A nurse from New Zealand who cared for Boris Johnson as he battled coronavirus says he "absolutely needed" intensive care treatment after his symptoms worsened.
Jenny McGee, 35, has spoken for the first time about treating the Prime Minister and said she was staggered to have been praised by Mr Johnson for her hard work in the ICU at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.
In her first interview, she denied Mr Johnson received special treatment and said being in intensive care is a “very scary thing".
She told TVNZ: “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 and he absolutely needed to be there."
Mr Johnson, 55, was admitted to hospital on April 5, ten days after confirming he had tested positive for Covid-19, and he was moved to intensive care two days later.
Ms McGee was on a five-week holiday back in New Zealand when the virus hit the UK.
She said she felt "a real sense of duty" when she was called in and decided to return to London and help her colleagues fight the outbreak.
Ms McGee stayed by Mr Johnson’s bedside for two days, but she said she was not "phased" by the situation.
"We are constantly observing, we are constantly monitoring," she said.
"I’ve worked in intensive care for 10 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."
Mr Johnson praised both her and fellow nurse Luis Pitarma but Ms McGee said she was surprised to be mentioned by the PM.
"My first reaction was that it was a joke. I thought my friends were playing a joke on me," she said.
"I wasn't expecting it... it was totally out of the blue and it was just shock. I couldn't believe that was what he said on TV."
Ms McGee said Mr Johnson was interested to know about where she was from.
"I told him I was from Invercargill and he was interested to know about Invercargill," she said.
"There was a lot of media interest about him being in hospital and to be honest, that was probably the toughest thing of the lot."
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also reached out to Ms McGee and praised her efforts.
Ms McGee said: "She is a hero of mine, I think she is amazing.
"She just said how proud she was of me and that the country was so proud. It’s so heartwarming and something I’ll never forget.
She said she reached out to Jacinda and she “messaged back immediately”.
"A little bit of banter which was, again, surreal," she said.
"I’m so proudly New Zealand and we are a wonderful group of people who just get on with it when we’re up against it.
"The messages are adorable – there are kids telling me they want to be a nurse, there are families saying how proud they are and it means so much right now. People won’t even know how much it means, but thank you."
She added: "I’m getting a lot of stick from my workmates. I’m loving it."
But, as the Covid-19 death toll passes 18,000 in the UK, Ms McGee said it has been heartbreaking to watch patients in intensive care struggling without their families at their bedside.
“Some people are dying without their loved ones around,” she said. “As much as we can be there to hold their hand, it should be their family and that’s heartbreaking to watch.”
The other nurse praised by Mr Johnson has spoken of his pride after the Prime Minister thanked him for saving his life.
Critical care nurse Luis Pitarma, 29, from west London but originally from Aveiro in Portugal, 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.”
Mr Pitarma said he was delighted when the Prime Minister thanked him in person before leaving intensive care.
He said: “He thanked me for saving his life. I felt extremely proud for someone like him to recognise the quality of the job I’d done. I was very happy with his words, they were very kind.
“I hope I can meet him again one day when he is fully recovered.”
