Report: Natasha Richardson's First Ambulance Turned Away

MONTREAL — The first ambulance sent to a ski resort where actress Natasha Richardson fell and suffered a head injury was turned away, a paramedic told a Canadian newspaper.

Richardson fell Monday while taking a beginners ski course in Quebec and died Wednesday in a New York hospital. The New York City medical examiner's office said she died of blunt impact to the head.

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent the medics to the Mont Tremblant resort, told The Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday that ski patrollers requested an ambulance after Richardson fell.

The paramedics who responded were told they were not needed, said Coderre, whose company, Ambulances Radisson, serves Mont Tremblant, about 80 miles northwest of Montreal

"They never saw the patient," Coderre told The Globe and Mail. "So they turned around."

Coderre said another ambulance was called later to Richardson's luxury hotel. By that point, her condition had gotten worse and she was rushed to a hospital.

It wasn't immediately clear who sent the first ambulance away or why, but a resort spokeswoman said Tuesday that Richardson initially said that she was fine.

Richardson then said she didn't feel well and had a headache, said Catherine Lacasse, public relations supervisor at the resort on Tuesday. "So, we sent her to the hospital.'

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The resort also issued a statement Tuesday that said Richardson didn't appear hurt and was walking around shortly after the incident.

"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," the resort said.

The ski resort said the instructor and a ski patroller accompanied the actress to her hotel, where they again recommended she should be seen by a doctor.

Coderre said victims of head trauma often believe they are fine, a mistake that can cost them their lives.

"When you have a head trauma you can bleed. It can deteriorate in a few hours or a few days," he told the newspaper.

She was eventually moved to a Montreal hospital before being transferred to New York.

Messages left by The Associated Press with Coderre at Ambulances Radisson were not immediately returned. Lacasse at Mont Tremblant declined to comment further.

Richardson, 45, divided her time between stage and screen. On Broadway, she won a Tony for her performance as Sally Bowles in a 1998 revival of "Cabaret."

Richardson was married to Liam Neeson and was the daughter of Vanessa Redgrave. She and Neeson have two sons.

Comments

[JohnWalterWayland]

DON'T PARTICIPATE IN RISKY PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES IN A SOCIAL MEDICINE STATE.

Even after she denied treatment, she eventually requested it. After her request, she was shuttled by ground to two hospitals, before she was flown to the U.S. If she'd had this accident in the US, upon her request for treatment of head trauma, she would have been flown via helicopter to a trauma center specializing in head injuries.

[PumpGuy]

Forget that I had a close friend die while sitting in a hospital waiting room in Alabama with a similar injury.

It appears you wish to live in a country where the state forces you to go to the hospital (unless, I assume, you do not have health insurance).

[dav ram58]

Watch and see, someone will still be able to find grounds for a law suit that the ambulance company was incompetent; even thought a waiver was signed.

[devilyousay]

Digital Spy is reporting that a helmet was recommended as part of the rental package and Ms. Richardson turned it down. It was offered at $10 CDN. The staff feels sick they didn't insist. At least she was educated that usung one was a good idea. What a tragedy that she didn't listen. Then again, how many of us would take one on a bunny hill?

[longislandlol]

Helmet laws need to be enacted

[ccairnes]

I wish you would take down some of these photos of Ms Richardson, especially the one of her with her sons. I admired her work and feel so sorry she is lost to us, but seeing all these pictures just makes me sad.

[RoseMerry]

Horrible. I had a friend, a wonderful man, who broke a vertebra skiing and thanks to the grace of God, modern medicine, a month in the hospital and several months in a halo brace, his spinal cord was saved.

You will never catch me putting pieces of wood on my feet and then going sliding down a mountain in the snow!

[azyuwish]

I have always felt this way ever since the first 3 skiers I ever met had broken legs. I thought, the thrill cannot be that worth it.

I took up jazz dancing instead.

[alice09]

Very sad.

[citizensrus]

More information on head injuries like this can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.org/wiki/Lucid_interval

"In emergency medicine, a lucid interval is a temporary improvement in a patient's condition after a traumatic brain injury, after which the condition deteriorates. A lucid interval is especially indicative of an epidural hematoma. An estimated 20 to 50% of patients with epidural hematoma experience such a lucid interval."

[Alrightythen]

Thanks for the excellent link. Very important for people to know!

[milo h minderbinder]

This is a tragedy, but if someone refuses treatment there's not much anyone can do to help them.

I think in the same situation, most people would have done the same thing she did.

[ibivi]

Why are they letting someone who fell and hit her head make decisions about her medical status? Frankly, they should have advised Ms Richardson that she needed to be examined right away in case there was bleeding in her head despite not feeling anything at first. I would have insisted.

[alexandrovich]

I think she was advised (though we may never know the full story) to be looked at by a doctor. Who is going to put pressure on a famous actress?

[Mcluhansghost]

Absolutely, 20/20 hindsight is all well and good - but this was a freak, tragic accident where treatment was advised several times but refused by a seemingly coherent, uninjured person.

My heart breaks for Natasha and her beloved family.

A concerned Canadian.

[GunneraGirl]

a 'what if' scenario. just this horrific nightmare of a tragedy needed.

that's it. i'm learning every symptom of everything, and i'm committing them to memory.

[citizensrus]

I live in the United States. Most of the children in my subdivision do not have helmets. They play on scooters, bikes, park equipment, skates. THey take tumbles. They don't go to the emergency room every time they take a fall. It would be prudent if every child had a helmet, but this is not a well off neighborhood. It's not going to happen.
As far as ambulances, paramedics, emergency rooms and treatment. No one around here has that kind of money. We all would turn down an ambulance unless there was no way we could walk on our own two feet into the emergency room. Natasha was walking..t­hat is, until her injury deteriorated.

[chevyval]

The New York Times is reporting that she didn't go in an ambulance until
4 HOURS later. This is a real tragedy.

[AlexNYC]

Most people who may experience a minor fall on the ski slopes would probably not agree to be transported by ambulance to a hospital if they are feeling fine. I probably would have made the same decision to reject medical help the same as Natasha did. In hindsight she made the wrong decision, because she was unaware of the worsening condition as a result of her head trauma. Only if the assumed a worse-case scenario and rushed her to a hospital for a C-scan could she have been saved.

[cheeriogirl]

Not necessarily so! Many traumatic brain injuries are not visible on CT Scans.
That is why it is VITAL to diagnose and treat the patient according to the symptoms they are experiencing.

Tests alone should never be used to completely diagnose or rule out a condition.

That is where the true practice of the medical "arts" comes in to play.

[punkindmb]

I think this had more to do with her stature as a celebrity than with the paramedics, the Candian health care system, US health care system or any waiver she may or may not have signed. In the article, its doesn't say that SHE told the EMS that they were no longer needed, rather someone from the resort. Maybe they valued her privacy more than anything.

[susie1776]

I think you are reading something that isn't there. How many of us have bumped our heads but figured we were fine...jus­t a bump on the head. The ski patrol and the resort asked for the ambulance as they would for ANY potential head injury. that's a standard protocol anywhere..­..not just on a ski slope. However, if a patient refuses treatment, there is little that can be done...oth­erwise they would be guilty of assault. The injury sustained by Ms Richardson is very typical of a bleed. The patient initially feels fine but if the vessel bleeding was an artery, as is suspected, the blood would flow every time her heart beat. Arterial bleeds in the head progress downward pretty quickly and if not treated IMMEDIATELY often prove fatal....a­s in this case.

[skuffer]

Think about it--if ambulances were called every time a skiier fell, there would be very little skiing going on, just paramedics running up and down the mountain performing evacuations. This was not a serious fall, just a little tumble on a slushy bunny slope. She had to have a predisposition for brain injury.

[Alrightythen]

The Canadian news reported that the first ambulance arrived at the resort in approximately 17 (ish) minutes, but was turned away because Ms Richardson had signed a waiver refusing treatment. I don't know about the U.S., but the right to refuse medical treatment is entrenched in law in Canada. Had the paramedics attempted to take Ms Richardson to hospital anyway they would have faced some serious legal problems.

This is so horrible, just awful, and happens way too frequently in both our countries because of the misconception that remaining conscious and being lucid are signs of being okay. After any head trauma neither is an indication of good health. Emergency protocol needs to be changed to reflect this.

[Just2stressed]

I believe in destiny. It was her time to go and nothing could have changed the events. Just a very sad story.