Maybe thinking about the circumstances of today’s story will help you beat the heat, it’s about a ski ambassador who was injured while volunteering at Killington Resort in Vermont.

Thomas Kibbie was a volunteer ski ambassador for ten years. As he was making a final sweep one night he fell and hit his head hard, so hard that his helmet cracked. He went to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury after the doctors found a small brain hemorrhage. The resort began to pay workers’ compensation benefits.

Kibbie suffered other health problems as a result of the fall and was treated for fractured teeth, whiplash, chronic neck pain, vision problems and headaches. He has not been able to go back to his primary career as a carpenter.

In 2010 the resort and Kibbie settled on his claims, the resort paid him $50,000 and said they would pay ongoing medical costs for the treatment of cognitive or other injuries related to his initial head injury. Kibbie said soon after they made this deal the resort stopped paying certain medical bills, specifically treatments for neck injuries. The resort claims they were only liable for treatments that dealt with his head injury, and the Vermont Department of Labor upheld their argument in February of 2013. However they did deny the resort initial summary judgment because they thought there was evidence that the resort wrongfully denied a handful of bills that were medically necessary and related to his head injury.

Kibbie and his lawyer appealed the decision from the Labor Department, and the resort has yet to respond. Since it is now past the time allotted to respond, the lawyer asked the judge for a default decision in Kibbie’s favor. The resort has, as of yet, failed to respond to the appeal and did not issue a statement on the matter.

In our research it does not appear that ski ambassadors are paid for their service, other than maybe having access to free lift tickets. Volunteers are not always eligible for workers’ comp benefits, though in this case it looked like the resort did pay for a lot of his workers’ compensation benefits.