Natasha Richardson to be Taken Off Life Support
Natasha Richardson (45), the actress wife of Liam Neeson, is has been pronounced brain dead according to Fox News. Natasha suffered a brain injury skiing in Canada, and was taken to the hospital Monday.
Natasha will be transported to New York before she will be taken off life support. The family is expected to release a statement on Wednesday.
After Natasha’s injury, a rep for the film Liam was working on said in a statement to Canadian TV:
"Liam Neeson left the Toronto set immediately to fly to Montreal upon news of his wife’s accident. We do not have any details at this time but we hope for the best, and our thoughts and prayers are with Natasha and Liam and their family."
A rep for Mont Tremblant ski resort said Richardson fell on a beginner’s trail during a ski lesson and later reported not feeling well. She was not wearing a helmet, nor was one required, they said.
"She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor," said a statement from the resort.
Mont Tremblant spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said Richardson was getting a private lesson and that she said she was fine at first.
"An hour later she said she didn’t feel well. She had a headache, so we sent her to the hospital," Lacasse said. "There were no signs of impact and no blood, nothing."
This was either a close head injury with a lot of brain swelling, a small intracranial bleed that grew worse over time, or an aneurysm that burst. The headache was the first clue, then Richardson probably started getting sleepy, or had difficulty walking, and talking, etc., and became unconscious. It is alarming that doctors didn’t take her right in for a CT or MRI, which could have identified the problem, and the problem could have been fixed with surgery. It sounds like treatment was delayed until it was too late. That’s universal healthcare. Sometimes having a lot of money can’t buy the care that can save your life. Very sad.
We feel terrible for Richardson’s family.
As I said earlier, if you go skiing wear a helmet.
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4 Responses to “Natasha Richardson to be Taken Off Life Support”
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One more thing: According to your own report, “Natasha will be transported to New York before she will be taken off life support.” In other words, she was not being transported for anything related to her medical condition. She was ALREADY DEAD when she was transported to New York, she was NOT in critical condition. She was simply being transported so that her death certificate could read “New York” instead of “Canada”.
Regarding universal healthcare, for emergency room service, even the US has universal healthcare if what you mean is that we treat all who come regardless of whether or not they can pay. In all other respects, universal healthcare rations care based on medical necessity; the US system rations care based on price. In other words, if you don’t have the money, you don’t get the care in the US. After all, if the US system is so great, why do people on average live longer in Canada? Universal healthcare = better care for the average person who doesn’t have health care insurance provided by their employer. US system = better care for the rich and those who have an employer who can afford to pay for health insurance (increasingly less common).
By the way, I have received care in both countries for head injuries and the only place where I had to wait in an emergency room care situation was in the US (while they were verifying my insurance [from a US employer], which took 4 hours….). In Canada, they never asked for my OHIP card until AFTER services were rendered.
You know nothing about what happened, either during the accident itself, or later at the hospital, and yet you are blaming universal health care. Wow. I hope you don’t think of yourself as a journalist of any kind.
Universal healthcare slows treatment. Incompetence does too. Either of these can lead to a worse outcome for a patient such as death, or severe brain damage that could have been prevented. If Natasha was receiving such great care, why did her family immediately request she be flown from Canada to a hospital in New York, where they don’t have universal healthcare, for treatment despite being in critical condition?