911 Calls Show Urgency Of Richardson Fall

(CBS/AP)  Radio exchanges between paramedics and dispatchers show that from the outset, they treated Natasha Richardson's fall on a Quebec ski hill as potentially dangerous.

The 45-year-old actress died two days after her fall at Mont Tremblant on March 16th.

The Globe and Mail reports recordings of transmissions between paramedics and a 911 center show the resort's ski patrol and dispatchers treated the accident very seriously.

Richardson had taken a fall on the bunny hill, and the ski patrol called for an ambulance. The call is made at 12:43 p.m., and a 911 center near Mirabel, Quebec, puts forth a Priority 3, 17-Bravo-1 dispatch (meaning the victim had suffered a potentially dangerous fall and medics should get there immediately).

But by the time paramedics arrived, the 45-year old Richardson had refused help, saying she felt OK, and left.

Dispatch receives word from the ski patrol: A 10-3," meaning the job is cancelled. It was 1:11 p.m.

Richardson returned to the Hotel Quintessence unassisted.

But by mid-afternoon, her condition had worsened as she experienced severe headaches.

The hotel called 911. The dispatcher sent the ambulance as highest priority (requiring the ambulance to race to the scene, sirens blaring) and coded "17-Delta-1" (meaning the injury is "dangerous").

Within 45 minutes, medics were driving Richardson to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Sainte-Agathe.

On the way to the hospital (shortly before 4 p.m.), the medic tested Richardson's state, measuring degrees of consciousness on the Glasgow coma scale - 12 out of 15. (A score of 15 reflects a fully-alert subject, but Richardson's 12 - while of concern - is considered treatable.)

But she is confused and disoriented - does not know where she is or what happened to her - and while she can speaks she drifts off.

She is stabilized in a hospital emergency room and prepared for transfer to a trauma center at Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur in Montreal.

A 5:15 p.m. ambulance dispatch is coded "Priority 2 … With oxygen, 10-48 [an escort] and a [heart] monitor."

By 5:55 p.m. she has departed for Montreal, 55 miles away. Her ambulance makes the trip down Highway 15 in less than 45 minutes, arriving at 6:38 p.m.

The Globe and Mail reports that a neurologist at Sacré-Coeur was overheard saying that Richardson's pupils were unresponsive - a sign of advanced brain damage.

The next day she was airlifted to New York. At Lenox Hill Hospital she was taken off life support.

[anesthesie1]

Clearsight is right with a few corrections. Richardson went to the right place, the closest hospital around since she was in deep trouble and needed a hole drilled (Burr hole) in the skull right away. The diagnosis of epidural hematoma is not difficult and the treatment doesn't require a neurosurgeon. CT scans are not even required if the patient is dying. General surgeons are trained to recognize them as emergencies and have a working knowledge of how they should be performed. The procedure is not complex and takes minutes to perform. If unsure a surgeon could be "coached" by phone by a neurosurgeon. Sounds as though Ste Agathe (1st hospital) had proper resources.Why she was sent out to seemingly die on the highway wil need to be answered.Sometimes hospital rules and regulations meant to protect patients paralyze physicians in times of great emergency, so incompetence may not be the only cause. I doubt that this hospital for instance would have placed a patient in need of a tracheostomy and suffocating from airway obstruction in an ambulance and sent her to have it done in Montreal.

[CLEARSIGHT]

When Richardson arrived at the first hospital, she was conscious and salvagable. By the time she was seen by the neurologist at Sacré-Coeur, the second hospital, she was brain dead. Why isn't the press focusing on what happened at the FIRST hospital??? From what I understand, an emergency surgery to release the pressure in her skull by drilling a hole is a basic first aid procedure that all doctors learn. They "stabilized" her at the first hospital for over an hour before sending her on, but did nothing to relieve the pressure on her brain. Blame socialized medicine if there were no trained doctors at the first facility who could do this emergency procedure. But blame incompetence if there were. Yes, things would have gone better for her if she had accepted the initial medical assistence, but the first hospital still had an opportunity to save her and did not.

[dagrandma]

talk_down_2_you: AMEN TO THAT!!!!

[isotron-2009]

This is a classic epidural hematoma- bleeding into the brain from an artery. Usually happens after head trauma and there is a period of normalcy until the bleeding develops enough pressure to cause neuro symptoms. This patient refused care, the paramedics may have suspected a brain injury but they deal with a hundred head traumas every week that turn out fine. You can't transport a patient against their will. This is a horrible outcome but there was no one at fault except the one that refused care.

[talk_down_2_you]

Yeah right Kirstin, when the patient refuses treatment when help arrived in a timely manner your perverted brain blames that on socialized medicine, a real genius aren't you?. If she had allowed the first responders to treat her she would probably be alive today. You don't have a clue do you, only a fascination with Limbaugh and a desire to politicize anything you possibly can with no attention paid to the facts.

[kirstinharr]

And this is why socialized medicine is NOT what we want in the US. An airlift--rather than an ambulance--could have saved her life.

[midwest_mind]

No it's clear why the ski resort kept emphasizing what they did after the fall. They knew it was dangerous even if Ms Richardson didn't.

[panjfl]

Very sad. To think her poor son witnessed all of this...