Posted on 03/26/2009 7:40:57 PM PDT by nuconvert
March 26, 2009
COULD actress Natasha Richardson's tragic death have been prevented if her skiing accident had occurred in America rather than Canada?
Canadian health care de-emphasizes widespread dissemination of technology like CT scanners and quick access to specialists like neurosurgeons. While all the facts of Richardson's medical care haven't been released, enough is known to pose questions with profound implications.
Richardson died of an epidural hematoma -- a bleeding artery between the skull and brain that compresses and ultimately causes fatal brain damage via pressure buildup. With prompt diagnosis by CT scan, and surgery to drain the blood, most patients survive.
Could Richardson have received this care? Where it happened in Canada, no. In many US resorts, yes.
Between noon and 1 p.m., Richardson sustained what appeared to be a trivial head injury while skiing at Mt. Tremblant in Quebec. Within minutes, she was offered medical assistance but declined to be seen by paramedics.
But this delay is common in the early stages of epidural hematoma when patients have few symptoms -- and there is reason to believe her case wasn't beyond hope at that point.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
could she have been airlifted from the first hospital immediately to a us hospital close to the border?
would than have made a difference?
My dad fell off of a ladder and felt fine, two days later splitting headache. Went to local hospital, got scanned and blood buildup was found. He was rushed into operating room and skull was drilled. Saved his life. Total time less than half the time it took for her to just get to the hospital.
She was dead the minute she hit the snow, three times over from government mismanagement. She never had a chance in Canada, her survival was assured in pretty much any place in America. This is the Health Care system that Obama wants to break our backs with in taxes and replace the one that works with one that does not.
Unless of course you are a politician. They will always have helicopters with them.
“She refused treatment. Whether or not the Canada health care system would have been able to treat her had she accepted treatment immediately will never be known. End of story. Believe it or not, people refuse treatment and die in America too.”
These injuries bleed at different rates. The bleeding she was having was occurring at a moderate rate not fast.
“Hospital spokesman Alain Paquette said she was conscious upon reaching the hospital about 4 p.m. “ “Survival rates for patients with epidural hematomas, conscious on arrival to a hospital, are good.”
4pm was her arrival at the first hospital. Had it been a properly equipped one, she might very well have survived. There was no hope for her after several more hours passed before she got to the next hospital in Montreal.
“could she have been airlifted from the first hospital immediately to a us hospital close to the border?
would than have made a difference?”
Hard to know. But I read that the time to chopper her to the 2nd hospital would have been about 15 mins. To get to a hospital in the US may have taken even longer. Part of the problem seems to be that they wasted time trying to evaluate her at the first hospital when they didn’t have the equipment needed to do so. That time alone, before they even made the decision to send her off, may have sealed her fate.
#22: excellent analysis.
Then, several hours later, she sought treatment.
At THAT point
1. Would she have lived if the first hospital she was taken to had the necessary equipment and specialists?
2. Would she have lived if she had been taken directly to Montreal?
Was Canada's health care the problem? (Natasha Richardson's tragic death)
Her initial refusal of medical care accounted for only part of the delay.and Doctor: Lack of medical helicopter cost actressShe was still conscious when seen at a hospital and her death might have been prevented if the hospital either had the resources to diagnose and institute temporizing therapy, or air transport had taken her quickly to Montreal.
"Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Ste-Agathe does not specialize in head traumas, so her speedy transfer to Sacre Coeur Hospital in Montreal was critical," said Razek**Tarek Razek, director of trauma services for the McGill University Health Centre, which represents six of Montreal's hospitals.
You are just as wrong as Natasha is dead.
The hospital she finally consented to go to FOUR HOURS AFTER the accident gave her a CT scan, and the doctors there did everything humanly possible to stabilize her for the trip to the neurosurgeon manned hospital in Montreal when the problem was found.
The lack of a helo for transport AFTER seeking help MAY have been a small factor in her death, but the FOUR FLIPPING HOURS before accepting treatment most certainly was the primary and possibly SOLE reason for her demise.
Think about it: She was only 2 and a bit hours from a hospital on a par with any in the USA, but WASTED 4 hours before seeking treatment.
Natasha, and Natasha ALONE is responsible for her unfortunate death. She got care on a par or BETTER than anything at any ski area on the planet. Unless of course you know of one that has an on-call neurosurgeon available at the first aid post.
Thank you for providing the needed clarity in a sea of obfuscation.
From the article.
“CT scan for diagnosis followed by either a complete removal of accumulated blood by a neurosurgeon or a procedure by a trauma surgeon or emergency physician to relieve the pressure and allow her to be transported.”
The Centre Hospitalier Laurentien has a CT scanner. She was operated on and suffered a stroke . She left for Montreal at 5 pm. Arriving at 6pm.
“Natasha, and Natasha ALONE is responsible for her unfortunate death.”
Nonsense. She got horrendous care. If she had gone skiing in Vail, she would be alive.
I see, the facts mean nothing, it’s how you FEEEEEEEL about it.
Are you sure you’re on the right board?
She got a CT scan almost immediately after admission to the hospital. She waited 4 hours before going to hospital.
But you FEEEEEL that the care she got was inadequate, though she suffered a stroke while on the operating table shortly following the CT scan.
See post 29.
I am always amazed at the Stockholm Syndrome of some Canadians when it comes to their health care enslavement.
all of the things that happened appeared to have lined up the wrong way.
if, if , if who knows? if she would have agreed to go with the paramedics?
can’t believe with all the skiing accidents that happen, there wouldn’t have been a CT scanner within 90 miles, but with govt. healthcare, what incentive is there?
Really it is not so much lining up, but stacking against. Any one of the three basic failings of Goobermint controled Health care sentanced her to death. If she had, by some miracle been able to commandeer a helocopter she still would have died because there was no cat scanner available. if her husband was some sort of Jerry Mcquire and made a cat scanner out of a refridgerator and a typewriter she would have been the walking dead as there was nobody able to preform the surgery and the hospital was unprepared to handle what is taken for granted in the United States.
She was killed by something, and it was not a blow to the head. She was killed by socialism, and people who value power and security over freedom.
This is a VERY big lesson for those in America who will pay attention. But another ignored warning in the highways of life for those who seek a Nanny State to wipe their bottoms.
I am SICK TO DEATH of the blatant LIES put forth by you and so many others.
She got a CT scan almost immediately after she arrived at the FIRST fricking hospital, FOUR HOURS AFTER the accident.
READ the fricking LINK I posted 2 spots above, and learn something, FRiend!
The ignorance and arrogance shown by some here is exceeded only by 0bama (ptui).
very scary, and very sad
i don’t thank that the nanny-state clientele think much above butt-wiping
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