Question about when you can play card after Hero dies

[blakeb]

My group had a situation come up last night and I was hoping you guys could help me with it. First off, I hope this is correct, but we play when a hero dies the player still gets to keep the event cards they were holding. As per page 15 of the rulebook says "Any Items the Hero had are immediately discarded. And Event cards the player has in his hand are unaffected." So the hero loses their items, but the player keeps event cards.

So, we had a turn with a 3 different heroes fighting a bunch of zombies. The first hero dies, becomes a zombie hero, and gets a new hero character. They choose to start in the center of town with a free hero card. That card is an event. There are still 2 heroes that have to fight. Can they play that event card they just drew to help the remaining heroes in fights that turn??

One side said no because "Any time a Hero or Zombie Hero enters play mid-game, they do not get to participate in the current phase of the game turn. After the current phase is complete, they act normally in every way." Playing an event card would be considered participating, which they cannot do this phase.

The other side said yes because event cards are associated with the player, not the hero. Going along with not having to discard events, because they belong to the player, not the hero. So its not the hero participating, its the player.

Anyone have a ruling on this? Thanks.