Just read this in the Calgary Herald.
SALT LAKE CITY — Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke's agent and her
publicist were teary-eyed at a hospital Monday as they tried to explain
the lack of any prognosis report for the Olympic favourite.
The
29-year-old Burke, who lives in Squamish and has strong ties to
Whistler, was seriously injured Jan. 10 in a training accident at the
superpipe in Park City, Utah, and six days later remained sedated on a
breathing tube as doctors tested her brain functions.
Burke went
into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated on the hill when she crashed
during training last week, hospital officials in Utah confirmed.
Reporters
gathered at Salt Lake City hospital Monday for what was expected to be a
discussion by doctors of Burke's most recent neurological tests and
assessments.
At the last minute, however, Burke's agent, Michael
Spencer, and her publicist, Nicole Wool, said there was nothing the
family wanted to report as doctors continued working on Burke, so the
news conference was cancelled.
"Obviously, this is a sensitive situation," a somber Wool said at the University of Utah Hospital.
Spencer
said he had not consulted any doctors but knew that Burke's condition
could remain tenuous for days, if not weeks, longer.
In a
statement, Burke's husband, Rory Bushfield, and other family members
said they decided not to meet with reporters after discussing results
from the skier's latest brain scans and reflex tests.
The family said more tests will be done and future updates on Burke's condition will come through her website, www.sarahburkeski.com.
A
day after the accident, doctors said they repaired a tear to an artery
that caused bleeding on her brain. They said she tore a vertebral
artery, which is located in the neck and supplies blood to the brainstem
and the back part of the brain. Those parts control many critical
functions, including balance and vision.
"With injuries of this
type, we need to observe the course of her brain function before making
definitive pronouncements about Sarah's prognosis for recovery," Dr.
William Couldwell, the neurosurgeon who performed the operation, said in
a statement last week.
Burke is widely considered the foremost
pioneer for her main sport of freestyle halfpipe. She lobbied
aggressively to have it included in the Olympics, where it will debut in
2014.
She is a four-time Winter X Games champion and had been
scheduled to defend her 2011 title later this month in Aspen, Colo.
Burke tried many of the toughest tricks in her sport and was the first
woman to land a 1080 — three full revolutions — in competition. It was
not known what move she was performing when she was injured.
Before
the accident, Burke was on a path that would have made her an odds-on
favourite to win more X Games gold and possibly even the big prize in
the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
She fell while training at a
personal sponsor event at the Park City Mountain Resort, an accident
that witnesses said didn't look as bad as it later turned out to be.
Burke
was on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a
traumatic brain injury after a near-fatal fall on Dec. 31, 2009.
Pearce
spent months in hospitals in Utah and Colorado, then missed the 2010
Olympics. Last month, 712 days after his traumatic brain injury, he got
on a snowboard again in Breckenridge, Colo., according to his website.
Pearce, now 24, has said he has no plans to compete again because "snowboarding has become too dangerous."
Burke's
accident once again brings up questions about the safety of the sport,
and superpipes in general, which have walls soaring as high as 22 feet -
more than 25 percent higher since the middle of the last decade.
Experts
within the sport believe improved pipe-building technology, along with
air bags and mandatory helmets have made the sport safer, not more
dangerous.
