Westhead Claims No Fault in Death : Gathers: Suit is expected to allege Loyola Marymount coach asked a doctor to reduce heart medication of his player, who died during a game on March 4.

On the day before he was expected to become one of 14 people named in legal complaints over Hank Gathers’ death, Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Westhead said Thursday he felt no culpability for what happened to his star basketball player.

Westhead admitted for the first time publicly that he knew Gathers had missed at least one medical test the week before his March 4 death. Westhead also said he thought that he couldn’t or shouldn’t play any role in Gathers’ medical care between his first fainting spell on Dec. 9 and his death.

“Hank’s appointments, visitations, testing--I was never a link in that loop,” Westhead said.

But Westhead’s version of Gathers’ medical care is expected to be contested by lawyers representing the Gathers family at a noon news conference today in Beverly Hills. ESPN reported that a suit--expected to be filed today--will say that Westhead, in a telephone conversation with cardiologist Dr. Vernon Hattori, asked that Gathers’ dosage of the medicine Inderal be reduced. Inderal is used to treat a heart arrhythmia, Gathers’ diagnosed condition.

Trudy Miller, an assistant to Bruce Fagel, the Beverly Hills attorney handling the case for the Gathers family, confirmed the report. “We’ve got it in writing. That’s part of the records we’re having blown up for the press. That particular entry--it says more than that, too.”

Westhead responded by saying that it was typical of how things are likely to be twisted and turned in the legal process in the months ahead. He said that the report was simply a matter of mistaken semantics.

“Did I ever call Dr. Hattori and ask him to reduce Hank’s medication? Never,” Westhead said. “Did I have a conversation with Hattori that Hank’s performance was below par; and, in the course of that conversation, did Hattori say that there are other medications that might work better in a basketball player; and did I say that it would be fine with me if they wanted to change the medication? Unequivocally, yes.

“Reduce and change. A big difference, I think.”

In that regard, Martin L. Burke, attorney for Loyola Marymount University, said Thursday night: “The suggestion that the university or anyone connected with the university wanted the doctors to reduce the medication is just false.”

Westhead said that his main contact with doctors attending Gathers after Dec. 9 was a meeting in his office shortly before the team’s Jan. 1 departure to Philadelphia for games against St. Joseph’s and La Salle.

“In the meeting were Doctors (Michael) Mellman and Hattori, Chip (Schaefer, Loyola’s trainer) and me,” Westhead said. “The meeting was to clear Hank to play and to let everybody know this was an ongoing thing, that they were continuing to test.

“The doctors said they were comfortable that he could commence playing, with the understanding that he would continue to take medication and continue to be tested.

“All this time, they were telling Hank more than me. They said, ‘If at any point you refuse to do these things, we will rescind your permission to play.’

“It was kind of like a threat, but not really.

“They made their points to him; they didn’t even turn to me. It was clear from the get-go, it was them and Hank.”

Westhead said that after that, he never knew much about how often or when Gathers went to the doctors.

“Nobody ever asked me to watch whether he took pills or anything like that,” Westhead said.

He also addressed what could become a key issue in future legal proceedings: Gathers’ missed medical tests the week before his death.

The Times has reported that Gathers missed at least two scheduled tests the week before the West Coast Conference tournament. Hattori called him after each one, telling him he needed to take the tests.

Each time, Gathers told Hattori he would come in the next day. Each time, he failed to appear. Finally, after telling Gathers that he could not play in the tournament that weekend unless his Inderal dosage was increased, Hattori gave in to Gathers’ protests and allowed him to play.

There had been speculation that, during that week, Hattori was also calling Westhead in attempts to get him to get Gathers in for tests. Westhead said he found out about Gathers’ missed tests by happenstance.

“It was Friday of the tournament week, the day before the opening game, and we had a practice and film session here at Gersten Pavilion,” Westhead said.

“The plan was, since we were going to play an early afternoon game the next day, we would have our team meal after practice, over at a pizza place.

“Well, after practice, there were some messages there that I kind of stumbled into; normally, I wouldn’t, but my secretary said to me that Dr. Hattori was trying to get ahold of Hank. She said the doctor had said he really needs to get ahold of Hank.

“Well, Hank gets lots of messages, and normally I wouldn’t even think much of that. But I knew where Hank had gone--he and Bo Kimble had gone over to the registrar’s office because that office needed to get their signatures to release to the Wooden Award people (notice) that each had at least a 2.0 (scholastic) average and were eligible for it--and I knew I’d see him in 15 minutes. So, I took the message and called the doctor.

“Hattori told me he was trying to get ahold of Hank because Hank hadn’t come in for some tests and he needed to see him. I told the doctor I’d make sure Hank got the message, and that I would tell him he needed to talk to Hattori today.

“When I got to the pizza place, I told Hank that he needed to call the doctor right away, and Hank assured me he would. And knowing Hank like I did, if he said he’d do something, he would. Then, subsequently, after all this happened, I was told that he had, indeed, called Hattori. What they said, I really don’t know.”

Westhead said there had been no series of phone calls from Hattori to him that week.

“That (passing the message along on Friday) was my only real input,” Westhead said.

Westhead said that in all his years of coaching, he had never gone against what a doctor had recommended for a player. “I don’t know any coach who ever has or would,” he said.

“In retrospect, I don’t see any change I could have made. Whether it’s a foot, a knee, a heart or an elbow, I don’t know anything about any of those things.”

He said he had no animosity toward the doctors involved, adding: “I know they did the very best they could for Hank.”

Westhead also said that while he is braced for the legal battles ahead, he also feels that he did no wrong. “In that sense, I don’t care,” he said.

“In the legal world, things get turned, twisted, chopped, patched and re-patched,” he said. “Suddenly, what was done with caring and concern can be twisted into something appearing uncaring and selfish. It’s in that sense that I don’t care, because I have nothing to hide.”

Westhead said that he understands the Gathers family taking legal action, and holds no animosity toward them, either.

“To get some money, it is an attempt to recapture,” he said. “I’ve never done any more (for) nor received any more from any player than Hank Gathers.

“So, in what is happening now, you can see the blatant irony.”

Contributing to this story were Times staff writers Maryann Hudson and Elliott Almond.