Donations cover Burke’s hospital bill
Posted Jan 20, 2012 11:06 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Sarah Burke’s family will not face the burden of a huge hospital bill after the Canadian freestyle skier died Thursday in Utah.
So many donations have flowed in since the news broke about the cost of treating her, there appears to be enough to cover the bills.
The original estimate of half a million dollars has also been lowered to closer to $200,000.
Her family will use any left over contributions to set up a foundation in Sarah’s honour.
The death of the 29-year-old and the expensive treatment in the United States raises concerns about the insurance policies for our world class athletes.
Burke was training at a non-sanctioned event when she crashed, meaning she was not covered by Freestyle Canada Insurance.
“Jungle” Jim Hunter, a member of the Canadian Men’s Alpine Ski Team for seven years, says sports liability insurance is hard to find for athletes and most can’t afford it anyway.
“And I dare say that most athletes would rarely, if ever, purchase liability insurance for themselves in sports and I’m not sure even if there is an insurer that would do that because the risk is so great, why would they do that?” said Hunter.
He adds, in most cases athlete registration forms have pages and pages of legalities that absolves the event’s organizer of any responsibility, if something goes wrong.
