LONDON, Feb. 21 (UPI) -- One of the doctors who tried to save Princess Diana's life after her Paris car crash says medics may be to blame for not getting her to a hospital fast enough.
Brazilian Leonardo Esteves Lima, who was in medical training in France during the 1997 tragedy, said he cleaned and stitched cuts on Diana's body and diagnosed fractures in her right arm and pelvis, the Daily Mail reported Monday.
"It was like operating in a war scenario," he said. "She had suffered a heart attack on the way to the hospital and she was bleeding from her pulmonary vein."
Although the cut on the vein was small, there was another in her right lung that let blood trickle into her chest cavity. It was this second cut that probably led to Diana's heart attack, Lima told the Brazilian newspaper Estado.
She was declared dead after two hours on the operating table.
Asked if the rescue operation was held up due to the victim's celebrity status, Lima said: "Perhaps."
