By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

I just returned from Mont Tremblant, Quebec. It is one of the more beautiful ski resorts in eastern  Canada, and it is also the place where actress Natasha Richardson fell and suffered a fatal brain injury. What caused her death is now well known, but there were some other details that struck me while I was there. Let me try and work through this with you.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta on assignment in Mont Tremblant, Quebec.

What no one knew at the time was that she had hit her head hard enough to cause a fracture in her skull. Just underneath that fracture is a small blood vessel that runs just on top of the brain, and it was that blood vessel that started to bleed. By many reports, Richardson got up after her fall and felt well enough to go back to her room and wave off paramedics who had been called. In neurosurgery, we refer to this as a lucid interval. She may have lost consciousness briefly, but now felt fine. The problem for Natasha or anyone with an epidural hematoma is that the pressure continues to build up in the brain. (See what an epidural hematoma looks like).

A little while later, now in her room, Natasha started to feel sick. The most likely symptoms were headache, nausea, disorientation and lethargy. 911 was called again, and now the clock was definitely ticking. If you ask a dozen neurosurgeons, how much time someone has after starting to develop the symptoms Natasha had, you will get varied answers. Anywhere from a few minutes to 90 minutes, but the message is the same: Speed matters. The problem for Natasha was she was nearly two hours away from a trauma hospital by ambulance, and there was no helicopter available to take her more quickly.

By the time she got to the hospital, too much pressure had built up on her brain and we know she died 24 hours later. The medical care in Canada is world class and the neurosurgeons there could have performed a lifesaving operation, if only she had arrived sooner.

There are doctors in Canada who have been calling for more air ambulances, long before we learned about Natasha Richardson. Others argue that the cost-benefit analysis comes down on the side of not having them. (Read more here) Based on our research, helicopters typically cost around $6,000 per hour to operate, not including other associated costs. So, here is something to ponder: Should ski resorts have access to helicopter services at all times or is there a certain amount of risk you accept if you ski in a remote location? Is it worth the cost to have this benefit?

Watch my full report Thursday on AC 360 at 10 p.m. ET.

By Val Willingham
CNN Medical Producer

The death of actress Natasha Richardson is tragic. A beautiful, vital 45-year-old goes for a ski lesson and falls. She gets up, declines medical care and goes back to her hotel. From there, the story takes a terrible turn. She becomes ill, and is transported to one hospital, then another and then finally to a third hospital near her home, where she dies two days later from brain injuries caused by an epidural hematoma. Her family, friends and fans are shocked. How can something as innocent as a ski fall  kill you? Because, neurologists say, the brain, although complex, is a delicate organ. It's very vulnerable and it needs to be taken seriously. And even a bump on the head can take its toll. Unfortunately, I know this all too well.

Thirteen years ago, my husband, daughter and I were in a terrible car accident on the Florida Turnpike. On our way to Orlando, our vehicle was hit by a driver who had fallen asleep at the wheel. Although we all had our seat belts on, our car swerved and hit a bridge embankment. My husband's head went out the side window, hitting the windshield and the concrete. When EMS workers got to us, it looked as if a battle had taken place: burning cars, debris. And because my husband had a major slice to his head, blood was everywhere. I was not hurt, and my daughter had a minor cut from flying glass. They loaded us into ambulances and took us to two different hospitals, my husband headed for the local trauma unit. He stayed two days in the hospital. They stitched up his forehead and sent him home, mentioning that he may want to see his doctor once he got back to Washington, D.C. And although the whole thing was terribly traumatic, we left Florida three days later, with my husband behind the wheel of a rental car.

Because he felt fine and there seemed to be no urgency to his injuries, my husband went back to work and made an appointment with his doctor to have a CT scan two months later. When he got off the table, the radiologist asked him to sit down and immediately called a neurologist. As the doctor viewed the images, his face turned pale and he asked my husband how long had it been since he was in the accident. My hubby shrugged and said, "A couple of months." The physician then told him not to move - he was going to schedule surgery immediately. It seemed my husband had developed a subdural hematoma that covered his entire brain. According to MayoClinic.com it's usually formed from head trauma that causes the brain to be shaken severely. Many children who suffer from shaken baby syndrome have these type of injuries. And unlike epidural hematomas, which bleed in the brain fairly quickly, my husband's injury developed slowly, causing a massive bruise to form. One false move could have given him a stroke, or caused permanent brain damage.

Although my husband made it through brain surgery without incident, there is a lesson here. Never take a head injury for granted. When doctors looked at his scans in the ER in Florida, they obviously did not see the bruising that later formed over his brain. Because the brain is loaded with large and small blood vessels, head injuries can cause all sorts of serious problems. Studies have shown that athletes who suffer even minor concussions can develop neurological problems later in life. The brain is nothing to be messed with.

Ironically, March is Brain Injury Awareness Month. And although brain injuries are not as common as, say, broken bones, they do happen and many have serious consequences. They need to be treated immediately. In this story, my husband got treated, before suffering brain damage. He was fortunate. God bless her, but Ms. Richardson was not.

Have you ever faced head trauma? Know someone who has? What happened? We'd like to hear about it.

Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.

As a new feature of CNNhealth.com, our team of expert doctors will answer readers' questions. Here's a question for Dr. Gupta.

Asked by Elizabeth,  Lawrence, Massachusetts

"My cousin is a marine that fought in Iraq.  Just recently, he was told he had an injury that caused his brain to actually "rattle" around in his head! What is the name of this condition and could you tell me more about it?"

 Answer:

 First of all, thanks to your cousin for his brave service. As someone who has reported from the frontlines in Iraq, I have witnessed, firsthand the dangers and the unimaginable sacrifices servicemen and servicewomen face on a daily basis. I’ve also met, and even operated on,  soldiers who suffer from your cousin’s condition. 

 It’s called “traumatic brain injury” or TBI. It’s a blow, jolt or penetration to the head that can disrupt the normal functioning of the brain.  It can happen anywhere and at anytime – during a fall, car crash or even rough sports. Concussions are a milder form of TBI.  

We now know, though, that traumatic brain injury has become one of the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of  the biggest causes are unexpected blasts from improvised explosive devices or IED’s.  Their sheer force can literally rock the brain, even when wearing a helmet.  The skull strikes a hard surface and the brain goes back and forth, like jello wiggling, and then begins to bruise from the swelling. 

It’s important to remember that there’s a broad range of severity for TBI. Common symptoms include headaches, dizziness, sleep disorders, nausea or memory problems. In mild cases, a traumatic brain injury may present as headaches or occasional dizziness. More severe cases can involve complete memory loss, personality changes or even persistent vegetative state.

Today, the Army checks soldiers before and after deployment to identify TBI cases. But unlike an obviously severed limb, traumatic brain injuries are difficult to diagnose, sometimes only noticeable years after leaving the battlefield. 

Unfortunately, there is no one way to treat TBI. Recovery depends on the severity of the case and varies from person to person. 

Everything from talk therapy to rehabilitation to the use of drugs to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety are used.  The good news is that mild cases often require little more than rest and over-the counter pain reliever.