Just as Princess Diana did more than 17 year ago, the Duke of Cambridge donned medical scrubs and witnessed a live operation looking every inch his mother’s son.
The compassionate Prince observed a breast reconstruction operation and the removal of a bladder tumour at the Royal Marsden Hospital in West London.
Looking through a microscope as he was talked through the breast reconstruction procedure, which takes six to eight hours to complete, the Duke remarked: “that’s amazing”.
“Is this fairly major surgery?” he asked the lead surgeon, Mr Stuart James.
“Think of it as long rather than major.”
The Duke moved on to witness his second surgery procedure viewing a tumour being removed from the bladder of a male patient in his 80s.
He described the experience as “surreal” and hailed the “incredible” work of the hospital’s surgical teams.
William’s hospital visit echoed Princess Diana’s experience at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex, where she watched a heart operation being performed on a small boy from Cameroon in 1997.
Diana was president of the hospital trust from 1989 until her death in 1997. The role was taken over by William in 2007.
One surgeons at the hospital, Pardeep Kumar, praised William’s understanding of the work done at Royal Marsden.
“He really had an insight into the kind of work we do. He really understood. The questions he asked were really on the money and were very insightful,” Mr Kumar said.
“For want of a better word, he did enjoy himself.”
