Jennaishealed.org

In case anyone missed it, Natasha Richardson died of complications from a head injury this week.  I just read about the autopsy results and I thought I’d comment briefly about it.  Here is a story about the results:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/19/natasha-richardson-mourne_n_176806.html

Basically, she seemed fine after the knock to her head (I believe she skiied into a tree), and they even refused the first ambulance to arrive because she seemed fine.  In reality, her brain was bleeding into the space around it in the skull.  As the skull filled with blood, it pushed down on the brain, forcing it out of the skull through the hole in the bottom where the spinal cord and blood supply vessels pass through to the neck.

Once the swelling gets bad enough, that supply of blood gets choked off, and death is certain.

All I can say is I hope something positive comes out of this.  I hate being one of those safety-first people who wants everyone in helmets, but I never let Cooper ride his bike without one (hes got a cool black one designed for hockey players I think), and he will NOT be playing soccer or tackle football when he gets older.

The brain is incredibly delicate, the consistency of jelly basically, and not to be toyed with.

The last thing I will say about this (yeah, right) is that it continues to amaze me that Jenna took a 4,000lb 4×4 truck to the side of her head at sixty five miles per hour, and is still around.  Cooper and i went to go get her yesterday and she is here for his birthday weekend, for five days.  Sometimes I lay in bed next to her, with my hand on her head, and think about what has gone on inside it.  There has been talk of atrophy, but I haven’t seen actual films of it, so I don’t know what her brain looks like anymore, or how much is left.

I just wish I could wave a magic wand and take it (the damage) all away.  Restore her, so she could have her old life back.  Then this Richardson thing happened, and I realize how lucky she was to have the awesome treatment she got at UAB back in Birmingham, and how lucky we all are to still have her around.

My heart and thoughts go out to the Richardson family, and all the other TBI victims and their familes who are injured every day but dont make the headlines.