I was shocked when I first heard about the tragic accident that took the life of Natasha Richardson. I am finding it hard to accept that a small fall could cause a fatal brain injury. While the privacy of her family out weighs everything else, I do hope that they announce the results of her autopsy.
There haven’t been any details about the accident itself. I wonder how much force was involved. I can remember two other high profile skiing accidents that involved fatal brain injuries. There was Michael Kennedy’s fatal collision with a tree on the slopes of Aspen, back in December of 1997. That was followed by Sonny Bono’s tragic death a week later under similar circumstances. Speed does kill, a helmet could saved their lives.
I’m wondering if Richardson had a pre-existing condition. She could have had a brain aneurysm. That could have triggered the fall, or more likely, the fall made the aneurysm worse. My father had a brain aneurysm once and he had many of the same symptoms that Richardson had reported. He was lucky, surgeons were able to clamp the aneurysm before it caused any permanent damage to his brain. With Natasha Richardson, a blood vessel that was already leaking started opening up after the fall and by the time they got her to the hospital it was already too late. My heart goes out to her sons and her husband, this is a a tragic loss.