Cocaine Caused Bias’ Death, Autopsy Reveals: Dose Said to Trigger Heart Failure; Criminal Inquiry to Be Pressed

The use of drugs is quite widespread among athletes. The result of this has been experienced by numerous athletes throughout sports history. One such incident involved basketball great Len Bias back in 1986.

Len Bias, a talented basketball player for the University of Maryland, was found dead from "cocaine intoxication" after taking an extraordinarily pure dose of the drug that instantly stopped his heart.

Dr. John E. Smialek attributed Bias’ death directly to cocaine, “which interrupted the normal electrical control of his heartbeat, resulting in the sudden onset of seizures and cardiac arrest.”

The 22-year-old Bias “was a very healthy individual” who showed no evidence of heart disease,” Smialek said at a crowded news conference here Tuesday afternoon.

“You’re not going to stop on the street corner and get that quality,” Silverman said. “You’d have to be pretty well connected.”

Basketball players Keith Gatlin, Jeff Baxter, and Phil Nevin, who shared a dorm with Bias, claimed to have been asleep when Bias passed out and to have awoken to discover paramedics working to revive him in Long's bedroom.

According to Smialek, it is common for the heart to not be able to restart itself in such situations. However, he continued, "If he had received medical assistance within four to five minutes, it's feasible that something might have been done.