The doctors who attended Louise reported she was severely concussed and in shock, and that "it was a wonder her skull was not fractured". Louise's ear had been injured when her earring caught on the side of the sleigh, tearing her ear lobe in two. The press played down the story on instructions from Lorne's private secretary, an act that was described by contemporaries as "stupid and ill advised". For example, one New Zealand newspaper reported, "Excepting immediately after the blow, the princess was perfectly sensible during the whole time..." Knowledge of Louise's true condition might have elicited sympathy from the Canadian people. As it was, one Member of Parliament wrote: "Except the cut in the lower part of the ear I think there was no injury done worth mentioning." Therefore, when Louise cancelled her immediate engagements, people thought she was malingering. News of the accident was also played down in Britain, and in letters home to the anxious Queen Victoria.