Actor Richard Widmark dies at age 93

Autopsy: Natasha Richardson died from brain injury

2009-03-19T22:31:00.000-07:00

Autopsy: Natasha Richardson died from brain injury

By Associated Press March 19, 2009 12:02 PM PDT

- celebs:
- Liam Neeson
- Natasha Richardson

In this April 28, 2008 file photo, actors Natasha Richardson, left, and Liam Neeson arrive for the Third Annual Artists Dinner in New York. Richardson, 45, died Wednesday March 18, 2009 in New York after suffering an apparent head injury from a skiing accident in Canada on Monday. (AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File)Associated Press

NEW YORK - Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson died of a brain injury after falling on a ski slope, an autopsy found Thursday.

The cause of death was epidural hematoma (bleeding between the skull and the brain's covering), said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner's office. Richardson was not wearing a helmet and the death was ruled an accident.

An epidural hematoma is often caused by a skull fracture. The bleeding causes a blood clot that puts pressure on the brain. That pressure can force the brain downward to press on the brain stem that controls breathing and other vital functions, causing coma or death. Frequently, surgeons cut off part of the skull to give the brain room to swell.

Richardson, 45, died Wednesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan after falling at the Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec on Monday. Descended from one of Britain's greatest acting dynasties, including her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson was known for her work in such plays as "Cabaret" (for which she won a Tony) and "Anna Christie" and in the films "Patty Hearst" and "The Handmaid's Tale."

The mourning continued Thursday as Broadway theaters intended to dim their lights in honor of Richardson and colleagues offered tributes. Fitting for an actress of Hollywood beauty and classical training, praise came from both tabloid celebrities "The Parent Trap" co-star Lindsay Lohan and artists of the theater, like Sam Mendes, who directed the 1998 revival of the Broadway musical "Cabaret."

"It defies belief that this gifted, brave, tenacious, wonderful woman is gone," said Mendes, also known as the director of the Academy Award-winning "American Beauty."

Theater marquees will be dimmed for one minute at 8 p.m., the traditional starting time for evening performances of Broadway shows.

Richardson gave several memorable stage performances, more than living up to some of the theater's most famous roles: Sally Bowles of "Cabaret," Blanche DuBois of "A Streetcar Named Desire" and the title character of Eugene O'Neill's "Anna Christie," a 1993 revival in which she co-starred with future husband Liam Neeson . (They have two sons: Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12.)

"The Broadway community is shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of one of our finest young actresses, Natasha Richardson . Her theatrical lineage is legendary, but her own singular talent shined memorably on any stage she appeared," said Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, the trade organization for Broadway theaters and producers.

Richardson's shocking death greatly heightened the debate over skiing safety. Quebec, for instance, is considering making helmets mandatory on ski hills. Jean-Pascal Bernier, a spokesman for Quebec Sport and Leisure Minister Michelle Courchesne, said Thursday the death of Richardson at a Quebec resort has added impetus to plans but says they it was already on the table.

Bernier says the minister met with emergency room doctors this week and will meet with Quebec ski hill owners and operators in the coming weeks.

Emergency room doctors in the province first called for mandatory use of helmets three weeks ago.

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent paramedics to the Mont Tremblant resort where Richardson suffered her fall, told The Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday the paramedics who responded were told they were not needed.

"They never saw the patient," Coderre said. "So they turned around."

Coderre said another ambulance was called later to Richardson's luxury hotel. By that point, her condition had gotten worse and she was rushed to a hospital.

Richardson said she felt fine after her spill but became ill later and complained of a headache. Doctors say sometimes patients with brain injuries have what's called a "lucid interval" where they act fine for an hour or more as the brain slowly, silently swells or bleeds.

Symptoms_ headache; loss of consciousness; vomiting; problems seeing, speaking or moving; confusion; drainage of a clear fluid from the nose or mouth appear after enough pressure builds in the skull.

Emergency surgery is often need to drain the blood or remove the clot.

"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. "But there is very little time to correct this."

____

Associated Press medical writers Lauran Neergaard in Washington and Maria Cheng in London, and Associated Press Writers Karen Matthews in New York and Rob Gillies in Toronto also contributed to this report.

How a brain injury in rare instances can impact pronunciation, intonation and inflection.

2009-03-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Foreign Accent Syndrome for Beginners
How a brain injury in rare instances can impact pronunciation, intonation and inflection.
By Michele Solis for MSN Health & Fitness

A brain injury can be devastating: It can leave you blind, deaf, and even paralyzed. In the grand scheme of things, ending up with a different voice with an unfamiliar accent as a result of brain injury may seem minor. But Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) can be distressing too, because our voice, like our face, is integral to our identity.

People with this rare condition suddenly develop an accent due to a stroke, a tumor or trauma. The accent is beyond their control, and lends them an exotic and worldly air, even though they may not have traveled much or even studied a foreign language.

But FAS is more than a "gee whiz" entry into the annals of science. This bewildering phenomenon gives us a look at the speech-producing machinery inside the brain.

A generic accent

Sheila Blumstein, a professor at Brown University, was a little skeptical when she first encountered a woman with FAS during a patient presentation in 1983, thinking that as a trained linguist, she wouldn't hear the so-called accent. But as soon as the woman spoke, Blumstein was convinced. "There was no question in my mind that she sounded as though she was speaking with a foreign accent," she recalls.

The next surprise came when the specialists in the room were asked what kind of accent it was. Some said Russian, others said French. "We were all over the place," she says.

They were all wrong, Blumstein later found out. Rather than relying on her own ear, she set about measuring the acoustics of the woman's speech to understand what exactly gave it its foreign sound. By breaking speech down into its component vowels, consonants and melodies, she found that some parts of speech were not normal for English speakers—or for any other language speakers.

These oddities contribute to what Blumstein calls a "generic" foreign accent—one that sounds different, but doesn't really belong to a particular language. We label it as French or Russian, or something else depending on our own experiences. "We're listening through the veil of our own language," says Blumstein. "And that shapes a lot of what we hear."

For example, when making a statement, English speakers typically lower the pitch of their voice. But a person with FAS might end a statement with an upward lilt, maybe reminding us of a French exchange student we once knew.

In FAS, the parts of words that are emphasized, or stressed, change, which can alter consonants. Instead of pronouncing "butter" as "budder" as we typically do in America, some FAS patients will crisply pronounce the Ts, bringing to mind a British governess.

And vowel sounds start to merge. An "eh" sound tinged with an "ah" could transform an all-American "yeah" into a Swedish-sounding "yah."

These changes occur consistently, which adds to the impression of a foreign accent. Fooled, we try to place the accent, which as Blumstein puts it, "is in the ears of the beholder."

The brain's speech stereo

Studying what comes out of the mouth can tell us a lot about what is going on in the brain.

Blumstein says that people with FAS have taught us that what you say is controlled separately from how you say it. What they want to say comes readily, but how it is pronounced is changed.

Think of popping a CD into a stereo. The CD provides the message, but the stereo's control panel shapes what the music ultimately sounds like. The volume knob controls loudness, other buttons increase bass or treble, and on a fancier system, equalizer sliders boost different frequencies. These controls bring out different features of the music, giving it different tones, different accents.

Like the multiple controls on a stereo, there are many parts of the brain that contribute to pronunciation. The different types of brain injury in people with FAS attest to this distributed organization. No one place is the accent center, says Blumstein. Instead a whole ensemble of brain areas embellishes speech with an accent.

This accent orchestra resides largely in the frontal part of our brains, which direct the mouth and tongue movements and exhalations responsible for shaping the final output of speech. This makes speech therapy somewhat of a long shot for helping someone with FAS. It's kind of like holding a pen between your teeth while talking; no amount of trying will improve your pen-induced garble.

But sometimes, FAS drifts away on its own, leaving the patient with their former drawl or twang, or lack of any noticeable accent, as the case may be. This release from the foreign accent points to the mysterious ways in which a brain reacts to—and recovers from—injury.

Audio:
Listen to CindyLou Romberg of Port Angeles, Washington, who speaks with a European-sounding accent as a result of brain injury.
Foreign Accent Syndrome: Before and After speech samples.

About Michele Solis

After spending 15 years in the lab doing her own neuroscience research, Michele Solis is now putting her Ph.D. to work as a science writer. Her work covers a variety of topics including autism, linguistics, and animal communication. She contributes regularly to the Autism Speaks, Simons Foundation, and Crosscut Web sites.

Coroner: Richardson death result of blunt impact to head

2009-03-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Coroner: Richardson death result of blunt impact to head

Updated 2h 36m ago | Comments 66 | Recommend 88

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Enlarge	Reuters

Natasha Richardson, married to Liam Neeson, suffered a fatal head injury.

By Lorena Blas, USA TODAY

NEW YORK — Natasha Richardson has died — just days after falling on the beginner's ski trail at Canada's Mont Tremblant resort.

The Tony-winning actress, 45, was married to actor Liam Neeson, and his publicist issued a statement Wednesday evening.

"Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha," said the statement from Alan Nierob. "They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."

APPRECIATION: The vibrancy of Natasha Richardson

PHOTO GALLERY: Richardson through the years

FAITH & REASON: Tragic injury raises questions on how we speak about brain death

She died in New York, where she was taken Tuesday by private plane and ambulance from Montreal's Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur to Manhattan's Lenox Hill Hospital.

On Thursday, the New York City coroner issued a preliminary report ruling her death the result of an epidural hematoma (bleeding in the brain) due to blunt impact to the head.

LThe Associated Press reports that funeral arrangements for Richardson will be handled by the Greenwich Village Funeral Home.

Neeson, 56, and Richardson have two sons, Micheal Richard Antonio, 13, and Daniel Jack, 12.

Richardson's mother, Vanessa Redgrave (Julia, Howards End), aunt Lynn Redgrave (Georgy Girl, Gods and Monsters) and sister Joely Richardson (Nip/Tuck) were photographed visiting Lenox Hill.

On Monday, Richardson fell and later reported not feeling well, according to a statement from Mont Tremblant, about 80 miles northwest of Montreal.

"She did not show any visible sign of injury, but the ski patrol followed strict procedures and brought her back to the bottom of the slope and insisted she should see a doctor," the statement read.

Resort spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse told the Associated Press that Richardson said she seemed fine at first. "An hour later she said she didn't feel well. She had a headache, so we sent her to the hospital," Lacasse said. "There were no signs of impact and no blood, nothing."

Lyne Lortie, another resort spokeswoman, told The New York Times that Richardson wasn't wearing a helmet.

Neeson, who quickly left the Toronto set of his next project as soon as he was informed of the accident, was seen accompanying his wife from the Montreal hospital.

The couple wed in July 1994. Richardson, whose family was known for its legendary actors, married one.

Richardson won a Tony for the 1998 Broadway revival of Cabaret, but she was also known for films, including roles in Patty Hearst (1988), The Parent Trap (1998) and Maid in Manhattan (2002).

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Actor Richard Widmark dies at age 93

2008-03-26T11:37:00.000-07:00

By STEPHEN SINGER, Associated Press Writer 46 minutes ago

HARTFORD, Conn. - Richard Widmark, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in "Kiss of Death" and became a Hollywood leading man in "Broken Lance," "Two Rode Together" and 40 other films, has died after a long illness. He was 93.

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