Natasha Richardson’s 911 Calls Reveal Her Serious Condition Before Death

Posted on March 29, 2009

Just hours after Natasha Richardson fell while skiing, the 911 call reveals Natasha was disoriented and showed signs of confusion and a concussion, reports Canada’s Globe and Mail. Read more on Natasha Richardson’s 911 call and how her tragic death saved a little girl’s life.

In the revealing 911 tapes, Richardson’s injury did not seem serious initially, but her condition quickly became more severe.

A medic arrived at the Mont Tremblant ski resort on March 16 at 1 p.m., after a call was placed to the 911 dispatch center near Mirabel, Quebec. At the time, Richardson felt fine and had declined treatment. Eleven minutes later, the medic reported to dispatch that the job was canceled.

Later in the afternoon, Richardson began to experience severe headaches and the dispatch received another emergency call from the hotel. At 2:59 p.m., the dispatcher said, “Priority 1″ and used the code, “17-Delta-1,” which indicated that the situation was then classified as “dangerous.”

Medics rushed Richardson into the ambulance 45 minutes later and left for the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien.

The medic said the patient was “verbal” — which meant she responded when spoken to but otherwise drifted off — and according to the Globe and Mail, her orientation rating was “0,” indicating she didn’t know where she was, the day of the week, or what had happened to her — all signs of a potentially life-threatening brain injury.

“[She's] disoriented… She presents signs of confusion, a concussion,” the medic radioed to hospital staff.

Richardson died March 18 from a blunt impact injury to the head at the age of 45.

Natasha Richardson’s death is one of those tragedies that really affected many. But news coverage of her death actually saved the life of a 7 year-old girl.

From ABC News:

Two days after Morgan McCracken was hit in the head by a baseball in her family’s Mentor, Ohio, backyard, her parents watched news reports about the head injury that eventually killed Richardson, 45, who took a tumble on a Canadian ski slope.

Like Richardson, Morgan didn’t show any symptoms initially, other than a bump that went down with ice. Days went by without any reason for the parents to worry.

Donald McCracken said that after the accident, Morgan went to school, played with her brother and lived normally. They even made her teacher aware that she’d been hit in the head.

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