Girl’s Death Leaves Sorrow and Questions

The family of a 15-year-old girl who collapsed Monday during soccer practice and died three days later was still trying Saturday to figure out why she died.

Rosanna Porras, a Fillmore High School freshman, was on the field with friends from the Poison Ivy team shortly after 6 p.m. Monday when she kicked the ball and then fell forward.

A teammate called Rosanna’s mother, Katy, from a cell phone at 6:30 p.m. to tell her to get down to the field immediately, and Rosanna’s father, Henry, arrived home a few minutes later and received the same phone call.

“I got there just as they were putting her into the ambulance,” Henry Porras said through tears Saturday. “One of the paramedics walked up to me and I could see in his face that he was already shaking his head no--that it had been too long.”

After examining Rosanna in the Santa Paula Memorial Hospital emergency room, Dr. Robert Dekkers told the family that their daughter had been without oxygen at least 10 minutes, Porras said.

Both the Santa Barbara coroner’s office and Food and Drug Administration officials are conducting tests to determine if an herbal supplement taken by Rosanna and at least one other team member can be connected to the girl’s death. Test results are not expected for two to four months.

Doctors told the family that Rosanna had a low potassium level and that--perhaps combined with ephedrine, a natural stimulant in the supplement--could have caused cardiac arrest, Porras said.

Tests did show that Rosanna was not taking any illegal drugs and had no known health problems.

Rosanna remained at the Santa Paula hospital on a ventilator until Wednesday, when she was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where she was pronounced brain dead.

The family parked their RV at El Capitan campground and prayed near a fire all night for their daughter, who was president of the student body with a 3.7 grade-point average, had a passion for drawing and reading and was also on the volleyball and track teams.

“The swelling around her brain had gotten so bad . . . we knew the miracle would not happen,” Porras said. Family members spent time with Rosanna before taking her off the ventilator and donating her organs.

“She told my wife a couple of years ago that if anything ever happened to her that she wanted to save as many people as she could with her organs,” Porras said. “So we saw her one more time--although her mind was not there, her body was there and her beauty was still there.”

Henry’s 19-year-old daughter, Antonina, has taken a leave from her art classes at UC Santa Cruz to help the family.

“She has come home to help her mom get over this,” Porras said. “But you can never get over something like this. You just have to adjust and learn to live with the pain.”

Visitation will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Tuesday at Skillin-Carroll Mortuary in Fillmore and a rosary will follow at 8 p.m. at St. Francis Church. A funeral will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the church.