Heart-rending link to her lost love: Wife left unable to speak after being blasted in face by Tunisia gunman wrote note asking doctors for her wedding ring before she flew home without dead husband

A British woman who was blasted in the face as she fled the Tunisian beach massacre refused to let go of the body of her dead husband as paramedics desperately tried to get her to safety, it emerged last night.

A doctor who was the first to reach the couple has told how Gina Van Dort simply would not let go of her husband Chris Dyer, who had been shot in the head.

In a testament to her love for Mr Dyer, doctors said, she managed to write a note to communicate with staff and immediately asked for her wedding ring, which had been removed before surgery which included a tracheotomy.

Surveyor Mrs Van Dort, 30, and Mr Dyer, 32, an engineer, had been married for two years and were in the second week of their holiday.

They were cut down by AK47 rounds as they ran into the front garden of the Imperial Marhaba hotel. 

They collapsed but despite her horrific injuries Mrs Van Dort found the strength to clasp her husband’s bullet-ridden body.

When she came round from emergency surgery on Sunday Mrs Van Dort, from Watford, was left with facial injuries and unable to speak. 

But she still found the strength to write the note about her wedding ring.

Speaking of the moment she found her at the hotel, Dr Hajer Kraiem said last night: ‘Her husband was dead. 

'I went to the hotel and there were three victims dead and then I saw Gina, she was hugging her husband. 

'She didn’t want to leave him. When we tried to bring her [to the ambulance] she held tighter. Maybe she didn’t know he was dead.

‘She had major facial trauma and she couldn’t speak. She was conscious [but] she couldn’t speak, [the sound] was incomprehensible.’

Dr Kraiem said that Mrs Van Dort had received gunshot wounds and shrapnel injuries from a bomb or grenade. 

She was put under general anaesthetic on the scene and a tube was put in her airway to help her breathe.

It was later discovered that she had been shot under the chin, with the bullet exiting through her eye. 

Medics said she has lost her left eye and is unable to speak because she had to have the tracheotomy.

Dr Kraiem, who went back to visit Mrs Van Dort yesterday afternoon, said doctors had begun reconstructing her face and added that she was ‘lucky to be alive’.

She told how Mrs Van Dort immediately recognised her, wrote her a thank you note and added: ‘Bring me my ring.’ Dr Kraiem said: ‘She was very strong.’

Dr Kraiem also spoke of the carnage that faced them when they arrived at the scene. 

She said: ‘The victims were everywhere; on the beach, near the swimming pool and behind the reception.’

She said that the manager of A&E, Dr Karoui Nejib, had been sacked by the minister for health for not sending ambulances to transport the dead bodies.

Mrs Van Dort and Cheryl Mellor, 55, left Sahloul Hospital while Allison Heathcote and John Metcalf were transported from Essalem Hospital. 

The four boarded an RAF C17 plane with ‘medevac’ teams experienced at bringing injured service personnel back from operations overseas.

Tonight they arrived back into Birmingham Airport before being loaded into a waiting ambulance, to be transferred to a nearby trauma centre, believed to be Selly Oak. 

The aircraft had left the Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire yesterday lunchtime.

Kirsty Murray, 25, and her fiance Radley Ruszkiewicz, 29, left Cliniques Les Oliviers on a private plane.

Mrs Heathcote, who was in an induced coma until yesterday afternoon, had travelled to the idyllic holiday spot to celebrate her 30th wedding anniversary with husband Philip, who remains missing presumed dead.

Around half the 20,000 British tourists on holiday in the North African country have returned to the UK since Friday’s terror attack, the Association of British Travel Agents believes. 

A significant number of them were from Sousse.

Daily Mail