When paramedics arrived they found Gina Van Dort, sobbing and hugging her dying husband Chris Dyer, refusing to let him go
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| Tragic: Gina van Dort with her husband Chris Dyer |
A Brit shot in the face as she fled a crazed gunman is begging for the return of her wedding ring after she was discovered clinging to the body of her dying husband.
Gina Van Dort was unable to speak after gunman Seifeddine Rezgui calmly walked through a Tunisian hotel killing British tourists.
The 30-year-old was struck by a bullet under her chin which then exited her eye. A bullet also shattered her femur in the attack.
When paramedics arrived they found Gina, 30, sobbing and hugging her dying husband, refusing to let him go.
Because of her injuries, her beloved wedding ring had to be removed during the effort to identify her because her face was severely wounded and she was unable to speak.
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Loss: Chris Dyer, 32, with his wife, Gina Van Dort, 30
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She was among the last four British victims due to be evacuated from Tunisia in a large-scale RAF mercy mission.
Medics treating Gina said her husband, Chris Dyer, had been killed in the attack, but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office refused to comment.
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| Desperation: Gina was found clinging to the body of her dead husband on the beach |
But Dr Hajer Kraiem - one of the first paramedics on the scene - wept as she told how Gina's face had been mutilated by a bullet.
She re-lived the scenes of devastations she encountered at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel.
She said: "Her husband was dead. I went to the hotel and there were three victims dead and the I saw Gina, she was hugging her husband.
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| Plea: Gina Van Dort has written a note pleading for the return of her wedding ring |
"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."
Gina, a quantity surveyor, from Watford, Herts, underwent life-saving surgery after the attack, with medics carrying out intricate facial reconstruction.
She has lost her left eye and is unable to talk after undergoing a tracheotomy.
Dr Hajer made a heartbreaking visit to her bedside yesterday, where Gina begged for the return of her wedding ring.
In a touching tribute, Gina wrote a thank you note.
Dr Hajer said: "She said thank you, held my hand, and said thank you. She was very strong.
"It was important for me to go see her, because I didn't want that to be my memory of her. It's very difficult to forget."
Gina was due last night to make a 10-minute drive from the Sahloul Hospital to the nearby Monister Airport by ambulance, before boarding a C17 Globemaster.
Fellow Brit Cheryl Mellor, 55, from Cornwall, who lost her husband, Stephen, 59, in the attack, was also expected to be airlifted back to the UK.
Meanwhile critically wounded Allison Heathcote - who remains in a medically induced coma - was being comforted at her hospital bed after her son and brother jetted out to Tunisia.
Brother Jonty Boon, 39, flew out on Monday to be by her side at the private Essalem Clinic with Allison's distraught son James.
Jonty, 39, said: "She's stable, she's had major surgery to her upper arm and abdomen.
"I'm massively relieved, we were told that she had lost a kidney and she wasn't going to make it. Then to get here and the relief, to actually find out she's very seriously injured but not the extent we first believed, she's not lost any major organs or anything like that.
"We're hoping she will pull through, nothing is a 100%, but we're hoping.
"She's in the best possible place, the facilities are fantastic, they have been brilliant and so hopefully fingers crossed she will pull through.
"If anybody can, she can, she's the strongest person I know.
"We'll be here until everything sorted. James is holding on."
She remains in a critical but stable condition in a medically induced coma after being hit in the stomach repeatedly by a barrage of gunfire during Friday's beach massacre.
British medics in Tunisia were last night deciding if she was stable enough to make the trip back to the UK. John Metcalf, 43, from Hazlemere, Bucks, was also expected to return to the UK after he was shot in the stomach.
Up to 30 Brits are thought to have been slaughtered in Friday's brutal attack, with the official figure now standing at 18.
Paramedics revealed they were held outside the complex for an agonising 10 minutes as armed snipers brought Rezgui's reign of terror to an end.
And when they finally gained access to the hotel garden they discovered a scene of utter devastation, with bodies strewn around the hotel.
Meanwhile details of further casualties continued to trickle through last night.
Flowers and a poignant tribute to slain Brits Denis and Elaine Thwaites were placed at the massacre scene visited by Theresa May yesterday.
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| Fighting for life: A casualty from the attack at the Imperial Marhaba hotel, where 38 people were killed, is taken from Sahloul hospital with British medics |
It showed Denis, 70, alongside Elaine, 69, by a bouquet of flowers.
The retired couple, of Blackpool, Lancs, arrived in Sousse on Wednesday.
In a heart-rending message, their daughter Lindsey and son-in-law Danny wrote: "You are our world. I loved you so very much. Rest in peace mum and dad."
Former Birmingham City FC teen prodigy Denis sent a text to say they had arrived safely on Wednesday.
But their family did not hear from them after Kalashnikov-wielding Tunisian student Rezgui, 23, targeted Western tourists on the beach.
Winger Denis, who broke into the first team aged just 16, and Elaine were reported on Saturday to be recovering in hospital following the horror attack.
But, their family later said they had been misinformed. Their son-in-law Daniel Clifford, of Blackpool, said: "We were told by a Thomson rep through a friend that they were injured in hospital but this turned out not to be true."
