For more than a week Dr. Gilbert Mudge kept quiet about Reggie Lewis' death, declining to discuss his faulty diagnosis that the Boston Celtics captain had a normal heart.
He broke that silence to express his sadness and to note he had been awaiting more tests before allowing Lewis play professional basketball again. He is still silent on the medical controversy stirred by his diagnosis.The 340-word statement issued Thursday marked Mudge's first public comments about the case since Lewis, 27, suddenly died last week of cardiac arrest while shooting baskets at a gymnasium.
Mudge, subjected to death threats, said he was "deeply saddened by the loss of my patient and friend."
"This has been an exceedingly complex case from the outset," Mudge said, adding he sought advice from many colleagues to help decipher test results.
Lewis first collapsed during a playoff game April 29. The Celtics assembled a team of doctors, who diagnosed Lewis with cardiomyopathy - a potentially life-threatening disease of the heart muscle.
Lewis abruptly switched to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he came under Mudge's care. In a televised news conference May 10, Mudge declared Lewis had a "normal athlete's heart with normal function."
"I am optimistic that under medical supervision, Lewis will be able to return to professional basketball without limitation," Mudge said that day.
Mudge diagnosed Lewis with neurocardiogenic syncope, which he called a "poorly understood" neural condition in which the heart rate falls instead of increasing during peak exercise. Mudge, director of clinical cardiology at the hospital, said the condition was benign and could be treated with medicine.
Since Lewis' death, however, an autopsy found his heart was abnormal and extensively scarred. The cause of the scarring hasn't been determined.
Celtics team doctor Arnold Scheller, who helped assemble the "Dream Team" of doctors, questioned the Brigham and Women's actions in the case.
"The way Brigham got Reggie, their attitude on the transfer was basically very cavalier. They knew the info the Dream Team knew, but it's almost as if they listened to the words but didn't gauge the meaning of the words," Scheller told The Boston Herald in Thursday's editions.
In his statement, Mudge didn't discuss the autopsy results, and he said he wouldn't respond to questions. But he stressed he took a cautious approach with Lewis.
"My opinion regarding the possibility of Reggie's return to professional basketball was always conditional and dependent upon further testing, careful monitoring and the progress of a planned exercise program," he said.
"In the weeks following discharge (from the hospital), Reggie was followed closely," Mudge continued. "He never violated recommendations."
Earlier this week, a colleague at Brigham and Women's, who served on the "Dream Team," said Mudge may have given different messages in public and private. Dr. Thomas Graboys said while Mudge took a public stance that Lewis' condition was benign, the doctor privately was carefully monitoring his patient.