Duke of Edinburgh suffers heart scare

THE Duke of Edinburgh underwent heart surgery last night after suffering chest pains. He was airlifted from Sandringham in Norfolk to Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, where he underwent a successful “invasive procedure” to relieve a blocked artery.

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said the duke had a coronary stent – an artificial tube – inserted in the artery to allow the blood to flow. It is understood the procedure was carried out using keyhole surgery.

The duke and the Queen had been preparing to host one of the largest gatherings of the Royal Family in recent years, ahead of a year of celebrations to mark her Diamond Jubilee, when he was taken ill. Experts said it was likely he would stay in hospital over Christmas.

Dickie Arbiter, the Queen’s former press secretary, said that, despite being 90, Prince Philip had remained extremely busy.

“The Duke of Edinburgh’s health is actually pretty good,” he said. “Given that he’s 90, he’s been doing a lot of work, accompanying the Queen to Australia, which was very strenuous.”

Mr Arbiter added that though the royal couple would not be undertaking any overseas travel during the jubilee year, they had a “strenuous tour” of the UK planned.

Margaret Holder, a royal commentator, said: “It’s obviously very worrying for the Queen and the rest of the Royal Family who are gathering at Sandringham for Christmas. He has been in remarkable health. For somebody who has just done an 11-day tour of Australia at 90, that’s amazing in itself.”

Earlier this year, Buckingham Palace announced the duke was starting to scale back his engagements, but he remains a busy member of the Royal Family.

It was only when he reached the age of 82 that Philip decided for the first time not to take part in the Trooping the Colour ceremony on horseback, opting instead to travel in a carriage with the Queen.

He recently attended a media reception to mark the start of Diamond Jubilee celebrations with more than 300 journalists at Buckingham Palace and was said to be “on good form”.

The duke has lost none of his trademark wit. Earlier this year, with his 90th birthday approaching, he replied to an invitation to the Oldie magazine’s awards, saying: “There is nothing like it for morale to be reminded that the years are passing, and that bits are beginning to drop off the ancient frame. But it is nice to be remembered at all.”

Papworth is renowned as the UK’s largest specialist cardio- thoracic hospital and the country’s main heart and lung transplant centre. Each year, it treats more than 22,800 in-patient and day cases and 53,400 outpatients from across the UK.

Before news of the duke’s surgery broke, Dr Simon Davies, consultant intervention cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, said: “The first thing to think about is who is having the pain. You just have to be suspicious that it’s the heart because he is a man and he is 90.

“The second part of the diagnostic process is tests.”

He said it was “impossible to say” how long the duke could be kept in hospital.

Prince Philip has been taken to hospital many times before, either through a sporting injuries or when he has been unwell.

His most recent illness was a cold in October that forced him to pull out of an overnight stay in Italy.

He had just completed the 11-day official tour to Australia with the Queen, visiting Perth, Melbourne, Canberra and Brisbane.

Commentators billed it as the couple’s last trip to the continent because of their age, but the Palace dismissed speculation it was a “farewell” visit.

Most of Philip’s ailments and injuries have been sports-related. He suffered arthritis in his right wrist from playing polo and developed synovitis, a rheumatoid condition of the tendon in the hand, following a fall from a horse during another match.