M&S and hotel kits used by 7/7 medics
When medics treating the wounded survivors of 7/7 had no supplies left, they turned to first-aid kits from a nearby Marks & Spencer store as well as a hotel, it has been discovered.
The former firefighter, Paul Dadge, who was famously photographed helping a wounded woman, Davina Turrell as she held a white burns mask against her face, said that without the right equipment there was little that the doctors and nurses could do.
Mr Dadge had been travelling on the train behind the one that was blown up by Mohammed Sidique Khan, a suicide bomber, at Edgware Road Tube Station in 2005. Six people were killed by the blast.
He described how the injured survivors seemed shocked and disorientated as he began to set up a make-shift casualty station in the Marks & Spencer close to the station.
The famous photograph was taken when Mr Dadge helped Ms Turrell to cross the road to the Hilton Hotel when a laptop bag caused another bomb scare and Marks & Spencer was evacuated.
He recalled how doctors and nurses came flocking in from nearby hospitals but said that the shortage of supplies made their work difficult and they were forced to make the most of what supplies they could come across.
He made a statement to the inquest saying that the medical resources were poor and there were only two paramedics and small team from the London helicopter emergency medical service. He went on to say that they ran out of oxygen and were reliant on the first-aid kits available at M&S and the Hilton Hotel.
He added that many of the wounded had to be taken to hospital in police rioy vans as the ambulances were severely delayed in arriving.