SEATTLE – In the end, Kayla Burt’s love for basketball and her teammates outweighed whatever health risk she faces.
Under cardiac arrest and near death in a frightening episode just 20 months ago, Burt announced Tuesday that she has reversed her health-induced retirement and will rejoin the University of Washington women’s basketball team when practice starts Oct. 15.
“I have an opportunity to return, and if I didn’t take it, I would regret it later in life,” Burt said. “I have been given a second chance at life and I have been given the opportunity to live out a dream.”
Having endured an exhaustive number of extensive tests, Burt decided to return after leading heart specialists in the nation determined that she probably did not suffer Long QT Syndrome, which interferes with the heart’s electrical impulses.
Burt, 21, will begin her junior year of eligibility with Washington. Doctors have told her that she can live a normal life and participate in any physical activity than anyone else can. She is, however, one who is under greater risk of a similar attack than are others her age who haven’t suffered one.
“I just want to live my life,” Burt said. “I’ve made a decision. It’s my decision to come out onto the court. I don’t feel I’m risking my life or anything like that. I’ve made a decision and I’m confident in my decision.
“I want to live like a normal person because I feel that way.”
Burt and her parents, Ken and Teri Burt, signed a legal agreement Tuesday that says they assume all risk associated with her playing basketball with a heart condition. The agreement releases the university of responsibility for the consequences that could arise from Burt’s participation.
“I met with Kayla and her mom and dad,” UW athletic director Todd Turner said. “It was clear to me that they had far more knowledge about her physical condition and the lifelong impact of the things that she was dealing with than I would ever get. They also were very emphatic that Kayla is an adult and needed to make decisions about her own life. We wanted to honor that.”
Although experts have all but ruled out Long QT, Burt, a former standout at Arlington High School, is one of the 5 to 12 percent of those who have survived a cardiac event, but don’t know the reason for the attack.
Mere months after Burt’s episode, she and her parents sought to find the origin. Initially, the idea was to educate themselves about Long QT Syndrome and its implications. Soon, it became apparent to specialists that, whatever happened to Burt New Year’s Eve 2002, Long QT was an unlikely cause.
A battery of tests followed, some that took months to complete, at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. All came back negative.
“Kayla has been through extensive medical testing and there are no structural cardiac abnormalities and no apparent problems with the electrical systems of her heart,” said Dr. Kim Harmon, Washington’s team physician. “However, she did have an arrest and this alone puts her at a higher risk than someone her age who has not had an arrest. The exact amount of risk can’t be quantified.”
Upon learning that Long QT was unlikely, Burt began exploring the notion of playing again. She mentioned it to her parents and to UW head coach June Daugherty.
While her parents supported their daughter’s wish, Teri Burt, a registered nurse, began extensive research that involved obtaining opinions of heart specialists from The Mayo Clinic and another who practices in Italy.
“We decided that we were going to support her, but we were going to make a decision based on the knowledge that we had obtained through the doctors,” Teri Burt said. “We weren’t going to do anything flippant. Had she ever been diagnosed with any specific heart or exercise-induced condition, I can guarantee you she would not be stepping onto the basketball court.”
Yet, she will do so with a defibrillator implanted in her chest, one that will shock the heart back to normal rhythm should another abnormality occur.
One of the worries is the damage that the defibrillator may incur in the course of a game or practice. Burt says she will wear a protective device under her jersey.
Burt, a 5-foot-11 guard known as a deadly outside shooter and dogged defender, stayed on scholarship after the attack. She worked for the team as a student assistant in the remainder of the 2002-2003 season and the entirety of the 2003-04 season. She has two years of athletic eligibility remaining.
Burt has played informally with her teammates for months. Although she admits to a lack of conditioning, she believes that will pass by the time formal practices start.
It was a smiling, healthy-looking Burt who addressed the media Tuesday, a stark contrast to the pale, slow-moving Burt who, mere days after the event and subsequent surgery to implant the defibrillator, frequently wept as she described the night when six of her teammates kept her alive before medical personnel arrived.
Burt has the full support of her teammates.
“This may seem like an irresponsible decision to those who are misinformed,” guard Kristen O’Neill said. “But to those who have been with her for the last year and a half and know that she’s been working with some of the best doctors in the country and the confidence that the best doctors have in her, it’s a lot easier for us to support her decision to come back.”
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