Richardson Died After 'Blunt Impact,' Clot

Natasha Richardson’s cause of death was an “epidural hematoma due to blunt impact to the head,” the New York Post reports. The verdict comes from the city’s medical examiner, ruling the actress’ death an accident. A hematoma is a blood clot that grows between the brain and the skull, the Daily News adds. The lights of Broadway’s theaters will be dimmed tonight in tribute.

After Richardson’s accident Monday on a Canadian ski slope, paramedics were at first turned away, returning as her condition worsened. “When you have a head trauma you can bleed. It can deteriorate in a few hours or a few days,” said the director of the EMS company, whose first team “never saw the patient.” Without treatment, an apparently minor injury can become life-threatening, as in Richardson’s case. (More Natasha Richardson stories.)