COVID-19: Doctors Prepared To Announce My Death – UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson has revealed how doctors prepared to announced him death when he tested positive to coronavirus weeks ago.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he was ‘not in particularly brilliant shape’ in hospital he battled coronavirus at St. Thomas’ Hospital in central London last month.

It comes as the first picture of his new child with Carrie Symonds was revealed. He has named the child after two of the doctors who helped in his Covid-19 fight.

He revealed that doctors prepared to announce his death in case he lost his coronavirus battle.

He said he was given ‘litres and litres’ of oxygen as medics battled to keep him alive in intensive care.

Mr Johnson told The Sun On Sunday: ‘It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it. They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario.

‘I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.

‘The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.

‘They gave me a face mask so I got litres and litres of oxygen and for a long time I had that and the little nose jobbie.’

He added: ‘The bad moment came when it was 50-50 whether they were going to have to put a tube down my windpipe.

‘That was when it got a bit… they were starting to think about how to handle it.

Mr Johnson is now celebrating the birth of his child with Carrie Symonds, who was also earlier struck down with coronavirus.

It was announced on Saturday that the Prime Minister and his fiancee have called their newborn Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson.

Medics have previously spoken of Mr Johnson’s coronavirus battle – including two of the nurses he singled out for praise after he was discharged.

Jenny McGee, 35, was mentioned alongside Luis Pitarma, 29, by the Prime Minister – and was revealed to have ‘stood by his bedside for 48 hours when things could have gone either way.’

She and Mr Pitarma spoke out for the first time about their experiences of caring for the Prime Minister late last month.

Jenny McGee, who has worked for the National Health Service since 2010, told a New Zealand television station that she was unfazed by the task of caring for Mr Johnson, who received the same care as any other patient and ‘absolutely needed to be there’.

It comes after wild conspiracy theories circulated online that the Prime Minister’s intensive care stint had been somehow manufactured by spin doctors to divert attention from the Government’s failings in its Covid-19 response.

Ms McGee told TVNZ, in an interview which aired on Thursday, her first public remarks since the episode: ‘We take it very seriously who comes into intensive care. These patients who come into us. It’s a very scary thing for them so we don’t take it lightly. He absolutely needed to be there.

‘We are constantly observing, we are constantly monitoring. I’ve worked in intensive care for ten years, I’m a sister, I’ve been in charge for five years. I’ve been in really stressful situations and I was not phased by this.’

Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have named their son Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, in a tribute to their grandfathers and the doctors who helped save the Prime Minister’s life.

The third name is a reference to Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart, who Ms Symonds referred to as ‘the two doctors that saved Boris’ life last month’.

Nicholas Price graduated from University of Birmingham’s medical school in 1991.

He has specialist training in infectious diseases, general medicine tuberculosis, tropical medicine and infection prevention and control.

He was previously awarded a MRC Clinical Training Fellowship for research into tuberculosis at The Hammersmith Hospital.

Dr Price became a consultant at Guy’s and St Thomas’ in 2005.

In 2009, he was promoted to the Trust’s Director of Infection and joint Director of Infection Prevention and Control.

Nicholas Hart graduated from University of London’s medical school in 1993.

His area of expertise include weaning, rehabilitation and home mechanical ventilation in patients with chronic respiratory failure.

He has been awarded nine Local Clinical Excellence Award points.

Dr Hart became the director of the Lane Fox Respiratory Service, the largest rehabilitation and home ventilation service in the UK, in 2012.

He is also a Professor at King’s College London and Director of Research and Development Delivery at Guy’s and St Thomas’.

She added: ‘All of out intensive care shifts are really tough for whatever reason. There was a lot of media interest about him being in hospital and, to be honest, that was the toughest.

‘As a unit, he was just another patient we were trying to do our best for, so it was business as usual. It was just another day at the office.

Johnson, 55, was taken to Guys and St Thomas’ hospital on April 5 after his symptoms for COVID-19 worsened and he was moved into intensive care the following day, remaining there until April 9.

On being discharged on April 12, Johnson said in a video message, ‘the NHS saved my life, no question’. He named and thanked the nurses who had cared for him, including ‘Jenny from New Zealand’.

Mr Pitarma, from west London but originally from Aveiro in Portugal, also spoke for the first time today. He said he had also been thanked by Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, adding: ‘Apparently I’m a celebrity in Portugal now.’

Mr Pitarma, who has worked at St Thomas’ for nearly four years, said: ‘I was changing into scrubs before my night shift when the matron called me over and told me the Prime Minister was about to come to ICU. I had been chosen to look after him because they were confident I would cope with the situation well.

‘I felt nervous at first – he was the Prime Minister. The responsibility I was going to hold in my hands was quite overwhelming. I didn’t really know how to address him – should I call him Boris, Mr Johnson or Prime Minister? My matron reassured me and said to be myself like I am with any other patient.

‘I asked how he would like to be addressed and he said to call him Boris. That made me feel less nervous because he took away any formality. He just wanted to be looked after like anyone else.’

Mr Pitarma added: ‘I was by his side for the three nights he was in ICU. We had some conversations, including about where I was from. I told him how I’d dreamed about working at St Thomas’ since my first day of training in Portugal in 2009, when I learned about Florence Nightingale and her connection to the hospital.’