Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993 TAG: 9307290053
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From Associated Press reports
DATELINE: BOSTON LENGTH: Long
He had a passion and talent for basketball that took him to the brink of superstardom with the Boston Celtics. The legendary Larry Bird retired. Lewis succeeded him as captain last season.
The lure of the game was strong. He couldn't walk away from it despite doctors' warnings about a life-threatening heart condition. He got a second, less alarming, medical opinion after undergoing rigorous tests.
The Celtics' best player started shooting baskets again.
Lewis was doing that Tuesday when he collapsed. He was pronounced dead 2 1/2 hours later.
He left behind a year-old son, a pregnant wife and a city in mourning. His loss was devastating to the inner-city kids who revered the unassuming Lewis, who met frequently with them.
"One of the kids said to me at his last appearance, `Reggie's always around, he's always there for us, he's always doing something for us,' " said Kathryn Holmes Johnson, communications manager of the Roxbury clubhouse of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.
"He was living a dream and he wanted others to share that dream," said former Celtic M.L. Carr, now the team's director of community relations.
Lewis' death at the age of 27 and the height of his basketball powers raised many questions:
Should he have had a defibrillator implanted to restore a regular heartbeat, a procedure that two doctors said probably would have saved his life?
Should he have heeded a group of 12 specialists who made the original diagnosis of a heart condition that Celtics team physician Arnold Scheller said could be fatal?
After receiving a second opinion that he had a less serious nerve disorder, should Lewis have sought a third opinion?
Was Lewis' heart condition so hazardous that it could have killed him even if he wasn't shooting baskets?
"That could have happened when he was walking in a mall. It was not an overwhelmingly strenuous activity," said Dr. Daniel Friedman, who treats athletes' heart problems at the University of Texas at Dallas.
An autopsy was conducted Wednesday but no cause of death was determined, pending further study.
The Celtics said funeral arrangements were expected to be announced today.
Lewis, a graceful guard with a quick burst to the basket, collapsed during a playoff game April 29 at Boston Garden. He spent the next three days at New England Baptist Hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with the heart condition.
He left abruptly for Brigham & Women's Hospital where he underwent more than a week of tests. Dr. Gilbert Mudge, the hospital's director of clinical cardiology, who supervised Lewis' treatment there, announced May 10 that Lewis had a relatively harmless nerve problem. He said that Lewis had "a normal athlete's heart" and that he was optimistic Lewis could return to basketball under medical supervision.
Mudge was unavailable for comment after Lewis' death.
Lewis "should have followed the findings that the 12 of us recommended," said a member of the cardiology team who spoke under the condition he not be identified. "We said he needed further tests and probably needed a defibrillator and it was a question whether he would ever play again. If he had followed that, he probably would have been alive today."
Joe Kleine, a Celtic the past four seasons, said Lewis' love for basketball wasn't so great that he would imprudently risk his life.
"I'm very convinced, although he never said it to me, he would make a decision and would do what was best for his family, not for basketball," Kleine said.
Lewis' death raises questions of medical malpractice but does not necessarily mean any physicians are liable, experts said Wednesday.
Lee J. Dunn Jr., a Boston attorney who chairs the Massachusetts Bar Association's health law section, and Neil Sugarman, president of the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Lawyers, said suits against doctors cannot be won simply because a patient died.
They said the key is whether the diagnosis and treatment were what reasonably prudent doctors, certified in the same specialty as the treating physician, would have done under the same set of facts.
Lewis married his college sweetheart, Donna Harris. Reggie Jr. was born last August. His wife found out Monday she was pregnant with their second child.
Lewis's $3.3 million salary didn't keep him from going into the community to help the poor. Every Thanksgiving he would use his own money for a turkey giveaway for which he never sought publicity.
"He was the most special total player and person that I've been involved with in 22 years of coaching," said Connecticut coach Jim Calhoun, who coached Lewis at Northeastern University.
Lewis was an all-star in 1991-92 and led the Celtics in scoring the past two seasons. He scored 10 of Boston's first 12 points on April 29 against Charlotte.
Then he collapsed near the free-throw line midway through the first quarter.
Sometime between 5 and 5:12 p.m. Tuesday, he collapsed near another free-throw line at Brandeis University in nearby Waltham, the Celtics' practice facility.
"When I arrived, he did not have a pulse and he was not breathing," said campus police officer Jim Crowley, a trained emergency medical technician who arrived at 5:13 p.m.
Lewis was pronounced dead at 7:30 p.m.
"In my mind, there's some anger involved that this didn't have to happen," said Jerry Sichting, a former teammate of Lewis and now a Celtics broadcaster.
by CNB