Professional Skier Dies from Training Crash
In Park City Utah, Sarah Burke and professional skierwrongfully dies from serious injuries due to a training accident.
On January 10, 2012, Sarah Burke, age 29 and of Squamish, British Columbia was training in the Park City Mountain Eagle Resort where she was seriously injured after a skiing accident. Burke crashed on the same super pipe where snowboarder, Kevin Pearce, was seriously injured in 2009 and sustained traumatic brain injuries. Onlookers and friends reported that Burke had completed the attempted trick fairly well, yet she still fell onto her head, but her accident did not appear to be too severe. Moments later, Burke went into cardiac arrest while she was still on the ski slope.
Sarah Burke was resuscitated and airlifted to the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, where emergency physicians reported that she had been placed in an induced coma.
On January 11th, Burke underwent neurosurgery to repair a tear in her vertebral artery. According to a statement released by neurology surgeon and publicist, Nichole Wool, on behalf of Burke's family, reported that Burke's critical condition and serious injuries resulted in irreversible damage to her brain due to the lack of oxygen and blood flow after she went into cardiac arrest.
On January 19th, Sarah Burke succumbed to her serious injuries and wrongfully died. Before her death and per request she asked that her organs and tissues to be donated. Because of her incident at which she fell was unsanctioned and hosted by Burke's sponsor, Monster Energy, she would not be covered under the insurance policy that applied to her when she completed the Canada Freestyle Ski Association. Following the day after her death, Burke's agent established a website to fundraise money towards her hospital costs that would give "a foundation to honor Sarah's legacy and promote the ideals that she valued and embodied."
Sarah Burke was a Canadian freestyle skier and pioneer of the super pipe event. Burke was a four-time Winter X Games gold medalist and gold medalist in the world championships of 2005 for the half pipe. She was lobbied in the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics and was predicted to be a medal favorite for her events.
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