One significant example Research Raises questions about whether Prescription Drugs should be dosed differently for men and women. Does that tell you that we really need to go back and review. . Yes. Stahl what, everything . Pretty much everything. Stahl tonight, what you need to know about these findings and what may or may not be changing. Cooper you may know liam neeson for his role as Oskar Schindler in schindlers list. But at the improbable age of 61, he has become one of hollywoods highest paid action stars. Reports are, for taken 3, youre going to make upwards of 50 million. Youre laughing. Yeah. Cooper tonight, neeson tells why his hardearned success is bittersweet and how he feels over the death of his wife, natasha richardson. Grief hits you like a wave. Im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im morley safer. Im bob simon. Im Anderson Cooper. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Life with Crohns Disease or Ulcerative Colitis is a daily game of what ifs. 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One a day mens vitacraves with key nutrients like bvitamins. All the fun of a gummy thats a complete multivitamin. Pelley this week, president obama will get a report on the developing scandal at the department of veterans affairs. Some v. A. Hospitals are accused of cooking up phony records to conceal waiting times that can stretch into months. This story is about one of the challenges that has strained the v. A. In recent years. Its the large number of vets suffering with posttraumatic stress disorder. Two million vets have served in iraq and afghanistan, and one out of five has p. T. S. D. Overwhelmed by this need, the v. A. Decided to try new treatments originally designed for rape victims. As we first reported last fall, this new p. T. S. D. Therapy has been promising. For two months, doctors and patients allowed us to sit in and listen as troubled vets fought the war within. How can you live the life when everyone is afraid of you . You go to town and people say, thats the crazy vet. Dont mess with him. My wife told me, somethings got to change or we got to leave. Anthony apellido when you try to talk to somebody that hasnt been there, hasnt experienced it, they dont understand. And so you just kind of get laughed at. Pelley the 16 men around this table arrived via afghanistan, iraq, or both. Some are here from vietnam. I see that i do have the opportunity to pick myself up at 63 years old and start all over again. Pelley theyve started over again many times, but their path has led back to isolation, drugs, booze, and suicide attempts. Now, theyre in the v. A. Hospital in little rock, arkansas, where they will live for eight weeks to break through the emotions that have derailed their lives. Eric collins depression, anxiety, anger, worthlessness, guilt. Pelley guilt . Collins survivors guilt. Why me . Why am i alive . Why are they not . Thats one of the hardest thoughts to deal with, you know . Pelley eric collins was wounded in a rocket attack in afghanistan. Over a year, 17 of his buddies died. How did you cope with these feelings of anger and depression and guilt when you first got out . Collins alcohol, and lots of it. Thats where it started off. And the alcohol led to my depression worsening, which led to more substance abuse. So my whole life spiraled downward out of control. Pelley to take control, collins volunteered for one of the new therapies called prolonged exposure. It forces him to work at remembering every detail of what hes tried to forget. Collins next thing, i hear a loud boom, my ears start ringing. And i wake up, open my eyes and im on the ground. Pelley dr. Kevin reeder runs the program. Dr. Kevin reeder how are you feeling at this point . What were you. What were you feeling at that time . Collins anger. Im scared. Im feeling pain my leg, my back, my arm, my whole body. Reeder okay, lets go from the beginning. Got to keep doing this. Collins the next thing i know, i hear a loud boom. Pelley they call it prolonged exposure because collins will relive the story of the attack five times a session. Theres a tape running, and hell listen to his memory throughout the day to break its power. Tell me about prolonged exposure therapy. Reeder sure. Theyve done everything they can to push these memories away. In the process, they havent gained a full realization of the impact and the meaning that these stories have on their lives. I like to use the term, were staring the dragon in the eye. Pelley where do these therapies come from . Reeder a lot of these therapies came about with survivors of physical or sexual abuse, those types of traumas. Pelley what are the similarities . Reeder the symptoms. The symptoms the avoidance, the isolation, the hyper vigilance, extreme anxiety, the irritability, inability to sleep, nightmares same thing; different sources, but same thing. Collins i cant move my legs, cant move my arms. Pelley what does that do for you . Collins it helps me to get past the guilt, survivors guilt. And thats a building block. Every time i get through it, i get stronger and it helps every time. Pelley its okay to be alive . Collins yeah. Pelley and you werent sure that was true before . Collins no, i didnt want to be alive. I wanted to. I wanted to be right there with them. My whole purpose of life was gone. Apellido to lose one of your buddies in a firefight, you dont want to see that, you dont want to feel that again. And so, when you get back to the rear, youre pissed off because you dont want to get close to anybody anymore. Pelley anthony apellido experienced those multiple tours we talked about. He fought for a year in afghanistan, spent one month at home, then went to iraq, and later, afghanistan again. Apellido the more deployments you get, the more time you spend out there, it just keeps on stacking. I mean, the first one, it hurts, but you dont get really time to heal. And then, another one happens and another one. Pelley on his first tour, apellidos patrol was ambushed. Two buddies died and 20 were wounded. Apellido i had no weapon, no one had my back. Pelley they write about days like that in the other key therapy here called cognitive processing. Reeder after a trauma or multiple traumas, often, a person can believe the world just is a dangerous place. And so what we do with c. P. T. , cognitive processing therapy, is they write an impact statement at the beginning of therapy to show them the impact of the trauma on their lives and on their beliefs. Pelley they read that statement about the trauma to the group, and then they discuss how their lives are still held in the grip of war. Gable darbonne i never had a fear of life. I never had a fear of living. I never had a fear of going to the gas station and getting shot while im pumping gas because i needed gas in my car. Pelley they plow through a workbook that challenges their guilt with statements like, i shot a woman in combat, therefore, im worthless or my friend was killed by the enemy. Im responsible. Cognitive processing tries to put the war in the past and help them reexamine who they are today. Its tough. We noticed this on apellidos workbook. Reeder how many of you would go back to a deployed environment with your branch of service right now if that opportunity was available to you . Lot of hands up. Real quick, why are your hands going up so much . Darbonne you miss everything about how hard it was, how bitter you got, how angry and emotional, the things you saw. And you missed that camaraderie, that brotherhood, your buddies, the struggling with things. Man, you. Its everything, but you miss it. You mourn that. Its weird. Its that intimacy. Its. You dont. I will never get that back. None of us will ever get that back. Pelley Gable Darbonne never planned to be part of that brotherhood he mentioned. In 2001, he was out of high school, headed to college. But then 9 11 pushed him to an Army Recruiter instead. Darbonne my mom, she was crying in the kitchen. She goes, gable, you dont know what its like for boys coming back from vietnam, how hard they had it and what they came back with. I said, mom, its different, though. We got attacked. We got attacked. I said, im volunteering. I said, ill take anything. You know, im willing to give my life. Thats how strongly i felt. Pelley darbonne was one of the most thoughtful people we met. He served in afghanistan and iraq. One day, his unit was clearing a house. It exploded and two buddies were burned. Darbonne you know, we got angry, got mad. We get very angry, and we took it out on certain people, you know, and you enjoyed it at the time. You did. Pelley you did things to the iraqis that youre not proud of. Darbonne of course, but that was surviving emotionally, mentally. I was never a violent man. I became different, slowly. We all have that instinct, that survival instinct, and that survival instinct is very real. Pelley at home, the survival instinct didnt let go. Darbonne was like most other vets here; certain triggers brought the instinct back the smell of diesel returned him to his combat outpost, crowds made him fearful. Darbonne i started isolating, and i couldnt do anything. My dad had to come over and mow my lawn. My mom had to come over and pay my bills. I just. I wouldnt leave my house for a day or two. I didnt want to make small talk. I didnt want somebody to ask me, hey, how you doing . I didnt like those words, you know . I just, i got very secluded, like a recluse. Pelley for nine years, darbonne told himself he was okay or would be okay. And then, the folks at work urged him to get help. This was darbonne after seven weeks of selfexamination, as they all prepared to go home. Darbonne when i went in, i had a heart, i volunteered. I dont blame nothing on anybody. I dont blame nothing on myself, i dont blame nothing on my leaders. In fact, i had good leaders. I blame nothing on the army. I think it is just the way it is, and it sucks. I hate it, i hate it. I dont want to go home. People would always ask me when i came back, so, what do i tell my boyfriend when he comes back . Or, how do i approach this with my son . I said, when he starts talking, just listen. Yeah, dont. Dont judge it. You know, just listen. Pelley there is probably a soldier or a marine sitting alone, watching this on television right now. Collins thousands of them, id imagine. Pelley and to them, you would say what . Collins i hope you can find the courage to get help, because all youre doing is killing yourself. And you dont have to live like that. There is good people in this world that are willing to help you. And its been the hardest thing for me to do, but i wouldnt have changed coming here for the world. Pelley in our two months here, 28 men sat around the table. Three couldnt endure it and dropped out. The v. A. Finds that, nationwide, about 77 graduate with a drop in their p. T. S. D. Symptoms. Its progress, but they also have a saying around here there is no cure. Reeder i dont think there is a cure for what were talking about. Were talking about living and putting people more in touch with their lives and emotions and good days and bad days. This isnt cancer, we cant go get it. We have to teach people that they can live with this and live a valued life, a life they want. Pelley after eight weeks here, how you doing . Darbonne how am i doing . I dont know yet. Thats an honest answer. But i know deep down inside, things will work themselves out. Pelley since our visit to little rock, 145 veterans have gone through the residential treatment program. Hundreds more have signed up for treatment there in the coming year. The three vets that we featured eric collins, anthony apellido, and Gable Darbonne all continue to receive help with p. T. S. D. At home. Gable darbonne is taking what he learned in little rock and is working towards becoming a mentor for other vets. He told us, this is a Second Chance for me, one im going to embrace. To learn more about these therapies in our story and how to get help, go to 60minutesovertime. Com. Calling all chief life officers. Good evening, big name authors are unavailable for dispute. A man once thought to be the wealthiest in iran was executed this weekend for bank fraud. And gag sell already getting requests to remove embarrassing web links following a court ruling in europe. 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It turns out men and women metabolize ambien, known generically as zolpidem, very differently, leaving women with more of the drug in their bodies the next morning, and therefore at a greater risk of impaired driving. Ambien zolpidem is now the only Prescription Drug in the country with a different suggested dose for men and women. But as we first reported in february, it is far from an isolated example of differences between the sexes we never imagined. More and more, scientists are realizing that the differences are dangerously understudied and that, pervasively and fundamentally, sex matters. Take aspirin lowdose aspirin lowers the risk of heart attacks in healthy men. But in healthy women, turns out it doesnt, though it does protect women against stroke. And drugs are just the beginning. Sex differences have been found in pain receptors, liver enzymes, even the wiring of the brain. Larry cahill we have generated just a ton of information that suggests that there are sex differences everywhere. Stahl larry cahill, a neuroscientist at the university of california irvine, used to share his fields assumption that males and females, outside the reproductive system, were fundamentally the same. But hes changed his outlook 180 degrees. Ambien, he says, is a case in point. Ambien, prescribed 40 million times just last year, approved 20 years ago were only now finding out that women have been prescribed a dose thats twice as high as they need. Cahill that is a textbook example of whats wrong. How did it happen that, for 20 some years, women, millions of them, were essentially overdosing on ambien . Stahl the f. D. A. Says it made the change after new driving simulation studies established what amount of ambien or zolpidem in the blood the next morning could be dangerous for driving. Dr. Sandra kweder, Deputy Director of the f. D. A. s office of new drugs, says only then did they realize women could be taking too much, since women metabolize the drug differently than men. Sandra kweder so if i took zolpidem, and my brother took the same dose, probably the maximum level of drug in my blood would be 45 higher than his maximum blood level. Stahl now that sounds substantial. Kweder it is substantial. Stahl but we discovered that that 45 difference between men and women had been known to the f. D. A. All along. In the original f. D. A. Review of ambien back in 1992, there was a page called effect of gender, where the f. D. A. Reviewer noted that two key measures of how much drug is in the bloodstream were approximately 45 higher in females than in males. Cahill it appears to say that they found a significant difference in how this drug is being processed in the body. And then the question is, what did they do with that . And the answer appears to be, eh, they. They rationalized it away. Stahl im going to hand you that page, effect of gender. Kweder okay. Stahl the f. D. A. Reviewer went on to write, the results suggest a genderrelated difference. However, the lack of specific details such as study design and individual data make it difficult to draw a definite conclusion. Kweder exactly. Stahl so when you see that they didnt give you enough data, did you go back, or should you have gone back, and said, okay, what was the study design . What was the data . Kweder if i saw this today, in light of todays science, i think we would go back and try to tease this out a little bit further. But i think at the time, this was generally consis. This was sort of business as usual for what you saw in clinical pharmacology studies. Stahl thats because, she says, there was no evidence at the time that the difference mattered. That was 20 years ago, when if someone said womens health, it usually meant what they call bikini medicine breast and ovarian cancer, pregnancy, menstrual cycles. But for parts of the body men and women share hearts, kidneys, the brain, most of the studies were done predominantly on men. If you want to understand me, they study you . Cahill and heres why they do that. Because theres this assumption that you are me with pesky hormones. Stahl laughs oh, with pesky hormones. Cahill im being only partially facetious. The idea is that the fundamental things are similar between you and me, so that, ironically, the best way to study you is to study me. Stahl because you dont have pesky hormones. Cahill right. Were studying all the fundamental things in you without this sort of nuisance stuff. Thats literally an assumption on which all of biological medicine, especially neuroscience, which i know best, has been built. Stahl but given what we now know, he says that assumption has to go. Look at Heart Disease, which is the leading killer of both men and women. Cardiologist noel bairey merz, from Cedarssinai Medical Center in los angeles, says women, like her patient pearl grumet, can differ from men in the way they have heart attacks. Pearl grumet i had this excruciating pain in between my shoulder blades. And then i got the nauseous feeling in my stomach. Stahl so the man comes in, he has chest pain, sometimes a radiating pain down the left arm. The woman comes in, and she says. Noel bairey merz she might be having stomach upset, she might be feeling fatigue. She might just be short of breath. Stahl why does she even go . Merz because they dont feel right, and they know somethings wrong. Stahl they know somethings wrong. Did you ever, ever have chest pain in this whole time . Grumet no. Merz you can see, heres the constriction. Stahl typically, men get clogs in major arteries that are easy to see on an angiogram. But many women get blockages in tiny microvessels inside the heart, so their Heart Disease is more often missed. Pearl had four minor heart attacks; five different hospitals couldnt find the problem. Grumet doctor comes in and he says, when you find out whats wrong with you, would you please let me know . Stahl no, come on. Grumet because we dont have any idea whats wrong. Stahl dr. Bairey merz says one of the reasons we havent learned more about women goes all the way back to the beginning of the scientific pipeline to research on animals. Dr. Melina kibbe is a vascular surgeon who also runs a lab at Northwestern University medical school, where she evaluates new therapies in mice and rats. If i walked into a lab anywhere in the country doing animal research, what are my chances of coming upon a study with only male animals . Melina kibbe very large. Stahl today . Kibbe correct. Stahl turns out female rats also have those pesky hormones. Kibbe so, to control for that variable, most researchers study just males. I was also studying just males. Stahl so it made sense . Or you maybe didnt even think about it . Kibbe i didnt even think about it. Stahl and neither did doris taylor, a leading stem cell expert at Texas Heart Institute in houston, until she was designing an experiment in mice to see if injections of stem cells could reverse plaque buildup in their arteries, and she needed a way to track the stem cells in the animals. Doris taylor so what we decided to do is give female animals male stem cells, because we could track the y chromosome. And we said, lets give male animals female cells. Stahl you only did it so you could track the cells. Taylor so we could track the cells. Stahl she was surprised to find that the results were not the same. Taylor the male animals we gave female cells got better, and the female animals we gave male cells actually got a little worse. Stahl only the female stem cells got rid of the plaque. Taylor and you can see all this fat here, the pink. Stahl the male mouse artery on the left had not been treated; the one on the right got female stem cells. Taylor and look at that. Stahl its clean. Taylor i am embarrassed to admit that, as a woman, it had never really occurred to me that doing the experiment in male versus female animals would give completely different results. Stahl and that led to further discoveries. Taylor wanted to find out if human stem cells were different, too, and shes found that they are. My stem cells are actually different stem cells from a mans . Taylor yes. Stahl she told me mens are less powerful to begin with, and then they start to die off. Taylor in men, as they age, they decrease pretty dramatically. And in females, they stay relatively stable. Now, think about that. Stahl wow. Taylor men develop Heart Disease much earlier than women. Why not look at the difference and see how to make men live longer without Heart Disease . Stahl she speculates that ignoring this difference may be one reason stem cell treatments havent lived up to their promise; and on a broader level, that not studying both male and female animals results in more problems for women down the road. Cahill if the whole darn pipeline is male dominated and sex differences truly do matter, how can it not be the case that youre going to end up with, on average, a lot more negative side effects in women than in men . I mean, it basically has to happen. Stahl and it does. A g. A. O. Report found eight of the ten Prescription Drugs withdrawn from the market from 1997 to 2001 posed Greater Health risks for women than for men. Today, when it comes to governmentfunded studies on humans, women must be included, by law. But many researchers dont then take the next step and analyze the results by sex, which some argue defeats the whole purpose. We have come upon studies where they do use both male and female, but they then dont analyze how the two respond differently, so they have the two and no analysis of the difference. Taylor if you do the two together, and you really think females are here and males are here, or vice versa, then youre going to get results that are right here. Stahl and so theyre almost useless. Taylor and so, theyre almost not predictive of either males or females. Cahill if youre clumping men and women together in your study, and there truly is a sex difference, youre not just harming the women, youre harming the men. Youre. Youre muddling up the understanding of whats going on, youre muddling up the path to clear treatment, not just for the women, but for the men as well. Stahl the problem, he says, is that the scientific establishment hasnt caught up with its own discoveries. If science got ambien so wrong, does that tell you that we really need to go back and review. Cahill yes. Stahl what . Everything . Cahill pretty much everything, yeah, because once you see this difference and that difference and that difference and that difference and that difference, and you see, this things everywhere, you go, wait a minute. So, the assumption were making that it really doesnt matter, sex, is not a valid assumption. It may not matter, it may matter hugely. It may flip your results on their head, and you dont know. So what happens is you start to realize, wow, the status quo is not okay. The way were doing business has to change. Stahl there are scientists who say the ambien situation is like a wakeup call. Its a tip of the iceberg. So, should the f. D. A. Go back and look at other drugs . Kweder well, you know, to say every drug. Every drug, go back and look again . Stahl yeah. Kweder thats an enormous undertaking. Stahl so can women feel secure that the dosages recommended on any of their medications is proper for them . Or should they now be a little worried . Kweder in medical practice, there is a general awareness that there may be individual differences among patients, and that every patient needs to have the right dose. Stahl hows a doctor supposed to know . Kweder you start at the lowest dose, and you see if its enough. Stahl yeah, but youre doing the studies, and theyre going to rely on your recommendation. Kweder yep. Stahl it sounds like the f. D. A. Is being more reactive than aggressive about this. Kweder i think were being very aggressive about bringing the most sophisticated science to new drugs and being aggressive about applying the science where we have reason to believe there is a concern to older drugs. Stahl in the three months since our story first aired, a lot has happened. A Bipartisan Group of 15 women senators sent an open letter to the f. D. A. Commissioner, citing our report, and asking for better representation of women and analysis of sex differences in drug trials. And just last week, the National Institutes of health made a major announcement. It will now require scientists to include plans for balancing male and female animals and cells in all governmentfunded research. The announcement said, our goal is to transform how science is done. The most Free Research reports, customizable charts, powerful screening tools, and guaranteed 1second trades. And at the center of it all is a surprisingly low price just 7. 95. In fact, fidelity gives you lower trade commissions than schwab, td ameritrade, and etrade. Im monica santiago of fidelity investments, and low fees and commissions are another reason serious investors are choosing fidelity. Now get 200 free trades when you open an account. Jif whips whipped peanut butter, maam. Oooh. [ store manager ] fluffy, dippable, and ohsodelicious people love it. I got one [ female announcer ] give your day a lift with jif whips. We cant keep them on the shelves. I got one we cant keep them on the shelves. 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We started our story about neeson where he was born, in ballymena, a blue collar town just outside belfast, northern ireland. Liam neeson theres my house down there our house, i should say. Cooper which one . That one right there . Neeson yeah. Its funny, they look so quaint now, these houses. Cooper so, when you were growing up here, was it. Was it working class . Neeson very working class, yeah. Hard working people. Protestant and catholic. Doesnt suffer fools gladly. Could see right through you. Cooper and youre still the same way. Neeson i hope so. Cooper not many ballymena boys dreamed of becoming an actor, but liam neeson was drawn to the stage in grammar school. Neeson this is the stage where i first performed. I think i was 11 or 12 years of age. And i joined it because there was a gorgeous. Theres always a gorgeous girl. laughs cooper thats what was at the root of it . Neeson yeah, yeah. Who had skin of alabaster, kid you not. Cooper really . Neeson lips, cherry red. She was 11 years of age. Cooper do you remember that feeling of being on the stage for the first time . Neeson i sure do. Ill never forget it. And i know where i was standing. Right over there. And it was, like, oh, my god, this is great. Cooper neeson saw acting as an escape. He went to belfast where he auditioned for the director of the lyric theatre. At the time, belfast was a dangerous place because of clashes between protestants and catholics over british rule. Neeson i called up. And they were actually looking for someone over six feet. Cooper so that was one of the first questions they asked you, how tall are you . Neeson yeah. laughs and i said, im 64. And she says, be up here next thursday. laughs so i came up and did an audition. A very crude but passionate, desperate audition for her. And she says, why do you want to do it . I said something like, if i dont do it, ill curl up and die. Cooper did you mean it . Neeson i did, kind of. It was a way out. Cooper he won his first movie role at 28, cast as a knight of the round table with helen mirren in the 1981 film excalibur. Neeson i fell in love with helen mirren. Oh, my god. Can you imagine riding horses in shiny suits of armor, having sword fights and stuff, and youre falling in love with helen mirren . It doesnt get any better than that. Cooper mirren helped get him an agent, and his talent, good looks, and sexual magnetism won him hollywoods attention. Over the years, he got small roles in big films, but he didnt get worldwide recognition until he was cast in schindlers list by director steven spielberg. Neeson their fingers polish the insides of shell metal casings. How else am i to polish the inside of a 45millimeter shell casing . You tell me. You tell me. Cooper he said that he wasnt looking for a movie star, but he was looking for somebody who women would. Neeson yes . Cooper . That had a presence but that women would fall for. Neeson he didnt tell me that. But i think he certainly wanted someone without any cinematic baggage. Cooper liam neeson was nominated for an Academy Award for his role, but we were surprised to learn he isnt satisfied with his performance. Neeson this car, what good would have bought this car. Neeson i thought the film was quite extraordinary, except for myself. laughs cooper really . Neeson yeah. Cooper are you always that critical of yourself . Neeson i was of that one. Cooper what did you not like about yourself though . Neeson i didnt own the part. I just. It wasnt. I didnt see enough of me in there. Cooper neeson says he does see himself in the action movies hes been making the past few years, though at times he seems almost embarrassed by his success as an action star. Neeson im 61 years of age, man, you know . Going around, fighting these guys, i feel a wee bit embarrassed, you know . And, of course, theres always a part of mind you think, oh, i wish i was 37 years of age again, you know. I will find you, and i will kill you. Cooper he was 56 when taken, the first Action Thriller he starred in, came out. It cost just 25 million to make, and earned more than 250 million at the box office. He was as surprised as anyone that it became a hit. Neeson i was convinced it was straight to video so it would go under the radar. Cooper why did you think it would go straight to video . Neeson it just seemed such a simple little story, i thought. There was nothing complex about it. It is a guy going. Determined to find his daughter. Oh, yeah, okay. Oh, look, he finds her. laughs and he kills all these guys. Cooper in his newest action film, nonstop, neeson plays an air marshal fighting terrorists aboard a plane. Its a physically demanding role, one few actors his age can pull off. Neeson works hard to stay in shape, well aware there are only so many years left to make the big money of an action star. Reports are, for taken 3, youre going to make upwards of 50 million. Youre laughing. Neeson yeah. laughs cooper so, youre a working class guy from. You know, from northern ireland. Does that feel real to you . Neeson no, its kind of. Its. Thats fantasy time, you know . It is. But its great, you know, and its. Its not going to last, you know, so im milking it a little bit, you know . Not in an ego way, but im just like. Im saying, okay, i. Im comfortable with this. Cooper the first taken film came out just two months before neesons wife, natasha richardson, died. Neeson we got married here in this house, yeah, 20 years ago. Cooper at their farm house in upstate new york, he agreed to talk with us about natashas death. Theyd worked together on broadway in Eugene Oneills classic play Anna Christie in 1993. Neeson she was a radiant beauty, yeah, cascading hair, i remember. There was. That was very, very attractive. Id never had that kind of an explosive chemistry situation with an actor or actress. Cooper you actually felt it on stage . Neeson yeah, she and i were like astaire and rogers. We had just this wonderful kind of. Dance, free dance on stage every night, you know . Natasha richardson and i must say i dont care for your language. Men i know dont pull that rough stuff when ladies are around. Neeson ladies. Cooper natasha was the daughter of british actress vanessa redgrave. She continued her acting career while raising their two boys, michael and daniel, who were just 13 and 12 when she died. Neeson and she cared for everybody. She has a motherly instinct. And shed make dinners for everyone and just looked. Looked after us all, you know . Cooper i heard you can find the cloud in. Even in a silver lining. Neeson yeah. Cooper and she was sort of. She would see the silver lining. Neeson yeah. I would always see the glass half empty. Cooper you do . Neeson she would see it half full. Cooper in march 2009, natasha was on a ski vacation in quebec, canada, with her oldest son, michael. She was coming down a beginners slope on Mont Tremblant when she fell and hit her head. She wasnt wearing a helmet. An ambulance was called, but she reportedly turned down medical attention and was escorted to her hotel room by her ski instructor and a member of the ski patrol. Neeson was in toronto filming a movie when she called him. Neeson i spoke to her and she said, oh, darling, ive taken a tumble in the snow. Thats how she described it. Cooper do you think she had any idea about what could go wrong . Neeson no, of course not. Who would, you know . Cooper what natasha didnt know was she was experiencing what doctors call the lucid interval, a period when someone with a traumatic brain injury appears normal but blood is building in the brain, causing pressure which can be fatal. A second ambulance was called and natasha was taken to the local hospital, arriving more than three hours after the fall. Neeson received a call from his assistant. Neeson and joanna said, look, you better get up there straightaway. And then, i flew up immediately. When i was in the air, the pilot was told, listen, divert your flight to montreal because shes going to be taken to the. The big hospital in montreal. I got a taxi to this hospital and this doctor, he looked all of 17, showed me her xray. And you didnt need to be a Rocket Scientist to see what was happening, you know . It was like a cartoon, you know, the brains squashed up against the side of the. The skull, and its. As the blood tries to get a release, you know . Cooper was she conscious then . Neeson i was told she was brain dead. And seeing this xray, it was like, wow, you know. But obviously, she was on life support and stuff. And i went in to her and told her i loved her, said, sweetie, youre not coming back from this. Youve banged your head. Its. I dont know if you can hear me, but thats. This is whats gone down. And were bringing you back to new york. All your family and friends will come. And that was more or less it, you know . Cooper but at that point, you didnt think that there was any hope . Neeson she and i had made a pact if any of us got into a vegetative state that wed pull the plug, you know . So, when i saw her and saw all these tubes and stuff, that was my immediate thought, was, okay, these. These tubes have to go. Shes gone. But donated three of her organs, so shes keeping three people alive at the moment yeah, her heart, her kidneys, and her liver. Cooper that must give you a good feeling. Neeson its terrific. Yeah. Its terrific. And i think she would be very thrilled and pleased by that, too, actually. Cooper did it seem real to you . Neeson it was never real. It still kind of isnt. Theres. Theres periods now in our new york residence when i hear the door opening especially the first couple of years she would always drop the keys in the. On the table, say, hello . So anytime i hear that door opening, i still think im going to hear her, you know. And then its. Griefs like. It hits you. Its like a wave. You just get this profound feeling of. Instability. You feel like a threelegged table. Just suddenly, you just. The earth isnt stable anymore. And then, it passes and becomes more infrequent, but i still get it sometimes. Cooper what is it like to suddenly be a single parent raising two teenagers . Neeson listen, im okay, you know. It could have been a hell of a lot worse. Im name dropping for a second. Bono is a pal and he came around to have a dinner. And i remember he was sitting beside michael, and just out of the blue, he said, what age are you, michael . He said. Michael said, 13. And he said, yeah, thats the age i was when i lost my mum. That was it. And it. I could have kissed him for it. He was, like, saying, you know, i lost my mom at this age and im doing okay. And you will do okay, too, you know. Cooper he went back to work just days after natashas funeral, and hes worked nearly nonstop ever since. Neeson im not good with. Without work. I just dont. I wallow too much, you know . And i. I just didnt want to. Especially for my boys, to be. Seem to be wallowing in sadness or depression or. Cooper having a schedule, having. Having some place to go, having. Neeson having a schedule, yeah, yeah. Cooper that helps . Neeson that helps a great deal. Cooper hes made more than 20 movies since natashas death. What do you think she would make of your. Neeson what, taken 5. . Cooper well, no. laughter neeson . That im about to do . Cooper no, your action. Your. Your status now. I mean, the money youre making, the. The clout you probably have in hollywood. Neeson shed be very. Shed be very chuffed at that. She would. Yeah, she would. Cooper chuffed is a good thing . Neeson chuffed is a good thing, yeah. Cooper shed be tickled by it . Neeson shed be tickled. Thank you, yeah. 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