Impact of a Celebrity Death on Children's Injury-related Emergency Room Visits

Objectives: To determine whether a sharp increase in Emergency Room (ER) visits at the Montreal Children's Hospital (MCH) during the week following the death of Natasha Richardson from a skiing-related head injury was a) statistically significant and b) related to media coverage of the event. We postulated that there would be less coverage in the French media and in centres west of Quebec. Methods: We compared the number of visits to the MCH ER for 10 weeks beginning March 5 and recorded the number for head-related injuries. These data were also compared with averages for the MCH for the same weeks in the previous 16 years; with visit figures from Hôpital Ste-Justine (HSJ); and with those from 3 other pediatrie hospitals in provinces west of Quebec for the same period. Results: We found a 60% increase in injury visits to the MCH ER compared to the baseline week (p