Royal News Blog

Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “Prince Philip leaves hospital after heart operation” was written by Stephen Bates, for The Guardian on Tuesday 27th December 2011 16.44 UTC

Prince Philip has been released from hospital four days after undergoing an emergency heart operation, but questions remain over when – and whether – he will be able to resume his official engagements.

The 90-year-old Duke of Edinburgh waved to reporters and camera crews as he was driven from Papworth hospital, in Cambridgeshire, to return to the royal family’s Christmas gathering at Sandringham, in Norfolk, 50 miles away.

The early morning departure came after he thanked medical staff for what was described as his excellent care.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said no decisions had been made about his future engagements in what will be a busy year as the Queen celebrates her diamond jubilee with events across Britain during the spring and summer.

Prince Philip has carried out 300 public engagements this year – more than most of the rest of the royal family – despite his promise at the time of his 90th birthday in June that he intended to cut back.

In an interview, he told the BBC’s Fiona Bruce: “I reckon I’ve done my bit. I want to enjoy myself for a bit now with less responsibilities, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say.

“On top of that, the memory’s going. I can’t remember names. Yes, I am just sort of winding down. I am getting rid of things.”

Although there have been rumours of heart problems in the past, the chest pains he experienced last Friday evening and the operation – officially described as a “minimally invasive procedure” to insert a metal mesh stent tube into his coronary artery to improve the flow of blood – have been by far the most serious signs of ill health in the Queen’s consort.

The stay in hospital over Christmas prevented the duke from taking part in the family’s traditional routine, including a Boxing Day pheasant shoot at Sandringham , although a local news agency reported that he joined the shooting party for lunch after his release.

But the post-Christmas and early new year period is usually a quiet and private one for the Queen and her husband, with few public engagements.

They normally stay at Sandringham until after 6 February each year – the anniversary of the death of the Queen’s father, George VI, who died there in 1952 at the age of 56 after a day’s shooting on the estate.

Prince Philip’s next public outing is due to be a dinner at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge on 17 January – the eve of the centenary of Captain Scott’s ill-fated arrival at the south pole – but no decision is likely to be made about whether he will be well enough to attend for some time yet.

The palace spokeswoman said it was not known whether the duke would accompany the Queen to Sandringham parish church for next Sunday’s service.

Palace officials and medical staff will meet in the coming days to discuss the implications of the scare for the duke’s future movements, although they may not particularly relish confronting him with the need to scale back his activities.

He would be hugely reluctant to give up what he regards as his duty to support his wife. Although increasingly bowed and looking more frail, he remains extremely fit for his age.

The Queen, too, would be deeply upset if her husband, who she has described as “my strength and my stay all these years”, was no longer able to accompany her.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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Note: This article is from the Guardian.

This article titled “Queen pays tribute to family bonds as Prince Philip recuperates in hospital” was written by Stephen Bates, for The Guardian on Sunday 25th December 2011 16.24 UTC

The Queen and members of the royal family were due to visit the Duke of Edinburgh in hospital in Cambridge in an unwelcome deviation from their annual Christmas festivities, following the 90-year-old prince’s emergency heart surgery on Friday night.

By all accounts the family’s patriarch was chafing to return to Sandringham after the successful – and these days relatively routine – surgery to insert a metal mesh stent tube into his heart to improve the blood flow after he complained of chest pains before the weekend.

The hospital visit – the second in two days for the Queen and royal children, and the first for the royal grandchildren, including Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge – was anticipated to take place after the family, like much of the rest of the country, settled down to watch the Queen’s speech on the television after lunch.

The duke is under medical observation and may be kept at Papworth hospital for at least a couple more days. In the longer term, his active participation in royal events is likely to have to be more closely reviewed.

The royal couple have been anticipating a busy year, with a tour across the British isles in the summer to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee, a long weekend of public celebrations in London in early June and the Olympic Games later in the summer.

Until recently the duke was one of the busiest members of the royal family, attending more than 300 events a year, but in interviews last year to mark his 90th birthday he suggested he was beginning to wind down. He has already shed some of his long-standing commitments.

When she recorded her annual Christmas broadcast at Buckingham Palace on 9 December, the Queen could not have realised how prescient or how close to home it would appear a fortnight later.

In it, surrounded by family photographs in the 1844 room at the palace, she spoke of the importance of family, particularly in times of crisis.

Her words related particularly to this year’s natural disasters in the Commonwealth – floods in Australia, the New Zealand earthquakes – but also to family hardships in difficult economic times, with the personal family bonds she was thinking of being happy ones, principally the two royal weddings, far from the crisis of the duke’s ill health.

She said: “The importance of family has, of course, come home to Prince Philip and me personally this year with the marriages of two of our grandchildren, each in their own way a celebration of the God-given love that binds a family together.”

Film of the weddings of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge at Westminster Abbey in April, and of Zara Phillips to the rugby player Mike Tindall in Edinburgh at the end of July, was shown as she spoke.

The Queen said that in times of hardship people often found strength from their families, just as during crises communities come together to break down barriers – sometimes taking a tragedy to bring out qualities in individuals.

There was also footage of the Queen and duke touring Brisbane, which was inundated by flooding earlier in the year, and of Prince William viewing earthquake damage in Christchurch, New Zealand, in the spring.

A nativity play perfomed by the pupils of St Joseph’s Catholic infants’ school in Camberwell, south London was also featured.

“For many this Christmas will not be easy, with our armed forces deployed around the world, thousands of service families face Christmas without their loved ones at home. The bereaved and the lonely will find it especially hard. And, as we all know, the world is going through difficult times,” she said.

“In the past year, my family and I have been inspired by the courage and hope we have seen in so many ways in Britain and the Commonwealth, and around the world.

“We have seen that it is in hardship that we often find strength from our families. It is in adversity that new friendships are sometimes formed and it is in a crisis that communities break down barriers and bind together to help one another.

“Families, friends and communities often find a source of courage rising up from within.

” Indeed sadly it seems that it is tragedy that often draws out the most and the best from the human spirit.”

Larger than normal crowds gathered outside Sandringham parish church, hoping to see the new duchess attend the morning service with the rest of the family, during her first Christmas spent with them.

She is unlikely however to join the family’s traditional Boxing Day shoot on the estate, which is usually led by the duke.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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