Princess Diana Could Have Saved In Time For Her Jubilee
“DIANA’S LIFE COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED SAYS DOCTOR,” announces the Express’s front page.
This is the “death crash sensation”.
The paper hears from Dr James Colthurst, an independent medical man. It’s been ten years since Diana forgot to put on her seatbelt, and Colthurst, 50, may not be around to mark Diana’s silver jubilee.
The time is ripe for him to tell us: “My belief is that had Diana been moved more quickly, the surgeons may have had a better chance.”
Dr Colthurst was not at the crash scene. He was not at the hospital. He did not operate on Diana. But he knows. And he tells us: “Her injuries of course were very serious, but there were delays in addressing those injuries that, to my mind, could have been critical.”
Always good to get a second opinion; better, of course, to get it while the patient is still alive. But things do not always go to plan. And not every doctor has a decade to cogitate and deliberate the facts.
But Colthurst is not alone in his opinion. A Dr John Ochsner pins a copy of the Express to his X-Ray light box and notes: “Given that she was still alive after nearly two hours, had they got her there in an hour they could have saved her.”
A Dr David Wasserman licks the end of his tongue compressor, holds it to the wind and tells us: “If they had got her to the operating room sooner, she would have had a far greater chance.”
A Dr Stephen Ramee tells us of “scoop and run”, in which the patient and their assorted spillage is stabilised and then moved by helicopter to a centre where surgery can be performed.
Sadly, he fails to tell us how a helicopter can get into a tunnel. But he and the other medical minds have fifteen years to think about it and get back to us.
Posted: 18th, June 2007 | In: Royal Family Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
