Friends say goodbye as questions arise over Natasha Richardson’s death
This weekend family and friends will say goodbye to Natasha Richardson. Friday, the star’s husband, Liam Neeson, their two sons, family and close friends like actors Matthew Modine, Ralph Fiennes, Uma Thurman, Ethan Hawke and Sarah Jessica Parker; director Mike Nichols and amfAR head Mathilde Krim (Richardson had served on the charity’s board of trustees since 2006) gathered for a wake at the American Irish Historical Society in Manhattan on Friday. Neeson was the last to leave the viewing, at about 8:40 p.m. after more than six hours of receiving condolences.
On Sunday, Richardson will be buried in a private family ceremony near her Millbrook Dutchess County home in New York.
Police are preparing for traffic congestion and huge crowds to head to Millbrook to pay tribute to the late star, who died on Wednesday after suffering a traumatic brain injury while learning to ski in Montreal, Canada.
Questions have arisen about her medical treatment at the time of her accident. The province of Quebec lacks a medical helicopter system to airlift stricken patients to major trauma centers, a service common in the United States and other parts of Canada. Now Montreal’s top head trauma doctor told the Associated PressFriday that may have played a role in Richardson’s death.
“It’s impossible for me to comment specifically about her case, but what I could say is … driving to Mont Tremblant from the city (Montreal) is a two and a half hour trip, and the closest trauma center is in the city. Our system isn’t set up for traumas and doesn’t match what’s available in other Canadian cities, let alone in the States,” said Tarek Razek, director of trauma services for the McGill University Health Centre, which represents six of Montreal’s hospitals.
Richardson’s initial refusal of medical treatment cost her two hours, but after that she also had to be driven to two hospitals. She didn’t arrive at a specialized hospital in Montreal until about four hours after the second 911 call from her hotel room at the Mont Tremblant resort, according to a timeline published by Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper.
The lack of an airlift directly to that trauma center might have cost Richardson crucial moments, Razek said.
“A helicopter is obviously the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B,” he said.
After Richardson’s fall on the beginning slopes, the first ambulance crew left when they spotted a sled taking the still-conscious actress away to the resort’s on-site clinic.
A second 911 call was made two hours later from Richardson’s hotel room as the actress deteriorated. Medics tended to her for a half-hour before taking her to a hospital about a 40-minute drive away.
Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Ste-Agathe does not specialize in head traumas, so her speedy transfer to Sacre Coeur Hospital in Montreal was critical, said Razek.
“It’s one of the classic presentations of head injuries, ‘talking and dying,’ where they may lose consciousness for a minute, but then feel fine,” said Razek.
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