Sarah Burke Dead: Family Faces Enormous Medical Bills -- How You Can Help

The family of Sarah Burke, the Canadian skier who died on Thursday less than two weeks after incurring serious injuries in a ski crash, faces a mountain of hospital bills.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Burke’s husband and parents will be liable for the enormous costs related to keeping her on life support as well as the surgery she underwent during her hospitalization.

A website has been established to raise funds for Burke’s medical costs. Its goal is to raise $550,000 – as of 3:17 p.m. (EDT), about $125,000 (or 23 percent) of that amount has already been received.

A statement on the website read: “Sarah was truly a legendary athlete, role model and an inspiration. She was everything so many of us aspire to be. Female athletes everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to Sarah's passionate trailblazing efforts over the last 15 years. As the first competitive female free-skier, she successfully lobbied the Winter X Games to include women in free-skiing events on equal standing. It is because of Sarah's efforts that female winter athletes are some of the only athletes in the world to receive equal prize purses to that of men.”

Burke was only 29 when she died at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City.