Natural Causes Ruled Out in Death of Fillmore Girl

A Santa Barbara County medical examiner Friday ruled out natural causes as the source of the massive heart attack that killed a 15-year-old Fillmore girl, and is seeking further tests to determine if an over-the-counter energy booster played a role.

Rosanna Porras, the Fillmore High School class president who collapsed on the soccer field last week and died three days later, had ingested an herbal supplement called Ripped Fuel in the days before her death. Undissolved capsules were found in her stomach the day she collapsed.

Medical examiners will now send tissue samples from Rosanna’s heart to Boston, where officials connected a young weightlifter’s death last year to a liquid form of the product.

A microscopic analysis of the Ventura County girl’s heart tissues indicated massive damage to the muscle, said Larry Gillespie, a deputy coroner in Santa Barbara County, who is handling the case because she died in a hospital there.

“It appears as though the damage occurred days before she collapsed on the field,” Gillespie said. “There is essentially no other explanation, or good explanation, for a massive heart attack of this severity in a 15-year-old other than something like this product or the drug in this product.”

The energy booster contains ephedrine, which one expert describes as one atom away from illegal methamphetamine.

Twinlab, the Hauppauge, N.Y., firm that makes the product, defended its safety Friday.

“We do not believe Ripped Fuel had any role in this tragic occurrence,” said firm President Ross Blechman in a news release. “Ripped Fuel has a long history of safe use as a dietary supplement when taken as labeled, as part of a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercise program to help preserve lean body mass. Millions of servings have been used by consumers for years.”

The coroner’s analysis indicated that Rosanna did not suffer from any congenital heart diseases, inflammation, viral infections or any other ailments related to the heart. Earlier tests found no signs of other drugs in her system.