database that collected some, but not all, college-athlete deaths each year.Īn elevated risk of sudden cardiac arrest may also be related to the body composition of college-basketball players most are tall and lanky. They sifted through not only media reports but also catastrophic insurance claims and an internal N.C.A.A. athlete deaths in a five-year period, from January of 2004 through December of 2008. in athletes, had to rely mostly on media reports and newspaper clippings.ĭrezner and Harmon realized they had to get better numbers, and in 2011 they published a paper based on data of N.C.A.A. There is good reason to believe that these military numbers reflect reality more accurately than studies of athletes: Eckart’s findings used a military database, where all deaths must be catalogued and reported, whereas previous researchers, investigating S.C.D. of roughly one in fifteen thousand, about twenty times higher than previous studies had reported. In 2004, Robert Eckart, a former Army cardiologist now at the Heart Specialists of Sarasota, published a study showing that military recruits in populations that are similar to college athletes-male and female exercisers, eighteen to thirty-five years old-carry a risk of S.C.D. Previous studies state that for a young, healthy person the chance of sudden cardiac death during exercise is one in two hundred thousand to one in two hundred and fifty thousand, which, according to Harmon and Drezner, largely underestimates reality. “Even the most rigorous search of media reports and news outlets misses about half the cases,” Drezner told me. in athletes that is cited in medical journals is often understated, mostly because the studies rely heavily on data from news reports. Working with Jonathan Drezner, a sports-medicine specialist at the University of Washington and a team physician for the Seattle Seahawks, Harmon found that the rate of S.C.D. Shortly after hearing about Burt’s collapse, Kimberly Harmon, the team physician for the University of Washington’s football and women’s basketball teams, began investigating the incidence and causes of sudden cardiac death (S.C.D.). In fact, he could not find one thing wrong with her heart.Īckerman wasn’t the only one mystified by what had happened to Kayla Burt. Surprisingly, Ackerman informed Burt that she did not have long QT syndrome. “Not only is being a sophomore in college a time when you’re figuring out who you are and learning more about yourself, but now here I was coming out of a life-or-death situation,” Burt told me.įrustrated by the prospect of dealing with a premature career-ending and life-threatening condition, Burt decided to go to the Mayo Clinic to see Michael Ackerman, a cardiologist who specialized in long QT syndrome and other genetic abnormalities of the heart. She struggled to comprehend the sudden change in her life. She went to practices and travelled to games but was no longer competing. On her doctor’s advice, Burt sat out the remainder of the year, and all of the following season.
senses abnormal heartbeats and delivers strong electrical shocks that reboot the heart when it flutters dangerously out of control.
#Really tall basketball kplayer next ot shor t girl skin
Her cardiologists initially diagnosed her with long QT syndrome, an electrical abnormality of the heart that can cause life-threatening arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeats.įollowing protocol for someone who had experienced a sudden cardiac arrest, Burt’s physicians suggested that she undergo a small surgical procedure to secure an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (I.C.D.), a medical device that is slipped under a pocket of skin near the collarbone, with thin and flexible silicone-coated wires that slide into the heart.
She would remain in the hospital for the next six days.
0 kommentar(er)
