Actress Natasha Richardson has been declared brain dead and her family and friends have just about given up on her surviving the horrific ski injury she suffered at a Montreal resort over the weekend.
"There is no chance," a family friend told People Tuesday. "It is a fact that her heart is beating but she is brain dead."
With her husband Liam Neeson at her side, Richardson, 45, was flown to a New York hospital in critical condition Tuesday. Her family and friends have been holding vigil since she was moved, according to People.
Doctors said that she was suffering from "leakage of blood between the brain and skull," the family friend said, adding that family was dealing with having to make a decision to take her off of life support.
"It's not official yet," says the friend, "but they basically will detach her."
The actress who is part of the acting dynasty that includes her mother Vanessa Redgrave, her aunt Lynn Redgrave and her sister, Nip / Tuck start Joely Richardson, was skiing on the beginners slope of the Mont Tremblant Resort. She fell and hit her head but was up and about for nearly an hour before complaining of pain in her head.
Her father was director Tony Richardson and she is the granddaughter of Michael Redgrave.
Richardson starred in Nell with Neeson and Jodie Foster, The Handmaid's Tale, based on Margaret Atwood's classic feminist novel, The Comfort of Strangers with Rupert Everett and Fat Man Little Boy with Paul Newman, to name a few.
In 1997 Richardson won the Tony Award for playing Sally Bowles in the smash Broadway Revival of Cabaret, which also starred Alan Cumming.
She was slated to star in a Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music with her mother.
Richardson is an ardent AIDS and gay rights advocate.
