A couple of Natasha Richardson stories for you to get the weekend started off right. And because, unlike the undertaker, the media hasn’t yet managed to suck every little bit of life’s blood from her cold, dead body.
I give it about another two weeks before she stops popping up on Morning Express with Robin Meade.
First, an Ohio couple is crediting Richardson with saving their daughter’s life. After the dad of the year whacked his daughter, Morgan, in the head with a baseball while playing in the yard, the 7-year-old got a goose egg on her temple. Her parents iced it down and the swelling went away. Their daughter seemed fine, so they didn’t think anything of it.
Three days later, they saw a story about Richardson on CNN, and noting how Natasha had seemed just fine after falling and hitting her head, the couple decided to take their daughter to the emergency room.
Turns out, the kid had the same injury as Richardson: an epidural hematoma.
Unlike Richardson’s, Morgan’s story has a happy ending. After surgery and five days in the hospital, she’s at home and doing fine. “Dr. Cohen told us that if we hadn’t brought her in Thursday night, she never would have woken up,” McCracken says.
Now the McCrackens sometimes wonder if they waited too long to get Morgan to a doctor. After hearing about Richardson’s death, many people are asking themselves the same question: Do all head injuries need attention, even ones that seem minor?
I once got elbowed in the forehead by a Thai guy named Tata while playing basketball in Japan. I’ll give you a tiny moment to process that before I move on.
A big ole tootsiepop-sized lump quickly erupted on my forehead. The swelling went down after a few hours, and after having to deal with the ignominy of a blackish/greenish eye for a few weeks, I was fine… OR WAS I??
Next time I say something reeeeeally offensive, you can blame it on the epidural hematoma talking. Unless it’s funny. In that case, I said it.
Secondly, some whackball kookjobs (and by whackball kookjobs, of course I mean The New York Post) are attempting to blame Richardson’s death on everyone’s favorite lovably laid back, backwards neighbor to the north: Canada. Specifically, they’re blaming it on the healthcare that is available in smaller Canadian towns like the one where Natasha went skiing.
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.
The article goes on to say that the lack of “technology like CT scanners and quick access to specialists like neurosurgeons” may have caused what would have been a treatable condition in even the smallest of U.S. towns to become fatal.
But if Canadacare hadn’t killed Natasha, that little girl in Ohio would be dead by now!
Go throw your rock in a pond and think about that one for a while!
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