Sometimes really bad things happen and they simply don’t have a point. Natasha Richardson takes a reportedly mild fall on a bunny hill, initially feels fine, then reports a crushing headache an hour later, and eventually succumbs to coma and dies a couple of days later. The autopsy rules an accidental death caused by a clot from a ruptured artery. “This is a very treatable condition if you’re aware of what the problem is and the patient is quickly transferred to a hospital,” said Dr. Keith Siller of New York University Langone Medical Center.
Certainly a tragedy but don’t look for rhyme or reason. The blogs and discussion forums are full of dubious wisdom;
- beware the ice under the snow,
- never ski without a helmet,
- never ski, never let your kids ski,
- don’t ski in foreign countries,
- be sure to get a CT if you bump your head,
- don’t bump your head, and on and on.
All pointless - just like Natasha’s death. Just a random, statistical outlier. I pity people that allow their lives to be diminished (or worse, their children’s lives) because of some deep meaning they take from this.
I’m not saying that wearing a helmet isn’t a good idea. And if this makes someone a little more careful on the slopes - fine. But don’t wrap yourself in a ball of cotton. Your chances of dying from a fall on a bunny hill haven’t changed since last week. They’re still microscopically tiny.
#1 by Athena - March 20th, 2009 at 18:25
My father died from the exact same thing, except he went into a coma almost immediately and died 45 mins later. I guess they didn’t bother keeping him on life support (this happened 15 yrs ago when I was a teenager so received very little info on all of it.)
Anyway, one thing I DID find out is that regular drinkers are far more susceptible to this sort of injury. A doctor explained to me that the brain softens over a lifetime of drinking. . .so there is a lesson here perhaps. My father didn’t have regular glasses of wine every evening, but he did drink pretty much every weekend, and they think that was why his head injury resulted in death whereas many other people hit their head and are fine.
#2 by Drea - March 23rd, 2009 at 09:43
I was scratching my head over the Natasha Richardson lesson, too. Many people go a lifetime skiing without a helmet and nothing happens. Some people hit their heads on the bathtub and die. It seems like it’s just random chance. As a frequent skier, though, it did prompt me to dig my helmet out of the attic. The biggest lesson? You never know.