Doctor thought Diana would live through crash

November 14, 2007

At the Princess Diana crash inquest the first doctor on the scene said that he thought she would survive.

"She was moaning, she was breathing but she was really weak."

LONDON -- The first doctor to reach Princess Diana after the crash that claimed her life said at the London inquest into her death that he thought she would survive.

Dr. Frederic Mailliez told the inquest jury he saw the car carrying the Princess of Wales, and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, wrecked while he was driving down the Paris road where the crash occurred Aug. 31, 1997, The Daily Telegraph reported Tuesday.

He said he found Diana slumped in the rear footwell of the wrecked Mercedes, but did not recognize her as the princess.

"She was alive," he told the inquest into Diana's death. "She was moaning, she was breathing but she was really weak, I would say unconscious and weak."

Richard Keen, an attorney for the family of Diana's driver, Henri Paul, asked Mailliez during his cross-examination: "Do you remember saying that you thought the lady you had treated would survive?"

"Yes, I said that," the doctor answered. However, he said he was not aware of the extent of Diana's internal injuries at the time he made the statement.