Posted on 03/20/2009 4:04:53 PM PDT by devere
It seems that there was no neurosurgeon at the local hospital, and no medical helicopter in the entire province of Quebec, so once she fell poor Natasha was doomed, even if she had asked for immediate medical assistance. It seems almost unbelievable in the 21st century, but that's what socialized medicine brings you. Death.
“I read where they turned away the first ambulance that showed up ....”
True, she further sealed her own fate. But the gist of the article is that, with no neurosergeon at the nearest hosptital (and maybe no MRI) and no helicopter to get her to one, it didn’t matter what she did or did not do.
Sad as it is to say, if her case exposes the Canadian health care system for what it is and keeps it from coming to the United States, maybe she will not have died in vain.
The accident occurred 75 miles north of Montreal in the Laurentian Mountains. Had this accident occurred in Lake Placid, NY or Stowe, VT ... approximately the same distance from Montreal only south and in the U.S. ... the results would have been exactly the same. Stowe would have evacuated the victim to Burlington, Lake Placid to Plattsburgh ... initially. Later to larger hospitals either in Boston, Albany or NYC. All hundreds of miles away ... bottom line, the victim would have died.
http://www.paramedicweb.info/ipb/index.php?showtopic=410
“Air Ambulances” need a coordinator. This is the job posting.
“Consider this...In the Pacific Northwest (includes Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska) there is only one medical facility designated as a Level 1 Trauma Center (Harborview Medical Center in Seattle).”
All the States you mention do have at least one level II trauma center, which is a 24 hour complete-coverage facility, but possibly without a research or residency program, or with a lower volume of patients. In a dire emergency there is rarely any practical difference between level I and level II.
wasn’t sonny found already dead? after not coming down on a run?
when did that happen?
apparantly the ambulance showed up but was sent away
I am very fortunate to live in a big city in with one of the very best hospitals in the world – Johns Hopkins and one of the very best trauma centers in the country – University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center.
MD Shock Trauma for years set the standard for emergency trauma care that all centers around the country if not around the world, aspired to and modeled them selves after.
With a fleet of state of the art medivac helicopters staffed with highly trained para-medics, nurses and doctors who can be dispatched within minutes any where across the state, certainly many lives have been saved. But even with all the state of the art transportation and medical care, not every one lives. Sometimes the trauma is just too severe or sometimes treatment comes just a few minutes too late, and some times it’s because the patient delays treatment thinking it isn’t any big deal.
I’ve been skiing in the Poconos, in Vermont and New Hampshire. I can tell you that these resort areas are very good at treating the normal skiing injuries; torn tendons, broken bones, contusions, concussions, but they are not equipped to deal with major traumas as they are very rare. If I had such an injury as Natasha Richardson while skiing in Sugar Bush VT for example, I would have to be transported to the nearest hospital equipped to deal with that and that would probably be in Boston – hours away and I don’t think that there was a medivac unit close by either.
I had a friend who suffered a severe knee injury while skiing in VT. While the local hospital was able to diagnose the problem and immobilize and stabilize her injury, they were not equipped to perform surgery on her. She had to fly back home to Baltimore for that.
And if you are skiing in some areas like in Utah or Idaho or Montana, how close do you think you are to a major trauma center equipped to perform emergency brain surgery?
Bottom line is that this was a very freak and unfortunate accident. Miss Richardson could not have died if she had received immediate state of the art trauma care but it had nothing to do with her being in Canada at the time as this unfortunate outcome could have occurred any where including the US.
she refused medical care folks
they were on bunny hill I thought
She fell. She felt fine as some do. She died. It happens.
this is true most resorts are in the middle of nowhere hospitals aren’t on mountaintops
It doesn’t matter that it was a bunny slope. She fell. Something happened. She felt fine for a while then didn’t.
From what I read, she was fine after the initial fall. Then, she got a headache, as sometimes happens, and sought medical help.
That’s not really true. Sometimes these things aren’t readily diagnosed. She felt fine. It wasn’t until she had a nasty headache that she sought treatment. Sometimes this stuff just happens.
Or with any healthcare or hospital. Things happen all the time in my world and we don’t go to the doctor or ER every time.
My point exactly, which appears in earlier posts in this string. I've skied Mt. Tremblant, Stowe, VT and several ski areas in in CO, UT, CA & ID ... this type of injury is rare and due to the remoteness of most ski areas to major trauma centers ... (neurosurgery type) will almost always be fatal. Break a bone (as I have) skiing Vail and you have one of the best orthopedic clinics in the world in Vail village. Every young and upcoming orthopod doctor in the U.S. wants to do a residency there ... it offers the best training anywhere ... they see it all.
Exactly. Thanks for saying it so clearly.
She got up from her fall, and was brought to the base of the mountain by the ski patrol, which is standard procedure. She refused medical help, apparently because she thought she was fine. Someone DID call an ambulance, which is also probably standard procedure. The instructor, or someone from the ski area went WITH her back to her hotel, just to make sure she was going to be OK. About an hour after the fall, she started feeling ill, so an ambulance was again called. She went to a local hospital, but was getting so bad, that they moved her to Montreal. At that point, it was likely two hours from the time of the accident, so she was probably beyond help.
It's not clear if the hospital near Mont Tremblant had a CT scan, but the hospital in Montreal should have. I'm thinking the problem with socialized medicine in Canada might be that there are so few CT machines, unlike the US, where just about every regional hospital has one. And I'm sure that every medium sized hospital within a half hour of a ski area in the US probably has one, so folks who've had this sort of injury might have a better chance.
This is an interesting topic, especially when focused on the actual topic. Everything I’ve read so far, indicates that she fell, was offered medical care, declined since she felt fine (got lots of stories in real life)and problems occurred afterwards. It happens. I have no doubt that she got the best medical care.
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