The transcripts from the 911 call between ambulance medics and a 911 dispatch centre, while transporting 45-year-old actress Natasha Richardson to the hospital four hours after her skiing accident, have been released by Canada’s Globe and Mail.
“I’m arriving with a female in her 40s… [she’s] disoriented… It’s following… a ski fall that happened at noon. Soon afterward she presents signs of confusion, a concussion,” the ambulance medic radioed to the Centre Hospitalier Laurentien in Sainte-Agathe (the hospital closest to the ski resort), according to the transcripts.
Richardson was later transported to a special trauma clinic, the Montreal trauma center Hopital du Sacre-Coeur. Canada’s Globe and Mail reports that a neurologist at the trauma center was overheard saying that Richardson’s pupils were unresponsive, which might be a sign of severe brain damage.
The 911 tapes also show that paramedics were called directly after Richardson fell and hit her head during her beginner’s ski lesson, but when they arrived, they didn’t find anyone to treat and the job was cancelled. According to numerous reports, the actress felt fine after the fall and refused medical help.
Almost four hours elapsed from the time the ambulance was called to Richardson’s hotel to her arrival at the Montreal trauma center Hopital du Sacre-Coeur. Some now speculate that a medical helicopter, which can make the trip from the ski resort to the Montreal trauma center in less than half an hour, might have saved Richardson’s life.
