Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990                   TAG: 9004200717
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES                                LENGTH: Short

GATHERS' FAMILY NAMING SCHOOL, COACH IN LAWSUIT

Gathers, who collapsed and died March 4 during the West Coast Conference Tournament, was taking Inderal for arrhythmia, a heart disorder that was diagnosed after Gathers collapsed during a game Dec. 9.

The suit, to be filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court, will cite 14 defendants, including Westhead, the university, the team doctor and trainer, and the doctors who treated Gathers.

It will claim that Westhead, in a telephone conversation with cardiologist Vernon Hattori, asked that Gathers' dosage be reduced.

ESPN reported that Westhead had called Hattori and "said Gathers' performances had been below par and he felt strongly the medicine should be changed."

Asked to confirm the report, Trudy Miller, an assistant to Bruce Fagel, the lawyer representing Gathers' family, said, "We've got it in writing."

The suit, which will be filed on behalf of Gathers' mother, brothers and aunt, also will say that the school did not properly use test data on Gathers' condition after his first collapse and should not have permitted him to play again.

It also will say that Gathers was not properly resuscitated on the court when he collapsed, and that a defibrillator to restore heart rhythm was not used quickly enough even though it was at courtside.