Blood clot cause of Polk's death

Shawntinice Polk High School Career
Shawntinice Polk college career
By Bruce Pascoe and Jane Erikson, Arizona Daily Star
For The Sentinel
A pulmonary blood clot caused the sudden death of Arizona basketball star Shawntinice Polk on Monday, leaving her hometown of Hanford and the college community of Tucson, Ariz., in mourning.

An autopsy report showed Polk, 22, died when a blood clot lodged in one of her lungs - a "very, very rare" fatal occurrence for a healthy woman of Polk's age, said Dr. Eric Peters, Pima County's deputy chief medical examiner.

Polk had a history of asthma and underwent knee surgery earlier this year, but neither of those would have increased her risk for "throwing clots" to her lungs, Peters said.

"There would be a much stronger correlation if she had had the surgery three days ago and were lying in the hospital recovering," he said.

Polk's primary risk factor may have been her height and weight, Peters said. She was 6 feet 5 inches tall and had struggled with her weight - she lost 60 pounds as a freshman, UA president Peter Likins said. Her weight remained an issue - since her knee surgery earlier this year, she had been working to get back into shape for this season.

"Bigger people have a slightly greater risk of something like this," Peters said. "Body size can press down on vessels and inhibit the flow of blood from the legs."

Peters said he did not know of any asthma medications that increase the risk of blood clots. A toxicology study will show what medications Polk had taken before her death, if any, but those results will not be available for four to six weeks, he said.

At a midday Monday news conference, UA athletic director Jim Livengood said Polk was not feeling well when she reported to the training room Monday morning but offered no other explanation. She collapsed and was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

Several other UA officials said they were told not to comment about Polk, and many UA athletes declined to comment.

Yet it was clear that the death of Polk - affectionately known as "Polkey" - deeply affected the athletic community.

"I can't put into words the pain and sadness that we're all feeling right now," Arizona coach Joan Bonvicini said in a statement. "We all love Polkey."

News of her death brought out deep emotions in Hanford, where a group of her former high school teammates gathered to mourn.

"This is a big loss for our community, she was part of our family,'' said Hanford High principal Steve France, who was athletic director during Polk's years at the school. "We were just so proud of her. She was a great role model for our kids.''

Polk's cause of death is known medically as a pulmonary thromboembolism, due to a deep vein thrombosis. That means a blood clot formed in one of the large veins inside one of her legs, then traveled to the right side of her heart, from where it passed into her lung, blocking her circulation and causing her sudden death.

Dr. Steven Knope, a Tucson internist and triathlete who has athletes as patients, said he has seen two cases of pulmonary blood clots - neither fatal - in otherwise healthy young athletes.

Such cases are often due to any of several genetic disorders that can lead to the formation of potentially lethal blood clots, Knope said.

"Typically it's an older individual who develops a blood clot from prolonged car travel or plane travel or surgery or trauma," Knope said.

"So when something like this happens in a young athlete, you have to go looking for unusual causes."

Polk was a fifth-year senior, having arrived in 2001 as an academically ineligible freshman from Hanford where she was a high school All-American. UA President Likins, who also grew up in Hanford, said he met with Polk several times during her first year on campus and was impressed by the way she quickly pulled up her grades.

"She did a good job academically," he said of Polk's first semester. "She came in to see me, and she said, 'I can do it. I can do it. I succeed in this place.' And that meant she could succeed in life. It was such a beautiful, beautiful experience for me."

Polk's academic success meant she was eligible to hit the court in 2002-03, when she received honorable mention Associated Press All-America honors. She was selected for the same honor, as well as first-team all-Pac 10 laurels, over the last three seasons, even though knee trouble plagued her last season. Expected to be a national Player of the Year candidate and first-round WBNA draft pick after this season, Polk already was Arizona's career leader in double-doubles (games with double-digit points and rebounds) with 46.

But before going pro, she was determined to finish school, Likins said. "Last time we spoke, I said, 'And you're going to graduate, right?' and she said, 'Yeah, I promise.' "

Polk never forgot about her hometown and her high school.

"You just never saw her without a big smile on her face, and when she came to town she always came back to school to visit," Hanford Assistant Principal Leslie Steffen said.

Polk is survived by her mother, Johnny Little, four older brothers and two older sisters.

Funeral arrangements are pending. The university scheduled a memorial service for Polk at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at McKale Center.

(The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson is a Lee Enterprises newspaper and a sister publication of The Sentinel. The Sentinel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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Memorial fund

Donations from the community are being accepted to help defray funeral costs for Shawntinice Polk, as well as possibly set up a memorial scholarship. The S. Polk Memorial Fund has been set up at the FAST Credit Union in Hanford. The account number is 358902.

(Sept. 27, 2005)