The Associated Press

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The mother of a Bowling Green women's soccer player who collapsed during a game last week said an over-the-counter inhaler might have contributed to her asthmatic daughter's death.

Leslie Dawley's roommate told the woman's mother that Ms. Dawley had lost her prescription inhaler and used a store-bought Primatene Mist inhaler about an hour before the match, The (Toledo) Blade reported Sunday.

"It seems she may have made a bad decision that has had very unfortunate consequences," Wendy Dawley said.

Primatene is not meant to replace a prescription inhaler, said a spokesman for the drug's maker, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare of Madison, N.J.

"It's for the treatment of asthma symptoms. It's not to be used to prevent it," Fran Sullivan said Sunday. "It's not really a drug that's meant to be taken to prevent exercise-induced asthma."

The Wood County coroner has not determined a cause of death.

Some players said they heard Ms. Dawley, an 18-year-old freshman, scream just before she collapsed five minutes into a game Tuesday at the northwest Ohio university.

Trainers rushed onto the field and tried to revive her. Teammates covered her with jackets before she was taken by ambulance to Wood County Hospital, where she died.

Dr. John Winder, an allergist at the Toledo Center for Clinical Research in Sylvania, said Primatene Mist can have a different effect than a prescription inhaler.

"Sometimes we've found that these over-the-counter drugs, instead of causing bronchial expansion, instead cause constriction," said Winder, a past chairman of the public education committee of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

"And sometimes after the effects of the drug wear off, the result can be even greater constriction than before," he said.

People using Primatene Mist should see a doctor for their asthma treatment, Sullivan said.

"The idea behind Primatene is it's meant to be used as a very short-term replacement, and when I say short term, I mean a day," he said.

The drug's effects last from 45 minutes to two hours, said Dr. Suman Wason, Wyeth's senior director of clinical and medical affairs.

Wendy Dawley told the newspaper from her home in Westerville, a Columbus suburb, that her daughter had several episodes of asthma-related breathing problems before enrolling at Bowling Green. But her troubles became worse this summer, she said.

"This summer she started to have problems every time she would go out for training," Wendy Dawley said.

Leslie Dawley had seen a cardiologist for the problems and was planning to see an allergist, her mother said. She was tested in October, but the results didn't show anything wrong.

Ms. Dawley had used Primatene in the past, her mother said.