College player ends career following emergency

SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington guard Kayla Burt ended her college basketball career Monday, four days after her internal heart defibrillator went off during a game.
The 23-year-old senior had the defibrillator implanted in her chest after her heart stopped on New Year's Eve 2002. She was in her off-campus apartment then for a holiday gathering and teammates came to her rescue, performing CPR until paramedics arrived and took her to the hospital.
"The decision is a mutual agreement between myself, my family, the doctors and the University of Washington," Burt said at a news conference with coach June Daugherty and the Huskies team doctor, Dr. Kim Harmon.
Harmon agreed with Burt's decision.
"We still don't know why it happened," she said about Burt's defibrillator going off Thursday night during a home game against UCLA.
Burt said she didn't want to take any more risks after the defibrillator went off during a time-out in the first half of last week's game, and then a second time while she was waiting to be taken to the hospital.
She went to the University of Washington Medical Center, was held for observation and tests and released the next day.
After her cardiac arrest, she missed the remainder of the 2002-2003 season and redshirted in 2003-2004. Doctors and Burt then decided it was safe for her to play basketball again.
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