Natasha Richardson Suffers a Traumatic Brain Injury
Actress Natasha Richardson was reportedly in serious condition with a head injury after falling during a ski lesson on a beginner’s trail. The ski patrol following strict procedures brought her to the bottom of the slope and insisted she see a doctor. She declined. At first, she was fine, but within an hour she began to have a headache and finally went to the hospital. Sources close to Natasha Richardson say she is now brain dead and being flown back to New York, where she will be taken off of life support. Richardson’s story is a devastating one. Her entire life was ahead of her and this one moment in time changed everything. Her story is the story of thousands of others who have suffered a “bump” on the head, but do not seek treatment. It is imperative once a head injury is incurred, seemingly minor or not, to seek immediate treatment.
Dr. Steven Flanagan, director of Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University’s Langone Medical Center said, “When someone has bleeding between the skull and the brain, it basically presses on the brain, and if it presses enough… it can cause substantial damage and even death.” Flanagan continued, “What this implies is that someone hits their head and they are seemingly OK initially, but then they get a rapid collection of blood, usually called epidural hemorrhage, and that means bleeding between the skull and the brain.” Symptoms of an epidural hemorrhage include: headache; loss of consciousness; weakness on one side of the body; and a change in mental status. If the condition is not treated immediately, the person will fall into a coma and “it’s downhill from there. So you need to get the injury treated immediately.”
