⚡ BREAKING TODAY: THE MYSTERIOUS MOMENTS AT DIANA’S CRASH Princess Diana was reportedly “agitated” at the crash scene, yet sedated before help arrived. Why was she calmed in those critical minutes? In a city buzzing with cameras and responders, what secrets lie in the shadows of that night? 😱 A chilling detail that raises questions about her fate… 👉 Uncover the truth now!

‘Agitated’ Diana sedated at crash scene, inquest told

Diana at the Ritz Diana leaving the Ritz before the fatal crash. Photograph: APTV/AP

UK news

 This article is more than 17 years old

‘Agitated’ Diana sedated at crash scene, inquest told

This article is more than 17 years old

James Orr and agencies

Mon 19 Nov 2007 17.37 GMT

Medics who rushed to treat Diana, Princess of Wales, following her car crash were forced to sedate her to allow treatment, her inquest heard today.

Dr Jean-Marc Martino, an emergency specialist, recalled how the princess had been thrashing around inside her vehicle due to the shock of the impact.

As doctors battled to save her life, Diana – who was described as “comprehensible yet incoherent” – tore out a drip inserted into her arm.

It was then that doctors took the decision to inject her with a drug in an effort to “reduce the agitation”.

Today, Professor Andre Lienhart, who inquired into Diana’s treatment for a French investigating magistrate, backed Dr Martino’s account.

Speaking via video link from Paris, Prof Lienhart said: “That’s true. Due to the agitation, the first line, the first drip was removed.”

He added: “[Diana] was agitated, she refused treatment … [Dr Martino] decided to inject some drugs to reduce the agitation, for her to accept treatment.”

Today’s inquest also heard about the extremely rare injuries Diana suffered in the fatal crash in the Pont de l’Alma Tunnel in Paris in 1997. Experts believe that the force of the collision may have caused the princess’s heart to be thrown forward violently inside her chest.

The hearing was told that there are no recorded cases of patients with the same injuries arriving at hospital alive.

Dr Martino, of France’s Service d’Aide Medicale d’Urgence (Samu), oversaw Diana’s treatment shortly after the accident at about 0.25am on August 31 to her arrival at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital at 2.06am.

It took medics half an hour to remove Diana from the wreckage.

The inquest has heard that the princess suffered massive internal bleeding as a result of tears to a key blood vessel attached to her heart – the superior left pulmonary vein – as well as the pericardium, the casing of the heart.

Prof Lienhart said he concluded that the princess, who was not wearing a seatbelt, may have been sitting sideways when the car crashed into a pillar. “There was a very strong and brutal rotational movement,” he told the jury.

Nicholas Hilliard, counsel to the inquest, asked him: “In other words, that on impact the heart had been projected very violently to her right hand side?”

The professor replied: “Yes, that’s true.”