Talk And Die Syndrome

Talk And Die Syndrome

Did Natasha Richardson suffer “Talk and Die” Syndrome or Epidural Hemorrhage? What is Talk and Die Syndrome and Epidural Hemorrhage?

Reports confirm that Richardson hit her head in a ski accident Monday. Doctors speculate the extend of the hit would have had to been harder than hitting your head on an exit from a car door.

After the head hit, Richardson reportedly was talking, believing she was fine. Richardson was having a ski lesson on the beginner’s trail at the Mont Tremblant ski resort in Quebec, Canada. After the hit, Richardson appeared fine, talking, and perhaps believed herself to be fine.

The resort has issued the following statement:

“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.”

Mont Tremblant spokeswoman Catherine Lacasse said Richardson had no blood, no sign of impact. In fact for one hour, Richardson showed no signs of anything unusual.

“An hour later she said she didn’t feel well. She had a headache, so we sent her to the hospital. There were no signs of impact and no blood, nothing.”

Now medical analysts for FOX News say, while not knowing any other details, this sounds potentially to be Talk and Die Syndrome. While speculating, New York University Dr. Steven Flanagan says the following:

“I can only speculate, but it sounds like something we call the ‘talk and die’ syndrome. What this implies is that someone hits their head and they are seemingly OK initially. But then they get a rapid collection of blood — usually called epidural hemorrhage — and that means bleeding between the skull and the brain.”

LALATE first broke Monday evening that Richardson’s condition had progressed to critical. By Tuesday afternoon, multiple reports claimed Richardson was brain dead. Her family will be issuing an official statement Wednesday.

CBC is reporting that her family will give a statement Wednesday.

“The hospital did not comment on where Richardson was transferred to, nor on the extent of her injuries. The spokeswoman did say, however, that a family representative will release a statement Wednesday.”

The Journal of Clinical Neuroscience published a report on Talk and Die Syndrome in 2005. The report, that looked at patients in Australia, stated the following:

Talk and die patients’ describes a small number of patients who present with a mild head injury (Glasgow Coma Scale [GCS] 13–15) and then subsequently deteriorate and die from intracranial causes. We analysed the medical records of all those adult patients whose primary diagnosis as the cause of death was head injury, as determined by the coroner, who were admitted to a major Australian trauma centre between January 1994 and December 2003 (a 10-year period). … Factors considered potentially contributory to the patients’ deterioration, such as delays in CT scanning or patient transfer, coagulopathy or hypoxic episodes were also noted.

The incidence of ‘talk and die’ patients was 2.6% (15 out of 569) overall and the annual incidence did not significantly alter over the 10-year period of the study. The small number of patients precludes inferences regarding causal relationships, although potentially preventable factors, which could have been contributory to patient deterioration, were identified.

Original Source : http://news.lalate.com/2009/03/17/talk-and-die-syndrome-epidural-hemorrhage/