Was Ski Resort Negligent In Natasha Richardson’s Death?
According to a new report from the Canadian Globe And Mail, previous reports about actress Natasha Richardson’s treatment after a fall at ski resort Mont Tremblant on Monday were grossly inaccurate.
The initial reports after the accident had resort officials stating Richardson was transported to a hospital by ambulance one hour after her fall, but that has now been found to be untrue. In reality, it was almost four hours before Ms. Richardson was taken to the hospital. Here are the details from the Globe and Mail:
Nearly four hours elapsed between Natasha Richardson’s lethal fall at Mont Tremblant and the actor’s admission to a local hospital, a delay that raises questions about whether more rapid treatment might have saved her life.
Autopsy results from the New York medical examiner’s office show that the Tony Award-winning actress died of a traumatic brain injury caused by a blood clot between the skull and the lining of her brain. It was ruled an accident.
Trauma specialists say timeliness is important after such blows to the head, because blood begins to pool and build pressure on the brain. But records show lengthy delays from the time of Ms. Richardson’s injury to her admission to the local hospital, and, finally, to a specialized hospital in Montreal – a city without an air ambulance – about seven hours later.
According to Yves Coderre, a paramedic and ambulance manager who has reviewed dispatch records, the first 911 call from Mont Tremblant in response to Ms. Richardson’s accident was made at 12:43 p.m. Monday.
Mr. Coderre, whose company, Ambulances Radisson, serves Mont Tremblant, says medics arrived at the hill 17 minutes later, or at 1 p.m.
At that point, the injured actress refused medical attention, he said. The ambulance staffers left after spotting a sled taking the still-conscious Ms. Richardson to the resort’s on-site clinic, Mr. Coderre said.
About two hours later, at 3 p.m., a second call was placed to 911, from Ms. Richardson’s hotel room, as her condition deteriorated. Ambulance technicians arrived nine minutes later.
“She was conscious and they could talk to her,” Mr. Coderre said. “But she showed instability.”
In a statement issued on Tuesday, Mont Tremblant said the ambulance was called to the actress’s room an hour after her fall. The medics tended to her for half an hour before transporting her to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Ste. Agathe, a 40-minute drive away. They arrived at around 4:15 p.m., or 3½ hours after Ms. Richardson fell.
The hospital stabilized the actress before transferring her less than two hours later, according to a hospital spokesman. Then she was taken by ambulance for an hour-long drive to a specialized trauma centre at Montreal’s Sacré-Coeur Hospital.
At that point, it was well into the evening, around 7 p.m.
Well this new timeline is in direct conflict with reports issued from the resort, which have not responded to the new reports but have stated they “intend to fully co-operate with any resulting investigations.”
While we avoided any speculation when initially reporting this tragic story, Glosslip feels this new information requires some attention. Just yesterday I heard a doctor speculating how bizarre they thought it was that Ms. Richardson would go from coherent to critical in one hour, even though this kind of injury does lends itself to tragedy. This doctor felt Ms. Richardson may have suffered from a pre-existing condition, but with this new information, it would seem perhaps negligence or at least a lack of truthfulness may be at play.
Regardless of the circumstances, Natasha Richardson’s family has our condolences and prayers during this difficult time.
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it was just a one in a million freak accident. how many times have we all banged our head, and nothing has happened. she just must have hit it at a wrong angle or something, just inexplicable. it is really true, only the good die young.
Comment by sally — March 21, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
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Pingback by Celebrity Blog | Babelogs | Celebrity Gossip » Blog Archive » Was Ski Resort Negligent In Natasha Richardson’s Death? — March 21, 2009 @ 8:47 pm
What happened to Natasha Richardson Neeson was not a freak accident but in the language of time and the governing planetary electromagnetic influence on all matter, proven scientifically to exist, the worst thing she could have been doing on that day was skiing as her chart shows strong negative influences toward accident. With some knowledge to what time had in store for her, she would not have gone skiing, but for most people, there is no awareness of time and the connecting influence of the planetary order, even though such knowledge has existed since 5,000 B.C. in the Babylonian age. Perhaps some day, the language of time will be as known as the english language worldwide so that people can see what forces are ahead of them and when to protect themselves.
Comment by sharon — March 24, 2009 @ 11:14 pm