 |
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
'Puts life in perspective' Gugliotta does not remember suffering seizure Friday
Posted: Sunday December 19, 1999 02:28 PM
PHOENIX (AP) -- Tom Gugliotta was back home Sunday, celebrating his 30th birthday after his frightening seizure on the Phoenix Suns' team bus in Portland. "Man, this really puts life in perspective," Gugliotta told The Arizona Republic in an interview on his flight to Phoenix on Saturday night. Gugliotta said he remembers nothing of the seizure Friday night, only that he woke up about 4 a.m. Saturday in Legacy Emanuel Hospital. "At first I wondered where I was," he said. "I thought I was in my own bed." Then he realized he had a tube in his mouth and needles in both arms. Several hours of tests followed, including a CAT scan, EKGs and a spinal tap. "They thought maybe it was spinal meningitis," Gugliotta said. The tests showed nothing abnormal. He was released from the hospital Saturday and further tests are planned in Phoenix. "It could have happened because of dehydration, or something like that," Gugliotta said. "Nobody is sure. I had been feeling a little bit under the weather, and my diet hasn't been all that good. Maybe that was it." Team doctor Richard Emerson said the cause of such episodes sometimes are never discovered, and the seizures never occur again. Gugliotta had 17 points and 14 rebounds in 39 minutes Friday night as the Suns beat the Portland Trail Blazers 110-102. He had boarded the team bus in the loading bay at the Rose Garden and was talking on a cell phone to his wife Nikki in Phoenix when the seizure occurred. 'I could hear the phone crash, and then I could hear people screaming for an ambulance," she said. "It was terrifying." She flew to Portland on Saturday. Also staying in Portland with Gugliotta was Phoenix assistant trainer Aaron Nelson, who waited all night outside Gugliotta's room. "It was just a real scary situation," Nelson told the Republic. "Through it all, I just prayed that everybody would be all right." Throughout the day, Gugliotta received phone calls from teammates and friends. One caller was Joe Kleine, a teammate last season and now with the Trail Blazers. Kleine collapsed a few years ago before a Suns game, and the cause was never determined. "Joe said it happened to him the same way," Gugliotta said. For the players and coaches, the ordeal was unsettling. "He was on the bus struggling and we were outside of the bus looking in the window and watching it," Suns coach Scott Skiles said. "When you see somebody that you know very well and is a teammate and a friend and he's got his head back and the doctor is trying to see if his pulse is there, it's very, very scary."
| ||||||||||||||||||||
