How disabled would she have been? Would she have been able to breathe on her own? Use her arms at all?
It’s a hypothetical situation. If something different had happened the possibilities range from her being dead to her being uninjured.
Let’s assume the question is “If she had been successfully treated for the injuries sustained in the crash” shall we?
OK, can you list all of her injuries?
You mean the injuries that were sufficient enough to kill her… yeah they would still kill her.
Well, not knowing her injuries, I can’t say for sure, but you’re probably right. I mean a C2 spine or thoracic aortic transection is going to kill you regardless of how quickly you are treated. Now, if she died from hemorrhagic shock secondary to a splenic injury while stuck in the vehicle for 2 hours, then maybe something could have been done.
First, some background anatomy: after blood has traveled through the lungs (to pick up oxygen and give off carbon dioxide) it goes back to the heart (into the left atrium) via the pulmonary veins which are located posteriorly (on the back of the heart). Here is a cut away diagram showing the four pulmonary veins entering the left atrium at the back of the heart.
I recall reading at the time that the crash caused her pulmonary veins to rupture (or at least to became avulsed, i.e. torn away from, the left atrium). That would be expected to interrupt the flow of blood throughout the body and lead to severe shock. As a result, all parts of her body including her brain would be at high risk of damage from lack of blood and oxygen delivery. In the case of the brain, depending on how long the state of shock lasts, the outcome can range from no permanent effect to persistent vegetative state and everything in between. None of the possibilities have effective treatments so even with the best care, Diana might well have been left a ‘vegetable’ had she survived.
Rinse the Blood off My Toga by Wayne and Schuster
Poking around on the net, I find that different sites list different injuries. I didn’t find anything official, but then I didn’t search all that hard either.
There was definitely damage to the heart and some of the connecting blood vessels. Most sites say one of the pulmonary veins was torn. Some say a coronary artery was involved as well. A few sites gave the detail that her heart was moved from the left side of her chest to the right, which gives a rough idea of the magnitude of the injuries.
Inconsistently listed are broken ribs, a broken arm, severe injuries to her legs, and “head injuries” which are not detailed.
The claim is often made that the damage to the pulmonary veins was not survivable. There are some sites that dispute that, and say that if they had realized that she had this damage early enough in the treatment that she might have survived. I don’t have enough medical knowledge to comment on this one way or the other.
Without knowing what the “head injuries” were, it’s hard to say what kind of permanent damage she would have suffered from. She also went into cardiac arrest as soon as they pulled her out of the car. As previously mentioned, this combined with the torn arteries and veins may have very well left her a vegetable.
If she’d survived the crash and totally recovered, she’d be about as beloved as, say, Amy Winehouse instead of enjoying the borderline sainthood that’s clustered around her posthumously.
Hey, what if Amy Winehouse had died? She’d be friggin’ legendary!
At Halloween that year, my young daughter wanted a Princess Di costume. I suggested that dressing as Princess Di after the crash would be more seasonally appropriate.
Her injuries were not survivable. The premise of the OP’s question makes no sense.
The full findings of the 2007 British inquest are online, nearly 1000 pages. It includes all of the different reports of what her injuries were from responders at the scene and the hospital. I’ll spare the graphic details, although the curious can read for themselves. She had numerous visible injuries and a combination of symptoms (dangerously low blood pressure and cardiac arrest) which suggested massive internal injuries. Emergency responders weren’t sure she could be moved at all. Diana underwent surgery after she arrived at the hospital, where doctors found a ruptured pulmonary vein.
The French authorities concluded:
(Link to huge PDF – discussion of Diana’s injuries runs from page 511-516)
According to everybody’s favorite tertiary source, nobody in the car was wearing a seat belt that night.
So I wish to rephrase the question into something more workable: Given the circumstances of the crash – Mercedes S280, impact speed of 65 mph, etc. – how severely injured would a person be, occupying the rear right seat of the car and wearing a seat belt?
(I have rephrased the question into one of pure automotive safety & crash analysis for GQ.)
Thanks, I assumed the injuries WERE survivable.
Naah…Princess Di was practically treated like a living saint while she was alive, esp. while she was flirting with that rich Arab guy. Heck, I can remember becoming so damn sick of hearing everyone gush on about her, that one day when I switched on the TV and saw her face on EVERY CHANNEL I actually said out loud, “Jesus Christ! What is UP with this woman! I wish she would freaking DIE or something just so I won’t have to hear about her anymore!” (As it turned out, that day just happened to be Aug. 31st 1997…oops.)
Which is part of the reason I am hoping Amy Winehouse does NOT die – I don’t want her to be remembered as a legend or a tragic figure. Kinda like Ana Nicole Smith. Oh wait…nobody remembers Ana Nicole Smith, do they? Never mind. 
There was one wearing a belt. He survived. Trevor Rees-Jones.
Hence the danger of relying on WP.
Or random assertions on message boards…
That claim is bolstered by two citations, including one which quotes Rees-Jones himself.
Doh.
I remember all the stories at the time saying he had a seatbelt on but admit to not following the story closely after that.