http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010310/wl/britain_diana_dc_1.html
Saturday March 10 6:31 PM ET
Princess Diana Could Have Been Saved, Says Medic
LONDON (Reuters) - A leading heart surgeon has said that Britain's Princess
Diana could have been saved if she had been rushed to hospital quicker.
Christian Barnard, who was a friend of the Princess of Wales, writes in a new
book that she could have been saved if she had reached hospital within 10
minutes of the 1997 high-speed car crash in Paris, the Sunday Telegraph said.
``My opinion is that they made a mistake not rushing her to hospital quicker
because her bleeding could only be stopped by surgery,'' said pioneering
surgeon Barnard in his book ``50 Ways To A Healthy Heart,'' which is to be
published in May.
``I understand they spent up to an hour at the scene of the accident,'' he
said.
Barnard, based in South Africa, said according to the autopsy Diana died of
internal bleeding as the result of injury to the pulmonary vein. He said such
an injury would not lead to rapid loss of blood.
``What I want to say here is, that, if Princess Diana had been brought to
hospital within 10 minutes of the accident -- something which should easily
have been possible -- and once there, had been cared for properly, she could
have survived.''
Diana's companion Dodi Al Fayed and their driver Henri Paul also died in the
crash. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived.
The Telegraph quoted a French doctor, who arrived quickly on the scene as he
had been traveling in the opposite direction at the time of the crash, as
saying Diana was in the best shape of the four.
Frederic Maillez said Diana had ``looked pretty fine...I thought this woman
had a chance.''An official French inquiry found that the accident was the
result of ``loss of control,'' the speed of the vehicle and alcohol.
