Gugliotta's Recovery Continues

December 30, 1999 / 5:43 PM EST / CBS/AP

Tom Gugliotta, almost fully recovered from a seizure that nearly killed him, said he hopes his experience serves as a lesson for others.

The Phoenix Suns team doctor thinks a food supplement that the FDA said is illegal to manufacture and distribute probably caused the Dec. 17 seizure.

"What burns me is I took something that I really didn't know too much about," Gugliotta said Thursday. "That's just not right to do, and it nearly cost me my life."

It was, he said, "very stupid when you look back on it, but something I think 95 percent of people would do."

Gugliotta has declined to identify the brand name of the supplement, but it contained furanon di-hydro. The FDA says that is one of the ingredient names used for the chemical gamma butyrolactone, or GBL.

FDA spokeswoman Laura Bradbard said the agency lists GBL as an unapproved drug. The substance and two related chemicals have been linked to 122 serious illnesses, three resulting in death.

The FDA wants the product voluntarily recalled. If it isn't, it is subject to seizure, she said.

Gugliotta said he knew none of this when a friend suggested he take it to help him sleep. On Dec. 15, he took it with no ill effects.

But two days later, after the Suns beat the Trail Blazers in Portland, he took it again. As he sat on the team bus, talking with his wife on a cell phone, he became increasingly ill.

"I was trying to stay conscious, hoping it would die down and be over with, but it got worse and worse and worse," Gugliotta said. "I held on as long as I could and then when I went out, I don't remember anything."

As he went into the seizure, he dropped the cell phone, his wife Nikki, a world-class cyclist, still listening on the other end.

"She heard guys trying to wake me up, guys yelling for help and paramedics and an ambulance," he said. "She had it much worse than I did."

Yet she was able to tell one of Gugliotta's teammates to check his bag for the bottle of a supplement she knew he had just started taking. That information was crucial to doctors who gave him an antidote in the emergency room moments later.

Gugliotta said he has no plans to sue the drug's manufacturer.

"If the most I can do is warn people who are thinking about using this, I think that's the best thing to do," he said. "If I can help in any way testimonial-wise about what this stuff put me through and my family through, I'll do that."

Doctors have told him how fortunate it was that the team bus was still in the arena loading bay, with paramedics and doctors nearby. If the seizure had happened on the team plane, the equipment and personnel to revive him would not have been available.

"There were a loof things that were on my side," he said, "I certainly had great people who were there to help me, from my wife to my teammates to the paramedics and doctors."

Gugliotta isn't back full time at practice yet. But the headaches from the spinal tap he received shortly after he was admitted to the Portland hospital finally have subsided.

"Today I did the treadmill for 20 minutes. I rode the bike for 10 minutes. I did some shooting drills," he said. "I did a little bit of running for about a half hour with some of the guys that haven't been playing."

He plans a similar workout on Friday, then hopes to start full practice on Saturday and return for the Suns' game Tuesday night against Charlotte.

Gugliotta thinks there is no underlying health problem that would cause a seizure to reoccur.

"I knew the sooner I could get out on the court, the better this would all be," he said. "To be around the guys again and just get back to normal everyday life."

He brings with him a new appreciation of just how precious that life is.

"I feel very lucky that I was able to recover this quickly and to have no long-term effects," Gugliotta said. "I can't possibly be any more thankful to have my life back and have a second chance at being around my family and my daughter and playing the game."

More from CBS News