Boxer Might Have Been Intoxicated : Aftermath: Physician says Morales, who had emergency brain surgery, tested positive for alcohol after fight at Indio.

Fernie Morales, the El Paso boxer who underwent emergency brain surgery Saturday night after a bout in Indio, tested positive for alcohol in his urine and might have been legally drunk during the bout, a physician said Thursday.

Dr. Robert Karns, assigned to work the Morales-Orlando Canizales fight Saturday, said Morales flunked both his primary and backup urine tests for alcohol. The urine samples were taken minutes after the fight. The first test, he said, showed a .06 alcohol level, the backup a .05.

“Alcohol detoxifies quickly, so .06 or .05 levels would tell you that when Morales went into the ring, the levels would have been higher,” Karns said.

“You would strongly suspect, then, that he was legally drunk (.08) when the fight began.”

Morales collapsed about 90 minutes after losing a 12-round decision to Canizales, the International Boxing Federation bantamweight champion, at Indio’s Desert ExpoCentre.

Morales was competitive throughout the fight, but was knocked down seconds before the bout ended. He complained in his dressing room afterward of a headache and nausea. As he left the building with family members, he fainted.

He was taken to John F. Kennedy Hospital in Indio, where a blood clot on the brain was removed by Dr. Ali Tahmouresie. He was listed in critical condition for three days, but has shown some improvement the last two days.

In California, urine samples are taken from boxers in all championship fights and tests are made for illegal drugs. Commission rules designate alcohol as an illegal drug.

Morales’ father and trainer, Frank Morales, demanded after the fight that blood samples be drawn from both boxers. Commission staff members said that Frank Morales at the time charged that Canizales had used “performance enhancing drugs.”

Karns said: “Had we taken blood samples at the same time we took the urine samples, I’m sure Morales’ alcohol level would have been even higher than what we got with the urine. It’s fair to say that if your urine is .06 for alcohol, then you can assume your blood would be at least .08.”

Karns said a case cannot be made that alcohol in Morales’ system caused the brain injury, but that alcohol “made him more likely to suffer such an injury” because of diminished ability to react.

Ernest Noble, director of UCLA’s Alcohol Research Center, said studies indicate that a person with a .06 blood-alcohol level has significant impairment of coordination, judgment and reflexes.

But the alcohol also could lead to increased bleeding, studies suggest. E. Randy Eichner, a hematologist at the Oklahoma State Health Science Center, said some studies show that alcohol impairs immediate clotting, allowing, in a case such as Morales’, a greater concentration of blood, as was apparently the case.

Because of Morales’ alcohol reading, he automatically has been suspended in California and his case will be reviewed routinely at the November meeting of the State Athletic Commission.

But by then, his future as a boxer is not likely to be up for discussion. Even with a complete recovery, commission members said this week, Morales could never be licensed again to box again in the United States.

Times staff writer Elliott Almond contributed to this story.