She has been flown to New York. Why would you put someone on the brink of death on an airplane? That makes no sense to me.
Maybe so the family can say goodbye before the plug is pulled? Maybe she’s an organ donor? I think it’s an ominous sign that they’re moving her from Montreal to NYC.
I am not an MD, but worked in brain injury rehabilitation for over a decade and have done brain injury research for the last 15 years.
The secondary effects of brain trauma are often bleeding, increased intra-cranial pressure, and coma. This often happens hours after an injury. You can fall 3-4 feet and sustain a very serious head injury, so how fast someone was moving, or how they were injured is not the main factor in severity or outcome. A concussion is not a benign bump on the head - it is a mild traumatic brain injury - which can result in secondary symptoms.
Anyone can be safely moved as long as they are medically stable, and I don’t think that anyone in “transient states of consciousness” would be deemed “safe to move”… unless she were in a 3rd world country, she would be kept in Montreal. Unless, however, she is likely neurologically stable, which could be for the better (mild-to-moderate brain injury, limited deficits, medically stable) or worse (severe brain injury, significant deficits, medically stable).
Now there are articles about the conflicting articles.
Critical doesn’t mean terminal, just very serious, so hopefully she’ll be fine. I’ve always loved her as an actress (in fact sorry Liza and some homo purists, but her Sally Bowles is the definitive one to me).
Without getting into a socialized medicine debate, doesn’t Montreal have good hospitals? I just don’t understand why the moving of her if she’s that serious.
Montreal has fantastic hospitals - forgetting the whole “socialized medicine” aspect, it’s still one of the largest cities in the country and home to some top-notch medical talent. It’s totally comparable to the standard of care that would be available in any major city in the US.
Despite that, the family may have opted to move her to someplace closer to home for reasons totally unrelated to the care they were receiving in Montreal, assuming she’s in a relatively stable state. There are two young children to consider, after all, or the possibility that there’s a particular specialist that they believe is best able to provide care in this case, or even just a desire to be in a more familiar place for her recovery.
I hope for the best for her and her family.
Seems very odd to be moved so quickly if indeed it was a TBI.
I guess in a day or so we shall see what has, if anything, happened.
Fox News is reporting she is brain dead.
Either for the reason Stephe96 gave (looking at SaharaTea’s post), or more hopefully, because there’s some particular specialist in New York with relevant experience.
From that link:
It doesn’t say who those sources are and quotes her sister-in-law (her brother Corin’s wife) as saying “We know that she has had an accident but we really do not know any more details”, It’s almost inconceivable that Neeson or Vanessa Redgrave would say it or that any of the medical professionals would divulge such info, so I’m hoping that it’s erroneous. (If it is the case then I hope there’s an investigation for the leak and that whoever it is catches all kinds of hell.)
Oh, God. I hope she’s okay. I’ve admired her for years. Imagine the hell her husband and kids must be in.
I hope this is a case of reports being greatly exaggerated and there is still a chance of her recovering.
Ditto. 
Me too. I’m a big Liam Neeson fan and I was happy when he married Natasha because they seemed great together. I really hope she pulls through.
The fact that after 15 years and two kids they’re still always being spotted together and even taking time out of their schedules to have family vacations while shooting is somehow endearing. Most celebrity marriages seem to be in the “I’ll see you when I see you” phase by then. In fact they’re one of the few celebrity couples under 80 that I don’t think I’ve ever read any negative gossip (adulterous, bickering, or otherwise) about.
She starred as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley in Gothic a good while back. It was an inspired bit of casting, not just because she was so good in it, but because as the daughter of two such outspoken celebrities, she was practically Mary Shelley’s modern counterpart. (Frankenstein’s creator was the daughter of a radical Jacobin minister and an 18th century protofeminist writer.)
The most extreme claims about her condition come from two of the least reputable sources, so here’s hoping.
All these conflicting reports are annoying, but I’m hoping for the best outcome. There’s not much more we can do. If it’s just swelling of the brain, that could result in some brain damage (IANAD) but she still could be ok.
If she is brain dead, and oh my god I hope she isn’t, but if she is, I hope they donate her organs. She is 45 though. I don’t know if that’s considered too old to donate organs. I don’t want to think about that at all though.
Skald, thank you for the compliment! I’m a she btw.
[complete hijack]
I just saw that the movie that Liam Neeson is filming, Chloe, is the new one by Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter, Felicia’s Journey). If Neeson takes a lot of time off, which would be perfectly understandable, whether a happy or tragic outcome, it could derail the film. That would be a shame, since unlike many of his other films, this one has an internationally-known cast (besides Neeson, Julianne Moore, plus Amanda Seyfried who while not famous, did play the daughter in Mamma Mia! with Meryl Streep). Egoyan could use a hit, to shut up those Canadians who are bitching about tax dollars being used for his little-seen movies. If it’s still early in the filming, perhaps he could be replaced.[/complete hijack]
cnn.com mentions that her 2 sons were with her at the time of the accident, and that mr. neeson zipped in immediately to montreal from toronto. so her immediate family was all with her in montreal very quickly.
My mother was an organ donor when she died in her 70’s.
Really, interesting! I’m sorry about your mother but it’s good that she could help others. My mom was 62 when she was in a motorcycle accident. She was in Intensive Care for 2 months and seemed to be getting better, but then all of a sudden her kidneys started failing and she went downhill fast and died 2 days after everything started to go haywire. We told the doctors to please use anything they could because she’d always wanted to donate her organs/eyes/skin, but they said she was too old, and didn’t use anything.
No, that is not too old.
I also hope that she isn’t in a state where that’s a likely question.
Head injuries are funny - a seemingly minor injury can turn out to be horrifically major. Another possibility is that she had a stroke or aneurysm rupture and then fell down and hit her head. (My husband had a former girlfriend who didn’t know she had a brain aneurysm. One day it ruptured and she fell down and hit her head - but it was the head injury that killed her, it was the aneurysm bursting.)