Princess Anne does not remember her June 2024 accident, which is believed to have involved one of her horses. Photo / Getty Images
Princess Anne does not remember her June 2024 accident, which is believed to have involved one of her horses. Photo / Getty Images
The Princess Royal was treated in intensive care for head injuries last year, it was revealed as she visited the unit to “fill in the blanks” and thank doctors for her care.
The Princess spent five nights at Southmead Hospital in Bristol following anaccident on her Gatcombe Park estate, in Gloucestershire, on June 23.
On her return to Southmead Hospital on Thursday, the Princess met paramedics and members of the critical care team who treated her at the scene, as well as those who cared for her in intensive care.
It had not previously been known that the Princess had been treated in intensive care. At the time, Buckingham Palace said she had sustained “minor injuries” and had been admitted “as a precautionary measure for observation”.
The Princess told hospital staff that it was “useful” to meet them as she was still unable to recall what had happened.
She drove herself to the hospital, where she spent around an hour and 20 minutes. The vast majority of the visit was private, including her tour of the intensive care unit, where she chatted to staff including Morwenna Maddock, the ICU matron who oversaw her care.
Princess Anne thanked the healthcare professionals who treated her following her accident last year. Photo / Getty Images
The Princess was also introduced to the discharge team and others “heavily involved” in her care before hearing the staff choir perform in the atrium.
She said: “You’ve been filling in the blanks, which partly from my perspective is really useful to know how it happened, because I seriously don’t have any idea, and sadly I don’t have huge memories of being in here either.
“But I just know I was really well looked after, so thank you. Whatever you did, it seemed to work ... the recovery has been relatively straightforward, thankfully. That isn’t always true, so I’m really grateful.
“But I’m also grateful in a weird sort of way that I remember nothing, because that has huge advantages – you can just carry on.”
Appearing to joke about her horses and which one may have been responsible for her injuries, the Princess added: “I don’t know if there was a perpetrator who managed to do that much damage … they’re not letting on either, so relationships remain absolutely secure. No one has gone absent as a result of this.”
While medics who treated the Princess last year revealed that her injuries were consistent with being struck by a horse, the exact circumstances of her accident remain unknown.
She recently revealed that on the day in question she had been making her “regular visit” to see her chickens but added: “I don’t have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.”
She suggested she had had a lucky escape as she had been “very close” to losing her faculties, and now counts every day as a bonus.
Among those who treated the Princess was Steven Pullin, a volunteer community responder, who was the first on the scene at Gatcombe Park.
An air ambulance crew was next to arrive, followed by a second critical care team and an ambulance, which took her to hospital. James Teakle, an emergency care assistant who drove the ambulance, recalled that the journey to hospital had taken 34 minutes.
“I know the area, so could work out who it was,” he said. “It was just another job, but a person of importance. I wouldn’t have done anything different for anyone else.”
The Princess also met Sophie Taylor, a paramedic who also accompanied her to the hospital, and Richard Jeavons, a doctor, and Callum Sutton, a specialist paramedic, who work for the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity and treated her at the scene.
Maria Kane, the chief executive of North Bristol NHS Trust, thanked the Princess, saying: “We feel very privileged to have you come and see us,” she said. “I know staff who talked to you earlier today have been very, very grateful to hear that you’ve made such a lovely recovery and look so well today.”
On patients returning to the hospital after they have been discharged, she added: “It doesn’t happen all the time, so it’s really important for our staff to see that their hard work has paid off.
“We often don’t see that onward journey and their recovery. So actually, to see them coming back, looking so well, looking so fit, and how they are normally, pre-hospital, it’s a good feeling.”
Maddock said many patients were unable to remember their stay in hospital, adding: “That’s really, very common and it’s just nice to be able to piece it all back together for her.”
Sam Patel, the medical director of the NHS trust, said it was important for such patients to return and “close the loop”, adding that for well known figures to speak openly about health conditions such as concussion was extremely beneficial.
“To increase awareness, to increase diagnostics and to increase treatment and access to it … it really is a very important part of the process,” he said.
