On March 3, 1990, Hank Gathers collapsed with cardiac arrest in the middle of a National
Collegiate Athletic Association Division I basketball game and passed away. His death
stirred extensive discussions as to the cause of his death and the possibility of
preventing it. The ensuing litigation process was closely followed by articles in
leading medical journals, which also focused on the ethical aspects of medical screening
of athletes.
1
These questions notwithstanding, the sequence of the events taking place during that
basketball game, as caught on television, shows another way that could have prevented
this tragic death: A 2:41-minute video accessible on YouTube
2
clearly shows the bewildering and undisputable fact that for 2 entire minutes after
his collapse, Hank Gathers received no form of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).Keywords
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Published online: September 19, 2017
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