Top Royal Free consultant tells of agony as hospital went on high alert

THE chief casualty consultant at the Royal Free had to endure an agonising wait for news of his wife while he treated victims of Thursday’s bombings.
Dr Andreas Martin was helping save lives on Thursday morning aware that his wife, who is also a doctor, had taken a train from their home in Potters Bar through King’s Cross that morning to head to the headquarters of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Tavistock Square – missing one of the Tube bombs and the bus bomb by a matter of minutes.
Dr Sharon Hall, a paediatrician, could not be contacted – but was found safe later that day. It was not until 40 minutes after the bombs exploded on the Piccadilly Line eastbound train that Mr Martin knew something serious was happening.
The doctor had heard rumours from staff – but at 9.30am on Thursday, the consultant had been told by the London Ambulance Service that a major incident was taking place and to prepare his staff.
He did not know at first it involved bombs. He thought he might be dealing with an incident similar to the Paddington rail crash. He said: “It was very confusing. We heard vague rumours of an explosion of some kind at King’s Cross and Liverpool Street but we did not know what to expect.”
The Royal Free switchboard staff activated doctors’ emergency pagers – medics not on duty were called in and staff began preparing for the worst.
And for Mr Martin, the news that the disaster involved terror bombs was particularly distressing. Not only was he unsure if his wife was injured or not, the hospital where he trained in his native Madrid had taken in the majority of the casualties from that dark day. His family used the commuter train that was hit each day and he had to endure an agonising wait to make sure they were okay. He had returned to his native city a week later to visit the hospital and learn how they had coped – prompting him to rethink the Royal Free’s own emergency plans.
He continued: “We had all the casualties come in at 10.30am. Some came in mini-buses. The problem was we didn’t know how many more may come in – it was just impossible to tell.”
But Mr Martin’s visit to his home city meant the Free’s plans had been tweaked. Instead of clogging up the emergency department with the scores of minor injuries, he had told hospital chiefs that in case of a major incident, his teams would commandeer the Royal Free’s out-patients departments on the first floor to treat those whose injuries were not life-threatening. And while Mr Martin worked to save the lives of the 61 patients who had come in – the news came through that his wife was safe and well.
He said: “I only realised exactly how bad it had been when I got home that night and watched the evening news. It was a hard day at work.”