LOCAL : Hank Gathers’ Family Sues for $32.5 Million

The family of Hank Gathers filed a $32.5-million lawsuit today against 14 defendants, including Loyola Marymount University and basketball coach Paul Westhead, accusing them of responsibility for the basketball star’s March 4 death.

Gathers, 23, was “sacrificed on the altar of (college) basketball,” the suit said.

The suit claims that Gathers’ heart medication was reduced at the request of Westhead because the player’s performance was suffering, that Gathers was not made aware of the risk he faced if he continued to play basketball, and that he was not treated quickly enough when he collapsed March 4 during the Lions’ West Coast Conference tournament game. Gathers, the nation’s leading scorer a year earlier, died hours later.

Contained in the suit was the excerpt of a letter sent by one of Gathers’ doctors, Vernon Hattori, to another, Michael Mellman, on Jan. 29.

The letter stated that a dosage of 240 milligrams of Inderal a day almost completely controlled Gathers’ erratic heartbeat. But the letter added: “His dose was diminished . . . after a rather dismal performance in his first game against Xavier. On a lower dose, he apparently performed incredibly against St. John’s. . . . However, his performance was obviously still being unfavorably affected by his medication so I decreased his Inderal.”

The suit is being filed on behalf of Gathers’ mother, Lucille; his brothers Derrick and Charles, and his aunt, Carole Livingston.

Hattori and Mellman are among the defendants, who also include Loyola Athletic Director Bryan Quinn, team trainer Chip Schaefer and a number of doctors who treated Gathers.

Another part of the Jan. 29 letter from Hattori to Mellman said Hattori met with Gathers the previous week and the player said he was satisfied with his level of performance with the changes in medications.

” . . . Later on over the weekend I got a call from his coach, indicating that his athletic performance was still substantially sub-par and that he felt strongly that the medication should be changed.”

The last recorded dosage was 40 milligrams twice a day, far below the 240 milligrams a day initially prescribed.