Autopsy Indicates Baseball Player Kile Had Heart Attack

CHICAGO (AP)--St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile likely died from blockage of his coronary artery, the medical examiner's office said Sunday.

Kile was found dead in the team hotel Saturday after other players realized he was not at the ballpark and called hotel officials to check on him. Police said it appeared Kile had died in his sleep of natural causes.

After a preliminary autopsy Sunday, Dr. Edmund Donoghue said Kile had an 80% to 90% narrowing of two of the three branches of the coronary artery, which carries oxygenated blood away from the heart.

Donoghue said a final autopsy report could take from 4-to-6 weeks because he still wants to study the "drug aspect." He gave no indication Sunday that drugs or illegal substances were involved in Kile's death.

The condition, called coronary heherosclerosis, is commonly known as hardening of the arteries.

Dr. Jim Loomis, assistant team physician, said Saturday that Kile had no known health problems and was not on medication.

The Cardinals held a 30-minute memorial service for Kile on Sunday morning. Kile's wife, Flynn, spoke to players, and many stayed to share their memories of the veteran pitcher.

A few hours later, they were back to work, preparing to play the Chicago Cubs. Pitcher Jason Simontacchi was scheduled to start for the Cardinals.

From the stltoday.com website:

Kile autopsy shows hardening of coronary artery

By Jeremy Kohler, Joe Strauss and Rick Hummel,
Of the Post-Dispatch
06/23/2002 02:30 PM

CHICAGO — An autopsy today on Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile showed the 33-year-old pitcher had severe coronary atherosclerosis, or hardening of the coronary artery.

Dr. Edmund Donoghue, the Cook County Medical Examiner, said the hardening of the coronary artery could very likely have caused a heart arrythmia. The cause of death has not been officially determined and Donoghue said toxicology tests would be done. Those tests could take several weeks.

The medical examiner also said some marijuana was found in Kile's hotel room.

He stressed that he did not believe there was any relation between the marijuana and Kile's death. He didn't know if Kile had smoked any recently.

Hardening of the coronary artery is very rare in younger people, Donoghue said, although it's a common cause of death among older people.

Donoghue said it appeared that Kile died peacefully, not painfully.

Kile's brother, Dan, told officials that his brother had been complaining of pain in his right shoulder and of being very tired. Donoghue said those are signs he might have been having heart failure.

He also said that it takes years to develop hardening of the coronary artery. Kile had an 80 percent to 90 percent narrowing of two of the three branches of the coronary artery.

< snip >

Team officials said police had told them that Kile probably died eight to 10 hours before his body was discovered. He went to dinner Friday night with his brother at Harry Caray's restaurant and returned to the Westin Michigan Avenue hotel by 10:30 p.m., when he told shortstop Edgar Renteria that he was tired and was going to bed.

< snip >

Kile was married and the father of three young children. His wife, Flynn Kile, was in San Diego, attending to details for their new residence there, and was to fly to Chicago later Saturday.

Dr. James Loomis, the Cardinals' assistant team physician, said he could not speculate on a cause of death. Loomis added that heart arrhythmia and brain aneurysm are typically first pursued as the cause of death for men of Kile's age and fitness.

Kile's father, David Kile, was only 44 when he died Feb. 24, 1993, five days after suffering a blood clot in his brain.

Loomis said Kile occasionally took anti-inflammatory medication but was on no other prescription drugs.

Loomis said Kile had last undergone and passed a physical during spring training. Kile underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery in November that left him on a more conservative schedule early this season. . . .

There really seems to be some revisionism here. Stories that go back several years say Kile's father died of a blood clot to the brain and that it took him five days to die, not the sort of signs you associate with a heart attack.

And generally, a death of this type would occur during some type of strenuous activity, not lying asleep in bed.

Other reports, such as CNN/SI, indicate that small amounts of a substance were found in his room that *may* have been marijuana but the medical examiner ruled this out as having anything to do with his death.

Whatever the cause, it's a sad and terrible story but I'm puzzled at the media's selectivity in their reporting. Once these thinks leak out, it's better that the final result be the truth and let the facts speak for themselves.

Strange reading this. My dear Dad died a young man of 40, sudden cardiac. On a Monday morning.

Strange, indeed. I had a heart attack at the age of 47 on June 22, 1992, and had to be hit twice with the defibrillator in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Thank God for those wonderful paramedics.

I was and still am a non-smoker, no family history of cardiac problems, physically active, no known risk factors. My "event" happened while I was taking a treadmill test for a work physical. Turned out I have a congenitally malformed artery that either had a blood clot or went into spasm.

Mr. Inspectorette and I busted open the champagne yesterday in honor of my "birthday". We also said a prayer of thanks. I still suffer from arrhythmia, but with medication and taking good care of myself, I've been leading a pretty normal life ever since, still working full-time. Hope to retire in about 3 1/2 years.

people think most myocardial infarctions are due to cholesterol blocking an artery and in a way that is true but what happens is over time cholesterol deposits in the artery and a epithelial layer of tissue forms over the deposit in the artery and eventually there is damage to the epithelial layer and your body reacts the same way as it would if you cut yourself shaving platelets rush to the injury to clot the wound which totally blocks the artery that is why "clot busting " drugs work if your artery was totally blocked by cholesterol they wouldnt.

somebody with a 80 to 90% percent blockage may not show any symptoms. kile was a pitcher not a distance runner who would definately notice a diminished blood flow to his heart, angina pains etc.