Autopsy: Richardson Died Of Blow To Head

NYC Medical Examiner Rules Death Of Actress Who Fell On Ski Slope An Accident

(CBS/AP)  Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson died of a brain injury after falling on a ski slope, an autopsy found Thursday.

The cause of death was epidural hematoma (bleeding between the skull and the brain's covering), said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner's office. The death was ruled an accident.

Richardson, 45, died Wednesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan after falling at the Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec on Monday.

Broadway theaters intended to dim their lights Thursday in honor of Richardson. Theater marquees will be dimmed for one minute at 8 p.m., the traditional starting time for evening performances of Broadway shows.

"The Broadway community is shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our finest young actresses, Natasha Richardson. Her theatrical lineage is legendary, but her own singular talent shined memorably on any stage she appeared," said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, the trade organization for Broadway theaters and producers.

Sam Mendes, who directed the Broadway musical "Cabaret" for which Richardson won a Tony, said: "It defies belief that this gifted, brave, tenacious, wonderful woman is gone."

Actress Judi Dench told the BBC that Richardson was "a really great actress" who had "an incredibly luminous quality, that you seldom see, and a great sense of humor."

"She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own," said Lindsay Lohan, who as a preteen starred with Richardson in a remake of "The Parent Trap" in 1998. "My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss."

---

Photos: Natasha Richardson

---

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent paramedics to the Mont Tremblant resort where Richardson suffered her fall, told The Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday the paramedics who responded were told they were not needed.

"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.

Like other family members, Richardson divided her time between stage and screen. On Broadway, she portrayed Sally Bowles in the 1998 revival of "Cabaret." She also appeared in New York in a production of Patrick Marber's "Closer" (1999) as well as the 2005 revival of Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire," in which she played Blanche DuBois opposite John C. Reilly's Stanley Kowalski.

She met husband Liam Neeson when they made their Broadway debuts in 1993, co-starring in "Anna Christie," Eugene O'Neill's drama about a former prostitute and the sailor who falls in love with her.

Her most notable film roles came earlier in her career. Richardson played the title character in Paul Schrader's "Patty Hearst," a 1988 biopic about the kidnapped heiress for which the actress became so immersed that even between scenes she wore a blindfold, the better to identify with her real-life counterpart.

Richardson was directed again by Schrader in a 1990 adaptation of Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers" and, also in 1990, starred in the screen version of Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale."

She later co-starred with Neeson in "Nell" and with Mia Farrow in "Widows' Peak." More recent movies, none of them widely seen, included "Wild Child," "Evening" and "Asylum."

Richardson was born in London in 1963, the performing gene inherited not just from her parents (Redgrave and director Tony Richardson), but from her maternal grandparents (Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson), an aunt (Lynn Redgrave) and an uncle (Corin Redgrave). Her younger sister, Joely Richardson, also joined the family business.

She also is survived by two sons, Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12.

A small, private funeral is planned, CBS News correspondent Bianca Solorzano reported. Funeral arrangements will be handled by the Greenwich Village Funeral Home, Borakove said.

[gigilovestoshop]

My prayers of peace go out to her family! Her memory will live on, because she was a loving and giving person! All her charity work will live on. Mont Tremblant should change the way they handle emergency care. They are a posh ski resort, and should be affiliated with a helicopter company that transports patients to a trauma unit. They make enough money from all the people that go there. When I took a private lesson they made sure I didn't fall at the resort I went to. The helmet is a good idea, but ,from a trauma surgeons point of view, it is proper and prompt medical intervention that saves your life when it comes to head trauma. Neurosurgeons will tell you that ,Time = Brain Function! You can still get severe head trauma with a helmet, and often times it just keeps the brain contained, blood is still oozing out from an artery. That being said, I really feel that it is negligent to have a posh top notch ski resort, and not mention in your web site, that oh by the way , if you get a head injury you will first be examined by medics for 30mins and then transported by ambulance to Centre Hospitalier Laurentien St. Agathe, where there they determine that you have a brain bleed , relate we don't have the right intervention for you here and ps you need to get into another ambulance and be transported to Montreal Sacre Coeur Hospital where there they still can't drill into your skull to get the blood out in time. Total delay is aprox 4hrs. Not right ,you need to have heli pad, and have transport in a timely manner to a TRAUMA UNIT. Hindsite is always 20/20 ,and we all have our own fate in life, and to place blame is an easy thing to do, but something needs to change, and I hope they name the trauma unit that they build near by to this posh resort after Natasha Richardson. Also, as a mother of 2 daughters, it is common for mothers to take their self preservation second, and react emergent to their childrens isssues, as mothers we often say we are ok. With Talk and Die syndrome it is common to refuse care because the person does feel ok for a short period of time. If one of the ski instructors explained the urgency of seeking medical care she might have seen things differently. Another issue I feel strongly about is that at ski resorts they should seperate the snow boarders from people who ski, I know plenty of people that are great black diamond skiers and they have been hit by drunk snow boarders!!!! Dr. Mary Manesis

[erasmus111]

How the he;1 do you get a head injury from falling in the SNOW while on a beginner ski slope???


Posted by Newster1 at 8:51 PM : Mar 20, 2009

It had to have been ice. And that would have been like hitting your head on a rock.

[Newster1]

My heart and prayers go out to Ms. Richardson's family.

Head trauma is deceptively easy to overlook.
Posted by mjinba07

Prayers don't work, if they did it's a WEEE bit late after the fact to do them, you needed to do them BEFORE the accident, not 2 days later when the body is cold!

How the he;1 do you get a head injury from falling in the SNOW while on a beginner ski slope???

[mjinba07]

My heart and prayers go out to Ms. Richardson's family.

Head trauma is deceptively easy to overlook. Given the number of people who ski, who ski safely, who fall and don't get hurt, and the very few who wear helmets, this had to be nothing but a freak accident.

My deepest sympathy to Mr. Neeson and their two children. Things will likely be very hard for them for quite a long time. Let's keep them in our prayers. As we do anyone we know of who suffers tragedy and loss.

[apauletteg]

Three comments/observations: 1. I am so over people thinking that you have to file suit over everything. What purpose does suing serve - you ski at your own risk. 2. Several people commented about "more important" things going on in the news. Why all of the headlines for Ms. Richardson? The good or the bad news is that when it happens to celebrities, it gets peoples' attention and perhaps something good eventually comes of all of this. 3. Legislating behavior has always been a slippery slope. Yes there are helmet laws for motorcycles - helmets for skiing, I'm not so sure about. Also, a helmet doesn't guarantee safety. I personally know of someone whose helmet caused the brain injury in a motorcycle accident - not prevented it.

[thgdriver]

She was taking ski lessons, seems to me a novas should have to wear a helmet. The instructor should have anyone taking lessons put on helmets. It's too late for this poor girl but maybe her accident will enlighten others to the dangers of this dangerous sport.

[lectraglide]

It is a terrable tragedy such a talented young actress/wife/mother has been taken from us all and I agree that if she had some sort of head gear it would most likely have not ended this way. My sympathy and prayers are with her family but headgear is a personal choice. My gut just turns every time I hear that little blond ski girl on TV say "You wouldnt ride a motorcycle with-out a helmet".....The only reason a tremendous amount of us wear helmets on motorcycles is because the law says we have to. Helmets should be a personal choice and not mandatory. I'll tell you what I wouldnt do. I wouldnt strap two sticks to my feet and then slide down a mountain at a high rate of speed but then again I wouldnt interfere in anybody else right to make that choice. Its folks just like this little gal who promote our freedoms of choice to slowly be wittled away by an ever imposing "Big Brother". I pray for the Lords comfort for Natasha's family but someone please ask that Ski gal to SHUT UP!

[Yes_ABWH_Fan]

I suspect she hit her head on hard ice. If she'd been skiing on a field of shale and rocks, there'd been no "it's only soft-snow" predjudice", and helmets would NOT be optional. Ice, same color as snow, is far easier to overlook than something more tangible like rocks, and it goes away once it warms up. But ice is just as deadly as rocks to your body.

[berryd3]

a tragic accident a great loss on so many levels. To her family, my sympathy. I am a big fan of Mr. Neison and admire his work. There are no words for the pain he must feel now, so lets all respect the family and give them privacy in which to morn

[barbaraf4]

"It always amazes me that anyone could feel that protecting one's existence with a $20 helmet or life-jacket is just "too much trouble"...yet, it happens every day." Posted by formrusmcsgt
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I don't remember reading that she was given the option and declined the use of a helmet.

In fact, until this incident came to light, I had never thought about the safety aspect of skiing with a helmet. If the new consciousness of it saves a few lives, then something good will have come out of this.

[dragyn30]

The family is devastated enough with out the media constantly pointing out the obvious facts!

My heart goes out to the family & friends. I hope they all find a way to find peace and move forward.

The media really needs to BACK OFF!!!!

[formrusmcsgt]

Very sad. I feel bad for her family.
Posted by ************ at 2:43 AM : Mar 20, 2009

Agreed.

And totally preventable......

[formrusmcsgt]

It always amazes me that anyone could feel that protecting one's existence with a $20 helmet or life-jacket is just "too much trouble"...yet, it happens every day.

[ermalw]

Natasha Richardson was alive and fun to work with in "The Patty Hearst" movie. I played her father and she was great to work with. A real actress. God bless her family in this hour - and God bless Natasha.

Ermal Williamson

[jamesguy]

Liam Neeson has always done such a good job of playing kind, sensitive characters, he must be like that in real life. I'm terribly sad for him that this happened. He played a man who lost his wife in the film "Love Actually" I teared up watching that, and watching how he was so kind to their son who missed his mom so terribly.

[erasmus111]

you know what's so screwed up, is that you'll get a ticket for no seat belt, but in's perfectly legal to ride a motorcycle (in CO anyhow) without a helmet...

Posted by sbbm-2009 at 5:29 PM : Mar 19, 2009

In Canada, it's mandatory to wear helmets for motorcycles and bicycles.

[schwarzzennegger]

How Sad !!! I feel especially badly for her 2 children. What bad luck to experience a fatal injury on a beginner's ski slope. God works in mysterious ways indeed !

[erasmus111]

He indicated that an autopsy would be necessary in order to determine whether the bleeding had been deep inside the brain, which would mean there was nothing they could have done even with early detection, or whether it was at the surface of the brain, which might have been corrected with surgery if it had been detected in time. Or whether it was just an aneurism that had been there all along and finally burst.

If I were a family member of the person I would want to know as many details as possible, for closure purposes. Just my opinion, obviously.

Posted by rrozsa at 3:01 PM : Mar 19, 2009



Yes, closure for them, and also good for the ski resort to know, just in case the family decides to sue. Someone earlier mentioned that they may want to sue the ski resort. Everybody has to sue everybody for everything.

[rrozsa]

I was just wondering why they did an autopsy. It was obvious that she died of head trauma and it was an accident. Slow day maybe?
Posted by scottyusa at 1:27 PM : Mar 19, 2009

==========

I read a statement by a neurosurgeon at the doctor in the hospital in Montreal where she was first taken. He indicated that an autopsy would be necessary in order to determine whether the bleeding had been deep inside the brain, which would mean there was nothing they could have done even with early detection, or whether it was at the surface of the brain, which might have been corrected with surgery if it had been detected in time. Or whether it was just an aneurism that had been there all along and finally burst.

If I were a family member of the person I would want to know as many details as possible, for closure purposes. Just my opinion, obviously.

[rrozsa]

It's a shame such a senseless tragedy like this is now going to be used as a lesson and hopefully a means of prevention.
Posted by credibility2 at 2:10 PM : Mar 19, 2009

=========

Funny, I was just thinking that the fact that it could be used as a lesson and hopefully a means of prevention was a GOOD thing, not a shame!