Prince William hails 'incredible' surgeons at Royal Marsden after watching live operations

 
Staff|Agency7 November 2013

The Duke of Cambridge has hailed the "incredible" work of two surgical teams as he watched live operations at one of the world's leading cancer-specialist hospitals.

William visited the Royal Marsden in Chelsea, west London, where he viewed sections of a breast reconstruction procedure and the removal of a bladder tumour involving two patients.

He was following in the footsteps of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, after she watched a heart operation at Harefield Hospital in Middlesex in 1996.

The Duke witnessed the operations in the hospital's Wolfson Surgical Suite where he was introduced to the operating teams led by surgeons, Mr Stuart James and Mr Pardeep Kumar.

Dressed in medical scrubs, he spent around 10 minutes viewing a breast reconstruction procedure for a female patient in her 80s.

As he was greeted by lead surgeon, Mr James, William said: "It's slightly surreal meeting you in this situation."

The Duke looked into a micro-vascular microscope placed above the body as he was talked through the surgical procedure, which usually takes six to eight hours to complete.

"That's amazing," he said as he peered through the microscope. "That's incredible. Is this fairly major surgery?"

"Think of it as long rather than major," Mr James replied.

The Duke donned a face mask as he moved into a second operating theatre to view surgery to remove a bladder tumour for a male patient in his 50s.

"There's space for you on this side," Mr Kumar, the lead surgeon, said.

"Thank you, perfect," the Duke replied.

As Mr Kumar explained the procedure, William asked: "That's the whole bladder you've got there? Are you searching for any other signs?"

William is the first royal to view surgery at the Royal Marsden, which is a world-leading cancer centre specialising in all areas of diagnosis, treatment, care and research into the disease.

He has been president of the hospital trust since 2007, a position previously held by Diana from 1989 until her death in 1997.

The Wolfson Surgical Suite was reopened in 2010 following an extensive rebuilding and refurbishment programme after a fire in 2008 devastated the theatre area.

During his visit, the Duke watched a demonstration of the latest radiotherapy technology, CyberKnife, which allows larger doses of the treatment to be delivered because of its improved accuracy and means patients require fewer hospital visits.

The Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge previously opened the trust's cancer unit for children and young people at its hospital in Sutton, south London, in 2011.

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