An ambulance dispatched to treat actress Natasha Richardson in the immediate aftermath of her fatal ski accident was turned away, it has been reported.
Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company Ambulances Radisson, told a Canadian newspaper that paramedics responding to the incident were first told that they were not needed.
The report, in The Globe and Mail, emerged as the New York Medical Examiner declared the tragic death was caused by an accidental blunt impact to the head while skiing.
Leading names from the world of showbusiness paid tribute to the actress, who died in a New York hospital two days after falling at the Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec, Canada. Celebrities hailed the 45-year-old as a wonderful and gifted performer and sent their sympathies to her widower, Irish actor Liam Neeson.
Alan Nierob, Neeson's publicist, said: "Liam Neeson, his sons, and the entire family are shocked and devastated by the tragic death of their beloved Natasha. They are profoundly grateful for the support, love and prayers of everyone, and ask for privacy during this very difficult time."
The daughter of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and the late director Tony Richardson fell while taking a supervised lesson on a beginners' run at the luxury resort on Monday.
Neeson, 56, Redgrave, 72, and Richardson's sons, Michael, 13, and Daniel, 12, visited her after she was flown from Canada to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, where she died on Wednesday night.
Lindsay Lohan, who co-starred with Richardson in the film The Parent Trap, said: "She was a wonderful woman and actress and treated me like I was her own. My heart goes out to her family. This is a tragic loss."
Sam Mendes, in whose 1998 Broadway production of Cabaret Richardson starred as Sally Bowles, winning a Tony award, said: "Natasha combined the best of Redgrave and Richardson: the enormous depth and emotional force of a great actor on the one hand, and the intelligence and objectivity of a great director on the other. She was one of a kind, a magnificent actress."
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Film maker Ken Russell, 81, who directed Richardson in her 1986 movie debut, Gothic, said she had a "blend of tenderness and fire".
