DEATH OF GIRL FUELS ENERGY-PILLS CONCERN.

Byline: Jane E. Allen Associated Press

A distraught father got the call on his cellular telephone and followed an ambulance to the hospital after his 15-year-old daughter, Rosanna, inexplicably collapsed during soccer practice.

Only when he asked her friends and teammates for help did Henry Porras learn that his daughter had downed a few over-the-counter herbal energy pills with the brand name Ripped Fuel that are popular with adult bodybuilders and dieters.

``All the kids'' in Fillmore were taking Ripped Fuel pills, several of the boys told Porras.

Until that night, few of them realized the legal amphetamine-like substance can raise blood pressure, disturb heart rhythms and produce a heart attack.

As Dr. Robert Dekkers struggled to save Rosanna's life, Porras drove to a nearby drugstore and bought a $30 bottle of Ripped Fuel capsules, which contain the Chinese herb ma huang and are marketed as ``natural'' supplements.

He handed them to Dekkers, who said they looked just like the partly dissolved gray capsules he had pumped from Rosanna's stomach.

``This stuff will kill you,'' Dekkers later warned Rosanna's worried pals.

Three days later, Rosanna was dead.

Ma huang contains ephedra, a plant version of ephedrine taken for colds and asthma. It acts like speed by revving up the nervous system and metabolism: ``It gives you a rush and burns up calories faster,'' Dekkers explained.

As experts are seeing nationwide, such a boost can be deadly.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has collected reports of 34 deaths among more than 900 incidents associated with dietary supplements containing ephedrine, including Ripped Fuel.

Ross Blechman, president of Twinlab Inc. of Hauppauge, N.Y., marketers of Ripped Fuel, said the company believes Rosanna's death was unrelated to use of its product.

``We do not believe Ripped Fuel had any role in this tragic occurrence,'' he said in a statement released Friday through a public relations firm. ``Ripped Fuel has a long history of safe use as a dietary supplement when taken as part of a low-fat, low-calorie diet and exercise program to help preserve lean body mass.''

The Fillmore death suggests the product is being used by a younger and perhaps more vulnerable crowd, despite a label that warns: ``Not intended for use by persons under the age of 18.''

In fact, several of Rosanna's friends admitted to Dekkers that they took the capsules for energy during sports and to lose weight.

Rosanna's death persuaded Mike Bynum, a 17-year-old football player at Newbury Park High School, to throw out the Ripped Fuel he used to get through game practice last summer.

``It's just a sport,'' he told The Ventura County Star. ``It's not worth risking anything.''

Last Wednesday, the Porras family buried Rosanna, a competitor in soccer, volleyball and track, and the president of her freshman class at Fillmore High School. More than 600 people attended the funeral.

Now, all Porras can do is speak out in the hope his daughter's death might offer a potent warning to others.

She had just purchased a summer wardrobe and ``didn't have $30'' to buy Ripped Fuel, her dad said. He suspects she and her teammates shared a supply.

Porras also learned that a few weeks before his daughter's death, her community soccer coach took another girl out of a game when she developed side effects from Ripped Fuel.

Porras figures teen athletes consider the capsules ``no more than a Power Bar'' for a quick recharge.

Although preliminary toxicology tests haven't found ephedra - or any drug - in Rosanna's blood, Deputy Coroner Larry Gillespie of Santa Barbara County believes ``there was a connection between the stuff she was taking and her death.''

His autopsy revealed a startling fact: Rosanna suffered a massive heart attack days before she kicked a soccer ball and slumped to the ground.

Dekkers, an internist and pediatrician, said the attack, which could have been passed off ``as growing pains,'' weakened her heart. The ``additional ephedrine, plus physically exerting herself on the soccer field,'' produced cardiac failure.

Although he revived her at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, she already had suffered significant brain damage and died April 9 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.

Gillespie has been consulting with the medical examiner in Boston, where in April 1996 a 23-year-old graduate student and athlete suffered fatal heart damage linked to ephedrine from Ripped Fuel.

The FDA is investigating Rosanna's death, said spokesman Arthur Whitmore in Washington. ``This is the youngest case I know of.''

Whitmore said the FDA expects this fall to restrict the marketing of ephedrine products, limit dosages, and ``ban any claim that would encourage long-term use,'' such as for bodybuilding or weight loss.

It's already banned in National College Athletic Association and Olympic competition.

At Fillmore High, coach and health teacher Matt Suttle said kids tend to think ``if you can buy it over the counter, it's got to be safe.''

Jody Brylinsky an associate sports studies professor at Western Michigan University, fears kids may turn to such products for weight loss because coaches instill the misguided message ``if you're smaller, you'll be more successful.''

At 15, Rosanna was ``probably most vulnerable,'' said Brylinsky, ``trying to maintain that athleticism while going through basic changes'' of adolescence.