Major League Hitters Couldn't Bring Down Cardinals' Darryl Kile. But, Sad to Say, Coronary Artery Disease Did
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RON MALY

Vol 2, No. 34,
June 24, 2002

As the news was pouring in over the weekend on the terrible death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, a question kept creeping into the minds of all of us.

How could a seemingly-healthy, seemingly-strong 6-foot 5-inch, 212-pound baseball player die in his sleep in a Chicago hotel room?

It turned out that Kile was not healthy at all.

He had the arteries and heart of a 75-year-old man.

Two of Kile’s coronary arteries were between 80 and 90 percent blocked, and his heart was 25 percent larger than normal.

Physicians said Kile’s atherosclerosis—better known as hardening of the arteries—brought on a heart attack or erratic heartbeat that caused his death.

Unfortunately, marijuana was found in Kile’s hotel room, but doctors are trying to downplay that as a factor in the death.

A final autopsy report is not expected for four to six weeks. By that time, some of the emotion of the tragedy will have faded.

The Cardinals said Kile had a "routine’’ physical examination during spring training, but a team spokesman said he didn’t know if the exam included a stress test or angiogram.

It’s doubtful that major league baseball players undergo stress tests—better known as treadmill tests. And I’d say the chances of any player having an angiogram—a minimally invasive procedure where dye is injected into the coronary arteries to see if there is any blockage—is zero.

The only way an angiogram would be ordered would be if a player had chest pains or flunked a treadmill test.

Unfortunately, most of America thinks baseball players such as Kile, and collegiate and professional football and basketball players as well, are tremendous examples of physical conditioning.

The Cardinals said Kile had no known illnesses and took no medication.

Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa said he and the players called Kile "John Wayne’’ because he was so durable and never missed a pitching start because of an injury.

However, he complained of soreness in his shoulder and of being tired Friday night, which could have been early signs that he was headed for trouble.

Unfortunately, coronary artery disease often does not produce enough chest, neck, shoulder or back pain for its victims to notice until the blockage is 90 to 95 percent.

However, what cannot be ignored is that Kile’s father died at 44 of a stroke or a heart attack, or a combination of each, and that made Kile a prime candidate for coronary problems, too.

Heart disease is this nation’s No. 1 killer. It kills more men than women early in life, but women catch up as candidates after menopause.

It obviously made no difference that Kile was always among the first Cardinals on the field before a game to do stretching exercises.

Actually, he should have been the first Cardinal to ask for an angiogram. If he’d done that, he might still be alive.

Today’s cardiologists have wonderful tools at their fingertips. They can do things with modern technology that few people are able to imagine.

An angiogram would have revealed the 80 to 90 percent blockage in the arteries. Cardiologists likely would have performed an angioplasty, complete with stents, to widen the narrowings in his arteries.

Statins probably would have been prescribed. They are one of the wonder drugs of modern medicine. They go by such names as Zocor and Lipitor.

In most people, statins greatly improve blood cholesterol, raising the HDL (good cholesterol) and lowering the LDL (bad cholesterol).

Kile’s problems did not develop overnight. With 80 to 90 percent blockage in two major arteries, it’s likely plaque began forming a number of years ago.

Had his problem been diagnosed with the proper testing, he could possibly have gone on to have an even more outstanding pitching career than he’d already had.

He might have lived to be 80.

Now, tragically, he doesn’t have that chance.

Although it’s a shock to lots of people that Kile’s arteries were in such bad shape, it shouldn’t be. Much of overweight America faces the same problem.

The poor diet and poor lifestyle of 21st-century America has enabled coronary artery disease to run rampant.

Things weren’t so hot in the 20th century, either. It stunned many people when autopsies performed on young U.S soldiers—some in their late teens and early 20s--killed in the Korean War showed that they had significant arterial blockage.

Americans were eating too much fat, smoking too many cigarettes and not exercising enough then, and they’re guilty of the same things now.

Until it’s changed, Americans both young and old will continue to die.

Big Macs should be traded for salads, people should be walking briskly instead of sitting, they should lose weight, and cigarette smoking should be banned—I mean totally eliminated—from restaurants.

By that, I mean I don’t want someone else’s second-hand smoke to enter my body, and I don’t want it to enter the bodies of my grandchildren.

Smoke—whether it’s second-hand smoke or first-hand smoke—is just as tough on the heart as it is on the lungs.

Meanwhile, I feel very sorry for Darryl Kile’s family. He and his wife, Flynn, were the parents of three young children.

Darryl and Flynn were building a new home in San Diego. Sadly, Darryl won’t ever see it.

[Maly’s e-mail address is malyr@juno.com ]