| | PHOENIX -- Tom Gugliotta, almost fully recovered from a
seizure that nearly killed him, said he hopes his experience serves
as a lesson for others.
The Phoenix Suns team doctor thinks a food supplement that the
FDA said is illegal to manufacture and distribute probably caused
the Dec. 17 seizure.
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| Gugliotta |
"What burns me is I took something that I really didn't know
too much about," Gugliotta said Thursday. "That's just not right
to do, and it nearly cost me my life."
It was, he said, "very stupid when you look back on it, but
something I think 95 percent of people would do."
Gugliotta has declined to identify the brand name of the
supplement, but it contained furanon di-hydro. The FDA says that is
one of the ingredient names used for the chemical gamma
butyrolactone, or GBL.
FDA spokeswoman Laura Bradbard said the agency lists GBL as an
unapproved drug. The substance and two related chemicals have been
linked to 122 serious illnesses, three resulting in death.
The FDA wants the product voluntarily recalled. If it isn't, it
is subject to seizure, she said.
Gugliotta said he knew none of this when a friend suggested he
take it to help him sleep. On Dec. 15, he took it with no ill
effects.
But two days later, after the Suns beat the Trail Blazers in
Portland, he took it again. As he sat on the team bus, talking with
his wife on a cell phone, he became increasingly ill.
"I was trying to stay conscious, hoping it would die down and
be over with, but it got worse and worse and worse," Gugliotta
said. "I held on as long as I could and then when I went out, I
don't remember anything."
As he went into the seizure, he dropped the cell phone, his wife
Nikki, a world-class cyclist, still listening on the other end.
"She heard guys trying to wake me up, guys yelling for help and
paramedics and an ambulance," he said. "She had it much worse
than I did."
Yet she was able to tell one of Gugliotta's teammates to check
his bag for the bottle of a supplement she knew he had just started
taking. That information was crucial to doctors who gave him an
antidote in the emergency room moments later.
Gugliotta said he has no plans to sue the drug's manufacturer.
"If the most I can do is warn people who are thinking about
using this, I think that's the best thing to do," he said. "If I
can help in any way testimonial-wise about what this stuff put me
through and my family through, I'll do that."
Doctors have told him how fortunate it was that the team bus was
still in the arena loading bay, with paramedics and doctors nearby.
If the seizure had happened on the team plane, the equipment and
personnel to revive him would not have been available.
"There were a lot of things that were on my side," he said,
"I certainly had great people who were there to help me, from my
wife to my teammates to the paramedics and doctors."
Gugliotta isn't back full time at practice yet. But the
headaches from the spinal tap he received shortly after he was
admitted to the Portland hospital finally have subsided.
"Today I did the treadmill for 20 minutes. I rode the bike for
10 minutes. I did some shooting drills," he said. "I did a little
bit of running for about a half hour with some of the guys that
haven't been playing."
He plans a similar workout on Friday, then hopes to start full
practice on Saturday and return for the Suns' game Tuesday night
against Charlotte.
Gugliotta thinks there is no underlying health problem that
would cause a seizure to reoccur.
"I knew the sooner I could get out on the court, the better
this would all be," he said. "To be around the guys again and
just get back to normal everyday life."
He brings with him a new appreciation of just how precious that
life is.
"I feel very lucky that I was able to recover this quickly and
to have no long-term effects," Gugliotta said. "I can't possibly
be any more thankful to have my life back and have a second chance
at being around my family and my daughter and playing the game."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 Tom Gugliotta recalls what he felt at the time of his seizure.
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RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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