St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile complained of shoulder pain and weakness the night before he died, possible warning signs that he had heart problems, officials said Sunday.
An autopsy on Kile, 33, revealed an 80 to 90 percent narrowing of two of his three coronary arteries, and that his heart was nearly 25 percent larger than normal, said Dr. Edmund Donoghue, the Cook County medical examiner.
Donoghue said he believed Kile’s condition, known as coronary atheroscleroris or hardening of the arteries, brought on an erratic heartbeat that caused his death. A final determination will not be made until further tests are completed, he said.
Though Donoghue said Chicago police found a substance believed to be marijuana in Kile’s downtown hotel room, he said “marijuana had nothing to do with his death.” Donoghue said he did not expect a final autopsy report for four to six weeks.
A spokesman for the Cardinals, in town to play the Cubs at Wrigley Field, said the team had not been notified either of the autopsy results or “any toxicology aspects of it.”
Chicago police Lt. Michael Chasen, who is leading the investigation, declined to comment and referred calls to the medical examiner.
Kile was found dead Saturday in his 11th-floor hotel room at the Westin Hotel after he failed to show up for St. Louis’ game against the Cubs. The night before, he had gone to dinner with his brother, Daniel.
Donoghue said Daniel Kile told him that Darryl Kile said his shoulder was hurting and that he felt weak.
“For a guy who was a pitcher in the major leagues, (the weakness) was an unusual symptom,” Donoghue said.
The medical examiner said he also suspected heart problems after he learned that Kile’s father died after suffering a heart attack when he was 44. “It pointed us in the right direction,” he said.
The right coronary artery and the left anterior descending coronary artery both were blocked by 80 to 90 percent, Donoghue said (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). Such blockages occur when fatty deposits accumulate inside the arteries. In addition, Kile’s heart weighed 552 grams. “For his weight, a normal heart would have been 450 grams,” Donoghue said.
The autopsy revealed no damage to the heart, leading Donoghue to believe arrhythmia, or an erratic heartbeat, was the cause of death.
Attempts to speak to Daniel Kile were unsuccessful.
Detecting heart problems such as Darryl Kile’s can be difficult, medical experts said. Only angiograms and other tests using radioactive dyes injected into the bloodstream can identify them, doctors said.
Cardinals spokesman Brad Hainje said Kile had a physical exam during spring training but did not know whether he had a stress test or angiogram.
He said he was not aware of Kile complaining of chest pains.
But the pitcher was known for stoicism, insisting on pitching after his father’s death and once refusing to come out of a game after being hit in the face by a line drive.
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“We always called Darryl `John Wayne’ because he was such a durable player, never missing a start due to injury,” said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa.
Jim Loomis, the Cardinals’ assistant team physician, said Saturday that Kile had no known health problems and was not on medication.
Though Major League Baseball postponed Saturday’s game because of Kile’s death, the Cubs and Cardinals met as scheduled Sunday night at Wrigley Field. Kile had been scheduled to pitch that game.
The U.S. flag flew at half-staff, and there was a moment of silence for Kile before the national anthem. La Russa said his team believed it was important “to respect Darryl and play tonight. That’s what he did his whole career.”
Medical experts said it is not unusual for heart problems to manifest themselves so quickly.
“Sometimes the first presentation the person has is a heart attack,” said Dr. Keith Horvath, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Having just one of the three coronary arteries blocked can be fatal, Horvath said.
Experts say family history predisposes people to heart disease and only screening can identify it.
“If there had been a reason to do an angiogram, it would have been picked up,” said Dr. Marc Ovadia, a cardiologist at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.
Horvath added that even if there are no symptoms, such as shortness of breath or chest pains, a family history of heart problems makes testing a good idea.
“There are a lot of people who do everything right–eat right, exercise, keep their cholesterol down–and their genetics predisposes them,” he said.
“But if he hasn’t had symptoms, we wouldn’t give him an angiogram. And, if you haven’t had symptoms, you wouldn’t have gone for a stress test.”
Kile may also have mistaken his symptoms for normal muscle pains. He had shoulder surgery in the off-season.
“Sometimes, in younger patients, they have chest pain or pressure and they don’t think it’s related to the heart,” Horvath said.