Princess Eugenie – Granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s eldest daughter Princess Eugenie (the granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II) has revealed that she underwent an intense surgery when she was 12 to repair a severe curvature of the spine.
The Princess opened up about the memory during a visit to London’s Royal National Orthopedic Hospital, where the scoliosis surgery took place.
“I’ve got the scar on my back,” she told the mother of a current 16-year-old patient undergoing scoliosis surgery. To the patient, Eugenie said, “It hurts so much, I was in so much pain, get better!”
Doctors discovered the curvature they had anticipated would take one hour to straighten was far worse than expected. Her operation under general anesthetic was meant to take an hour, but lasted seven.
“We thought it was a small curvature but it was mammoth, ” her mother stated. “Her bones had oscillated to such a degree that by the time she reached 18 she would have been a hunchback. It was horrendous.”
Surgeons had to insert eight-inch titanium rods into each side of the Princess’s spine and one and a half inch screws at the top of her neck, leaving her in intensive care for three days, followed by six days in a wheelchair. She was unable to return to school for a number of weeks and instead had lessons from a tutor at home.
Sources [1, 2]