10:57 AM MST on Friday, September 30, 2005

By Jane Erikson and Ryan Finley / Arizona Daily Star

Sunday was probably the last day anything could have been done to save the life of Shawntinice Polk, Pima County's deputy chief medical examiner said Thursday.

The UA women's basketball star - widely considered the most promising in the team's history - collapsed Monday at McKale Center and died. An autopsy showed she died from one or more blood clots in her lungs that cut off blood circulation - clots that probably accumulated and congealed over time, finally turning fatal as Polk stood talking to her trainer Monday morning.

"Any opportunity to save her probably would have had to be prior to the day she collapsed," said Dr. Eric Peters, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Polk's body the day she died.

University of Arizona officials said Monday that Polk, 22, suffered from asthma, and Assistant Athletic Director Kathleen "Rocky" LaRose confirmed Thursday that the player had not been feeling well in the days before she died.

The blood clots may have been causing shortness of breath and chest pain - symptoms that Polk may have thought were due to her asthma, Peters said.

"If she did not have asthma, maybe she herself would have been more alarmed," he said.

Had she reported her symptoms to a physician, the doctor too might have attributed them to her asthma. Or the doctor might have done blood work or a special imaging test called a CT angiogram that would have revealed the blood clots.

Doctors could have turned then to blood-thinning drugs or surgery, which might have saved Polk's life, doctors have said.

But if Polk was not overly concerned with the way she felt on Sunday, her friend and teammate Ché Oh was.

Oh walked into Polk's Midtown apartment on Sunday afternoon to find the Wildcats' star center wrapped in a SpongeBob SquarePants blanket and frequently coughing and gagging.

Oh was concerned, but "Polkey" calmed her down, saying that she had begun taking medicine Thursday, and it was supposed to take effect Sunday.

"I could tell she was hurting, but she said she was going to be OK," Oh told the 2,500 people gathered at Polk's memorial service Wednesday at McKale. "She said she was a soldier."

Oh said Polk barely had the energy to move to a futon so Oh could style her hair.

The friends watched the end of the Raiders-Eagles game on television, and Polk was thrilled with Philadelphia's game-winning field goal.

"I didn't know that moment would be the last time I heard her laugh," Oh said.

Peters' autopsy showed the blood clots in Polk's lungs emanated from a large clot - called a deep vein thrombosis - that formed in one of her legs.

Why that occurred could be revealed by the results of toxicology and tissue tests that may not be back for several weeks.

Polk's large body mass - she was 6 feet 5 inches tall and was overweight at times while at the UA - could have been a factor, Peters said Monday. Her weight alone may have caused pressure on her circulatory system, leading to clot formation.

Dr. Peter Ott, a UA cardiologist, and Dr. Steven Knope, a Tucson internist, described a number of genetic disorders that can lead to overproduction of blood clots.

"If there is really no other good reason to explain the blood clots, then consideration should be made of a possible genetic factor," Ott said Thursday.

Various blood tests can show if a person has such a disorder, but most people would not know they should have such a test unless they have one or more close relatives with a history of blood clots, Ott said.

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Copyright 2005 Arizona Daily Star