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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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2 7 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 MU players question response of staff after O'Neal's collapse
By Lori Shontz The Missouri athletic trainer who said there was "nothing to be done" when football player Aaron O'Neal collapsed after a voluntary workout July 12 was head athletic trainer Rex Sharp, the university's director of sports medicine, according to interviews conducted by Boone County medical examiner Valerie Rao. According to Rao's notes, three football players identified Sharp as the athletic trainer. Sharp told Rao that O'Neal was down for about 45 seconds, and Rao wrote in her notes that Sharp had indicated "no complaints, just fatigue." Sharp did not examine O'Neal again until the player was brought to the door of the athletic training facilities at the Tom Taylor Building in a landscape pickup truck at about 3 p.m., 20 minutes or so after he collapsed. O'Neal, 19, a Parkway North graduate, died about an hour later of viral meningitis. O'Neal's father, Lonnie, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against 14 athletic department employees alleging that his son was not given proper care. According to Rao's notes from an interview with wide receiver Brad Ekwerekwu, "Rex Sharp went over to Aaron and put his arms crossed, stood back and said there was nothing to take care of - he did not examine or check Aaron. Brad went over to Aaron and poured water on his head and was told by coaches not to baby him." After the workout, Sharp and graduate assistant athletic trainer Keith Belmore "dumped out the water" that players didn't consume during the workout, according to notes of Rao's interview with Belmore. Sharp, 48, became MU's head athletic trainer in 1996. He previously spent 11 years on the staff at Ball State University, his alma mater. After the 2000 academic year he and his staff were recognized as the Big 12 athletic health care staff of the year. The only person who told Rao that he specifically went to check on O'Neal's condition after the workout was assistant strength and conditioning coach Shannon Turley, who had helped O'Neal to his feet after Sharp examined him on the field. Turley told Rao that O'Neal "looked like a flower wilting" when he collapsed. He said that O'Neal told him, "I can't see," then added that his vision was blurry and he was dizzy. The coach asked another player, Darren Meade, to escort O'Neal to the locker room as he remained on the field to ask Pat Ivey, director of strength and conditioning, about media pictures. Turley then went to the locker room. He told Rao that O'Neal "didn't look good" and was not sweating. "He looked like he was passed out drunk," Turley said. Concerned that the lack of sweat might indicate heat stroke, Turley told Rao that he asked where Sharp was and then suggested that another coach in the locker room, associate director of strength and conditioning Josh Stoner, contact the head athletic trainer. Turley then went to the weight room for the weightlifting part of the workout. "At no point did he think AO was going to die," Rao wrote. "He was concerned." Some of O'Neal's teammates were concerned, as well. Throughout the interviews, O'Neal's teammates made clear that they thought he was acting out of character, and several indicated that they thought O'Neal was not given proper care. Defensive lineman Lorenzo Williams said that he "feels AO did not get medical attention in a timely fashion," Rao wrote. "AO was not an athlete to fake fatigue." Defensive back Trenile Washington, who said he was sleeping when wide receiver Jerrill Humphrey called and told him that O'Neal had died, told Rao that it took 15 minutes for someone to come and get O'Neal. "He thinks that it took too long for O'Neal to get help," Rao wrote. Washington also indicated that he thought more talented players were treated better than the rest of the team. "Ask if everything is OK - they do it only for players they think are going to play," Rao wrote. She added that "After AO's death, the players get enough water breaks now after his death. They also ask if everything is OK." When O'Neal's condition worsened in the locker room, Ekwerekwu and Stoner were the only two people remaining to care for him. Ekwerekwu tried to give O'Neal water, which O'Neal spit out, and he noted that O'Neal's tongue was white. The two men tried to lift O'Neal but were unsuccessful because he was so limp and heavy, so Stoner went to look for help. He found two men and a landscape pickup truck, and the four men transported O'Neal to the Tom Taylor Building. According to the athletic department's emergency action plan, there is a telephone in the stadium training room, which is identified as 911 Location No. 1. It is unclear why no one used that telephone to call 911, which the plan said should be done "as soon as the situation is deemed an emergency situation or is life-threatening." Another of the plan's directives is that personnel should "direct EMS to the scene." One of the medics who responded to the 911 call, however, told Rao that did not happen, either. In her notes from an interview with Teresa Jacoby, part of the crew on the second ambulance to respond, Rao wrote, "two men standing ... they pointed to where Aaron was." The identity of the men is unknown. Rao wrote in her report that no traces of anabolic steroids, ephedrine or pseudoephedrine were found in toxicology tests. Several teammates, however, told Rao that O'Neal was using Herculin MRF-4, a muscle-building supplement, in the offseason. Rao told The Associated Press that the supplement is permitted under NCAA rules and played no role in O'Neal's death. |
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