"After six months, we know nothing new about state Friso"
Royal reporter Antoin Peeters looks back on the tragic accident of Prince Friso in Lech, already half a year ago.
Do you remember? Friday, February 17, just before half past three in the afternoon. Austrian media suddenly report that someone "of Niederländischer Köningfamilie" is buried under an avalanche in Lech. The RTL editorial team in Hilversum explodes and from then the news items tumble, confirmed and unconfirmed, over each other. It soon becomes clear that it is Prince Friso.
For days no change
After a prolonged resuscitation, he was transferred unconscious from Lech to the Landeskrankenhaus in Innsbruck, a university hospital where they have extensive experience with skiers who long have lain under the snow. The GIS reports for days that there is no change to report in the health of the prince. And that's still true. Friso's in a coma, next Friday August 17th, already six months.
Almost 10 days we were with a large team of RTL in Innsbruck and Lech. Colleague Jeroen Wetzels was there from the beginning. He happened to ski in Austria that Friday afternoon and was picked from the slopes, pushed into a car of friends: one way Innsbruck. At half past seven he can report live, I presented that evening, former royal reporter Sandra Schuurhof tells from the editors about Prince Friso, it is her last day at RTL, how bizarre.
We know anything at the time
Meanwhile, camera people, technicians, editors and reporters are flown to Austria. Too much? No idea, we know nothing at that time, how long will it take? How bad is this? One thing we know for sure: it is a great historic event for the Netherlands and everyone is talking about it.
The now familiar sight from that huge hospital in Innsbruck: I have been there for days. Carefully directed, twice a day, there is a coming and going of bereaved members of the Royal Family. The red and white ribbon for the press is drawn and a little later come the cars. Through gossip we hear every time who come to visit this time.
The Royal Family allows it
Many people have criticized us every time we shoot pictures, "Leave them alone." But the press is properly enabled to register the arrivals of the Royal Family and allows it consciously, the mourning is thus shared with the millions of Dutch viewers. Once they take the back entrance, when the children of Friso and Mabel are around.
Once the RVD asks to leave the family alone, we do that. That is after the dramatic press conference, Dr. Koller on Friday afternoon. We still show shots of the Wellington Hospital in London, where Prince Friso will eventually go, but that's it. Up to this day.
We still know nothing
And now, six months after the avalanche, we still know nothing. Not only we, journalists, but also the family of Prince Friso know nothing. Because that's the terrible reality from a coma. If you are looking for it on the Internet, you're downright sad.
I have the clear, but chilly description of the Brain Foundation summed up: "Someone who is in a coma is unconscious. He sees nothing, hears nothing and feels nothing. A part of the brains will not work anymore. A very deep coma begins. Someone does not make sense. He must get his food through a drip. Some people can not breathe itself. They lie on a respirator. This deep coma can last a few hours or up to two months. "
It seems as if patient responds
"Is someone after one or two months not conscious yet, the deep coma turns into a coma vigil. In a coma vigil it seems as if the patient responds. He opens his eyes, he is chewing, swallowing and yawning. He responds to pain, light and sound. He has a day and night rhythm again. He sometimes makes uncontrolled movements. But he makes no real contact with the world around them. He recognizes nobody. His reactions are merely reflexes. A coma vigil could take years. Doctors call it a vegetative state.
No telling how long it takes
"Nobody can predict how long a coma lasts. Doctors don't know too. Some people are soon awake again. Others remain in a coma for months or even years and then awake. Others still remain in coma until death." This is the dramatic situation the Royal Family faces, a difficult task.
And this is no ordinary family that can deal with this difficult situationcin peace, this is the Royal Family. The work, with dozens of public appearances, continues. Crown Prince Willem-Alexander tells early July, during the annual photo shoot, that it is not always easy. The understatement of the century, in my eyes!
Appointments are not canceled
I would have said to all those well-intentioned companies, organizations, foundations and associations: "Sorry, we were happy to come, but not now." And there would be understanding, nothing but understanding, I'm sure. Yet the Royal Family choose the difficult path of duty. All appointments go ahead, appointments are seldom canceled. And so we see the Queen, the Crown Prince and his wife are everywhere and nowhere. Chapeau!
Even Queensday with the rest of the family goes ahead. In Veenendaal, Queen Beatrix in her parting word refers to the difficult situation, you see the members of her family fighting back tears. It's a hot day, but I get a few chills.
