He then gave the late princess oxygen, held her hand and tried to calm her down, according to The Sun. That’s when I asked him, “Oh my God, what happened?”
Gourmelon claims there were no signs of external bleeding on Diana, just a minor shoulder injury that was in no way life threatening. Moments later, Diana went into cardiac arrest.
“I massaged her heart and after a few seconds she started to breathe again. It was of course a relief because as a first responder you want to save lives – which I thought I did,” Gormelon said. at the Sun in 2017.
Thanks to the efforts of Gourmelon and her team, Diana regained consciousness.
“Honestly, I thought she would survive,” he said. “As far as I know when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected to live. But I found out later that she died in hospital. It was very upsetting.”
Photo by Anwar Hussain/WireImage/Getty Images
The retired firefighter told the publication that since he didn’t follow British royalty, he didn’t immediately recognize the Princess of Wales. It was only after he took her to the ambulance and one of his colleagues told him that he realized her true identity.
It turns out that Diana had a number of internal injuries. She was immediately admitted for surgery when the ambulance arrived at the Petite-Salpêtrière hospital, but the doctors were unable to save her.
“The memory of that night will be with me forever,” Gormelon said.
