Colleges

USF death: heart possible cause

After seven months, the medical examiner's office can't find a firm reason.

By GREG AUMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 24, 2007

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County medical examiner's office believes a disorder that produces irregular heart rhythms caused the January death of USF running back Keeley Dorsey.

But seven months of testing haven't been able to prove it, and the answer may never be known.

"This is a case where the absence of proof is not proof of absence," said Laura Hair, an associate medical examiner who handled the Dorsey case. "We did not find anything abnormal. His toxicology was totally clean, and we looked at a microscopic level and did not find anything."

Dorsey, 19, a freshman from Tallahassee, collapsed and died on Jan. 17 while the football team was going through an offseason workout in the school's athletic facility.

The disorder Hair believes is the cause is known as long QT syndrome, which produces erratic and even chaotic heart rhythms that can result in death. Hair said her findings showed nothing that suggested Dorsey's death could have been prevented. Testing showed no presence of drugs, and no evidence of disease or injury.

"There was no history, nothing that would say there's a possibility of this happening," she said. "There was no indication of any cardiac anomaly in what was a very long search."

Tampa attorney Barry Cohen, a high-stakes litigator who represents Dorsey's family, said he will have at least one independent medical examiner look at Dorsey's case to make sure nothing has been overlooked.

"The bottom line is they can't find out why he died. If there's no fault, I'm not looking to blame anybody," Cohen said. "I'll have someone look at it, maybe a couple of people, to see if there's more to this story than what we know right now.

"I've seen too many cases where the medical examiners make mistakes. I'd like to think they're good, but that's with two O's, not one."

Dorsey's family declined comment through Cohen. USF athletic officials, including coach Jim Leavitt, also declined comment.

It took an unusually long time for the medical examiner's office to issue its findings.

Having exhausted the testing that can be done locally, Hair sent samples of Dorsey's blood and tissue to a lab in Connecticut that can do more specific genetic testing that could point toward a specific cardiac condition. Five times, the test was attempted, but the tissue sample was not large enough to extract the kind of DNA sample necessary.

"It's through this case that I've learned what they need," she said. "We couldn't get what we needed from the tissue we had available."

The medical examiner's office even tried to find answers from DNA samples from Dorsey's half-brothers, but because they do not share the same two parents as Dorsey, their DNA could not be used. Asked if the findings were in any way incomplete, Hair said that was not the case.

"They're as complete as we're going to get right now. I think I've done as much as I can," she said. "We've exhausted what we can do."

Greg Auman can be reached at auman@sptimes.com or 813 226-3346.

[Last modified August 23, 2007, 22:25:45]