dr. Michael Mellman and underwent testing at that facility,' the statement said. 'He was then seen on Dec. 14, 1989, by Drs. Vernon Hattori and Charles Swerdlow, and a determination was made that further cardiac testing was necessary. Such testing was performed at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital-Inglewood, and revealed a cardiac arrhythmia, which was controlled by cardiac medication.'
Los Angeles County Coroner's officials said an autopsy was performed Monday but deferred announcing the cause of death pending evaluation of toxicology and tissue tests. Spokesman Bob Dambacher said the results 'won't be ready for at least a week.'
Gathers, the 11th-leading scorer in major college history, was a 6-foot-7, 210-pounder who was a near-certain NBA first-round draft choice.
