A FORMER Guernsey resident who survived being shot in the chest found the strength to telephone her husband then drive to hospital, it emerged yesterday.

Maria van Beek, 36, pictured, amazed doctors by walking into a Guyana hospital and announcing she had been shot while driving home.

She had also managed to call her husband, Guernseyman Patrick van Beek, to tell him the attack had been a hit, not an accident, in case she died and the truth was covered up.

Mr van Beek, an actuary who lived in Guernsey until 1999, had thought his wife was just confused when he received the call.

‘She called me on my cell. I did not believe it at first,’ he said.’

Mrs van Beek, who met her husband while working at Generali in Guernsey, had glass shards from the driver’s window in her face and arm from the attack.

‘The doctors were amazed and said that for someone to take a bullet in the chest and then walk into the room and say “I have been shot” was incredible, they thought she was just confused until they saw the X-ray.’