Scott Allen Sorensen doesn’t know how he broke his neck while skiing a black diamond run at Taos Ski Valley. He only remembers his body sliding downhill on the slick snow for what seemed like a very long time. “I had no control over the rest,” he said. Following the Feb. 2 accident, Sorenson was taken to the ski basin’s medical center and then to Holy Cross Hospital in Taos. An emergency room doctor there determined his neck was fractured and he should be sent to Albuquerque for more advanced medical care. Initially, doctors planned for him to be taken by a traditional ambulance but later shifted course, deciding instead to move him by helicopter.
That decision resulted in a nearly $70,000 bill for the flight. “I really wasn’t given the options and the costs,” Sorenson said. “I was basically at the mercy of the system — heavily sedated. I had a neck brace; I wasn’t moving. The whole process just happened to me.”