This is so very sad it’s hard to believe it’s even happening.

People is confirming via a family friend that Natasha Richardson is in fact ‘brain dead’:

“There is no chance,” a family friend told PEOPLE on Tuesday night. “It is a fact that her heart is beating but she is brain dead.”  ”leakage of blood between the brain and skull,” the friend says – has the actress’s family coming to grips with potentially having to make an unthinkably difficult decision. “It’s not official yet,” says the friend, “but they basically will detach her.”

According to TMZ:

she was “unconscious,” her pupils “non-reactive,” her skin was “pale” and she was suffering from “major head trauma.”

We’re told her husband Liam Neeson held her hand the entire time and caressed her face as he sat in silence.

We’re also told when the plane landed in New Jersey, medics on board told members of the ambulance team that Richardson was “brain dead.”

She suffered the brain injury during a fall while skiing in Montreal this week.  There have been conflicting reports with regards to this stating she didn’t hit her head, or that she did hit her head but did not suffer any visible signs of trauma and that she was up and walking around in the hospital in Montreal.

Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson seemed to have one of those ‘normal’ marriages amid a crazy industry and I can totally picture him stroking her face and can not fathom the anguish he, their kids or family must be feeling right now.  So unexpected and so very tragic.