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Week in review

By Times Staff Writer
Published January 23, 2005

ALONSO STUDENT'S HEART LIKELY GAVE OUT: Complications from congenital heart disease likely led to the death of an Alonso High School athlete from Westchase who collapsed during a running exercise at baseball practice Wednesday, according to a preliminary autopsy.

Matthew Miulli, a 17-year-old junior, had an existing heart condition for which he had twice been treated, said Dr. Les Chrostowski, associate medical examiner for Hillsborough County.

"It was ongoing, and he underwent some procedures correcting the problem," Chrostowski said. "But he was still sick. If you ask me if these exercises that he did were too strenuous for him, I just cannot answer this."

As Miulli's classmates returned to school Thursday, they were met by a team of grief counselors and other health care professionals. Some, who like Miulli were preparing for baseball tryouts Monday, gathered with their coach and a counselor to mourn Miulli, the third Alonso teenager to die suddenly in the past three months.

At the Miulli family home in the Westchase area, flowers lined the front doorway. Trays of cookies, meat and cheese were left on the stoop. Sympathy cards were tucked in the door.

Dr. Joel A. Strom, director of the division of cardiovascular disease at the University of South Florida, said sudden death related to heart disease is common in young athletes.

"Sometimes, young athletes, especially if they get hit in the chest with a baseball, even with normal hearts, can provoke fatal arrhythmia," he said.

Shortly after school ended Wednesday, those aspiring to be members of the Alonso High School baseball squad began jogging around the school's track. The 1.5-mile run was part of a preseason conditioning program before tryouts Monday.

Miulli, a transfer student from Tampa Catholic High School, walked. He told another student he had chest pains. Soon after, Miulli collapsed. He was taken to Town & Country Hospital and pronounced dead.

SHERIFF TO FORBID DUI CHASES AS UNSAFE: In keeping with a trend among law enforcement agencies, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said he will tighten his agency's pursuit policy to forbid chases of drunken-driving suspects.

Gee said the change is aimed at preventing high-speed chases that end in death or serious injury, often to uninvolved motorists on the road when a suspect and deputies come barreling along.

"You've already got somebody who's impaired, and now you're going to chase them at 80 to 90 mph?" Gee said. "It's probably better to let that person go than to push them to the limit."

The planned change comes as the Temple Terrace Police Department faces the threat of litigation from the family of a 50-year-old Tampa man who died during a recent high-speed chase.

Hillsborough's stricter pursuit standard also reflects a move by law enforcement across Florida.

TAMPA RAISES STORMWATER FEE: The Tampa City Council on Thursday gave preliminary support to Mayor Pam Iorio's proposal to triple Tampa's stormwater fee.

The increase, from about $12 a year to $36, would help fund a five-year, $60-million capital improvement plan for the city's stormwater system.

The fee increase is modest, council members agreed, with council member Mary Alvarez noting that the monthly cost is "less than a pack of cigarettes or a six-pack of beer."

The council voted 6-1 in favor of the fee boost and proposed upgrades to the stormwater system. Council member Shawn Harrison voted no.

The increase will be scheduled for a public hearing and formal vote by the City Council in the summer.

The intent is to ease flooding problems, which were highlighted by last year's wetter-than-usual rainy season.

Harrison, who represents north Tampa, said he voted against the increase because he wants to know how much a private contractor would charge to make all 95 stormwater improvements over the next 10 years.

Taking a piecemeal approach to the projects will cost more in the long run and require raising the fee again, he said.

USF FACULTY PROPOSAL - DATE, BUT TELL: Professors at the University of South Florida can date students if they want to, faculty leaders decided Wednesday.

But professors must disclose any relationships with students they teach or advise, and must stop supervising them.

The USF Faculty Senate overwhelmingly approved a new consensual relations policy on Wednesday after six drafts and six months of debate.

The topic has provoked impassioned discussion on campus, with some faculty members arguing for a complete ban and others insisting on a more lenient policy.

Although some faculty members agreed Wednesday that the policy wasn't perfect, they said it addressed their main concern: that professors be forbidden from supervising anyone they're dating.

"I think we have found a happy medium in a wide spectrum of opinions," said geography professor Philip Reeder, who helped draft the policy.

[Last modified January 23, 2005, 00:14:21]