Britain’s Prince Harry has met with hospital staff who saved the life of an Invictus Games athlete.
Sgt Elizabeth Marks was gearing up to compete in the 2014 Paralympic-style games for wounded soldiers when she was struck down with a serious lung condition and rushed to Papworth Hospital in Cambridgeshire.
Now, Prince Harry has fulfilled Elizabeth’s wish for one of her gold medals from this year’s games to be given to the team that saved her life.
Professor John Wallwork, chairman of Papworth Hospital, said: "It means an awful lot for the staff and the people that looked after her. We do a lot of very good work at Papworth, a lot we know about and a lot the public doesn’t know about, and I think it just emphasises how good the hospital is and we’re very proud of it."
The hospital are now trying to launch a fund named after Elizabeth to raise money to improve equipment and services for the hospital’s critical care unit.
The 31-year-old royal met with lead ECMO clinician Dr Alain Vuylsteke, lead ECMO nurse Jo-anne Fowles, senior staff nurse Laura Bowden and senior clinical perfusion scientist Giordano Paiella at Kensington Palace to hand over the medal.
Meanwhile, Elizabeth previously recalled the harrowing events leading up to her collapse.
She said: "I landed in London and became very ill, very rapidly, I was in hospital in London and went into respiratory distress syndrome. They shipped a team down from Papworth who put me on to ECMO [Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] life support and that ultimately saved my life. I was on it for 10 days and ended up waking in an army hospital in Germany having no idea what had happened.
"But they absolutely saved my life and I can’t thank the UK enough for having that kind of medical support and taking such good care of me.
"So I gave Prince Harry one of my medals and hope it will find its way back to Papworth. Thank you, I’ll never be able to repay you, but what you’re doing is wonderful."
Britain’s Prince Harry hands over medal
