Expert: Defibrillator Delay Hurt Gathers

The delay in the use of a defibrillator on Hank Gathers the night he collapsed caused him substantial injury before he died, according to an expert who testified on behalf of the Gathers family Monday in Superior Court in Torrance.

Steven Van Camp, a cardiologist from San Diego, testified for the Gathers family that the two doctors who attended to Gathers courtside at a postseason basketball game at Loyola Marymount University should have familiarized themselves with the school’s defibrillator or made certain that the person said to be responsible for the device--former Loyola trainer Chip Schaefer--was adequately trained in its use.

Van Camp’s testimony was part of an attempt by Bruce Fagel, the attorney for the Gathers family, to show that there was confusion in the minutes after Gathers collapsed March 4, 1990. Gathers died less than two hours later.

Fagel says the alleged confusion was caused by an absence of an emergency plan that should have been established after Gathers had collapsed the first time, Dec. 9, 1989.

Members of the Gathers family who witnessed his collapse are charging that negligence by the two doctors caused them emotional distress. But the defendants, Dan Hyslop, Loyola’s staff physician in its student health center, and Ben Shaffer, the doctor on duty that game from the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Group, deny negligence and say they were not involved in Gathers’ cardiac care.

The trial will continue today with the testimony of Chip Schaefer, now the trainer for the Chicago Bulls.