National Post Sports

Canadian skier Sarah Burke dead at 29
Sarah Burke, the skiing star who was badly injured in a training accident in Utah last week, has died from her injuries, the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association announced on Thursday.

The Midland, Ont. native was in an induced coma after suffering a serious injury during a training run at Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort on Jan. 10. She was 29.

“As the result of Sarah’s fall, she suffered a ruptured vertebral artery, one of the four major arteries supplying blood to the brain. The rupture of this artery led to a severe intracranial hemorrhage, which caused Sarah to go into cardiac arrest on the scene. Emergency personnel responded and CPR was administered on the scene during which time she remained without a pulse or spontaneous breathing,” the association said in a statement from Burke’s publicist.

While it appeared there was brainstem function after the injuries, subsequent tests showed Burke had  “sustained severe irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest.” Photo: Danny Moloshok/Reuters