Burke, 29, died Thursday of her injuries in the University of Utah Hospital, nine days after the accident at the Park City Mountain Resort.
It's the brain stem, located at the bottom of the brain and tucked inside the back of the skull, that controls breathing and heart function.
"Basically there are four major blood vessels that bring blood to the brain, and two are at the back of the head, come up from the back," explained Dr. Michael Cusimano, a neurosurgeon at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto.
"They're called the vertebral arteries because they come through the bones of the neck and then get to the brain," he said. The two other major arteries, called the carotids, run up the front of the neck.
It was one of her vertebral arteries that Burke tore when she crashed at the training site, causing what's called a massive intercranial hemorrhage, in which blood poured into her brain.
Read more: http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=385562
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