Prince Philip taken to hospital with chest pains

Queen Elizabeth II's husband has undergone treatment for a blocked coronary artery, British royal officials said Friday.

Buckingham Palace said Prince Philip, 90, was taken from Sandringham, the queen's sprawling estate in rural Norfolk, to the cardiac unit at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge earlier Friday for "precautionary tests" after suffering chest pains.

The palace said tests at the hospital showed a blocked coronary artery was causing Philip’s discomfort.

“This was treated successfully by the minimally invasive procedure of coronary stenting,” it said in a statement. “Prince Philip will remain in hospital under observation for a short period.”

A spokeswoman for the palace would not say if other members of the royal family were Philip, who is also known as the Duke of Edinburgh. She spoke on customary condition of anonymity. A hospital spokeswoman referred all calls to the palace.

Coronary stenting is standard procedure both to fend off a heart attack or save a patient already in the midst of one, said Dr. Allan Schwartz, chief of cardiology at New York-Presbyterian, Columbia University Medical Center.

"It is a big spectrum, there's no way of knowing what applies to him," Schwartz said. "Saying you're taken to the hospital with chest pain is like saying you're taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound. It could be a grazing shot that's not significant or it could be something that's serious. Either way with the right treatment, you're O.K."

Schwartz said Philip's trim figure and athleticism bode well for his recovery.

Philip turned 90 in June, at which point a Buckingham Palace spokesman said the Duke of Edinburgh would gradually "wind down" his workload.

"I reckon I've done my bit, I want to enjoy myself now ... have less responsibility, less frantic rushing about, less preparation, less trying to think of something to say," Philip said then, in an interview with the BBC.

 

He married then-Princess Elizabeth on November 20, 1947, in Westminster Abbey, and has become the longest-serving consort in British history.

Philip has made more than 5,000 public speeches during his working life, according to Buckingham Palace.