European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 27, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                To your health working out with a bad heart. Unanswered questions by Jean Marbella Baltimore Sun one moment he was sky bound tracing the Joyful trajectory of yet another slam Dunk in a playing career that seemed to know no Bounds a not even Gravity s. The next moment he was Down crumpled on the hard floor of what sadly and suddenly would be his last court. Hank gathers death in Early March during a Loyola Mary mount University game in the West coast conference tournament has been linked to cardiac arrhythmia. This is a condition so common and a term so general that it includes any irregularity of the heartbeat a from a harmless extra flutter to a heart gone haywire. And so the question naturally tugs at the mind of anyone with a racing skipping or otherwise arrhythmic heart if a 23-year-old, Peak form basketball Star can be felled by this what about someone who is perhaps older less fit and working out at a Milder Pace a the phones have not stopped ringing Quot said or. Thomas Guarneri who Heads the cardiac arrhythmia service at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. How he and other cardiologists Are responding of course varies As much As the condition itself does. Quot it depends on what the arrhythmia is and what the underlying heart disease is Quot said or. Enrico Veltri chief of cardiology at Baltimore s Sinai Hospital and director of its sudden death prevention program. The concern about exercising when you have arrhythmia is that the heart May not receive enough blood. When you exercise your Muscles demand More blood than when you Are at rest. Arrhythmia can make your heart a less efficient pump and exercise taxes it further. Quot what one worries about with exercise is that exercise diminishes the blood flow to the heart muscle Quot Veltri said. Quot ischaemia insufficient Supply of blood occurs and in some patients ischaemia can provoke further arrhythmia. The heart then goes into a chaotic rhythm. And then the person passes  doctors in California have not yet released autopsy findings on what exactly killed gathers and press reports and speculation among doctors have been occasionally contradictory or incomplete. Crucial unresolved questions include what underlying heart ailment was plaguing gathers and whether he was still taking the anti arrhythmic medication prescribed after an earlier episode in which he fainted during a basketball game. Quot a lot of this is going to rest on what his underlying disease was and there have Only been rumours about that. You can have innocent arrhythmia or it can be potentially lethal Quot said or. Barry Maron a senior investigator at the National institutes of health who researches sudden death in athletes. Quot arrhythmia themselves Are not the whole  it sounds like his arrhythmia was accompanied by serious heart disease Quot agreed Guarneri. Arrhythmia can be a simple disruption in the Normal beating of your heart such As when it races during a stressful situation or skips an occasional beat for no stricken athlete Hank gathers shortly before he died March 4. It was known he had a serious condition a defibrillator machine was kept on the sidelines at games in Case he needed to be revived. Page 16 a a a the stars and stripes apparent reason. But sometimes arrhythmia is a signal that you have an underlying heart condition a something structurally and perhaps life threateningly wrong with this crucial Organ. What Many doctors suspect gathers had for example is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy a disease of the heart muscle often accompanied by arrhythmia and frequently the culprit when a fit Young athlete suddenly Dies. People with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy usually an inherited condition have an overgrowth of heart muscle tissue or. Kenneth Baughman chief of the Johns Hopkins cardiomyopathy service said. This overgrowth makes the heart a less efficient pump making it work harder to circulate blood through the body than it has to under Normal circumstances he said. And when you add the demand of exercise to a heart that is already struggling to pump the result can be fatal. Quot it usually impairs the amount of blood the heart can pump Forward. And the heart is slow to relax and allow the blood to flow in Quot Baughman said. Quot with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy you Are at increased risk clearly with  persons with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy Are at such a risk of death from vigorous exercise that a group of cardiologists decided at a conference several years ago to recommend that they be disqualified from tuesday March 27,1990 competitive sports said Maron one of the conferees what is perhaps most troubling about gathers Casi is that All indications were that he had a serious condition a he had been prescribed an anti array Tow medication and even More tellingly a defibrillator machine was kept on the sidelines in the event that he would need to be revived. A a it a preposterous. To have a defibrillator there Realf shows you How far its gone Quot Maron said. Quot it s really Ai Issue of How important is it to play that you get yourself in a position where you have a defibrillator on the  unlike other Young athletes who die suddenly Duroc Competition gathers had a Clear warning he had fainted at the free throw line during another game litre months earlier and had subsequently been tested and diagnosed. Quot unfortunately the first symptom in some people is death a Baughman said. Quot in general when individuals Are screened for competitions normally there Are abnormalities that can tip you off. There Are relatively simple tests you can do. But then again most of these Are vigorous individuals so your suspicions Are Low. Doctors say your suspicions should be raised if you or a family member has had heart trouble in the past. Chest palpitations faintness dizziness and breathing difficulty a More than what would be expected Given what you re doing at the time a Are also warning signs of possible arrhythmia