'I feel extremely proud': Intensive care nurses from Portugal and New Zealand speak out for first time after treating Boris Johnson

The two nurses who helped care for Boris Johnson while he was in intensive care with Covid-19 have spoken out for the first time about treating the prime minister, who thanked them by name after he was discharged.

New Zealand nurse Jenny McGee has spoken of her shock at the public’s “surreal” response and praise, revealing she even received a message of support from her ‘hero’ Jacinda Ardern.

Ms McGee, from Invercargill on the South Island, was one of two nurses thanked publicly by Mr Johnson after he received treatment for the disease at St Thomas’ Hospital in London earlier this month.

The PM was first admitted to hospital on 5 April, having confirmed his diagnosis 10 days before, and later spent three nights in an ICU before returning to the general ward.

After being discharged on 12 April, he praised both Ms McGee and Luis Pitarma, from Aveiro in Portugal, for helping save his life. “I can’t thank them enough,” he said of the doctors and nurses at St Thomas’.

Ms McGee has revealed she was “shocked” by the PM’s words and initially thought it was a joke.

“My first reaction was that it was a joke! I thought my friends were playing a joke on me. 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, who has worked for the NHS for 10 years, also described her pride at being contacted by the prime minister of New Zealand, adding that she is “a hero of mine”.

“So on the night that it happened I had to turn my phone off because it was so overwhelming and when I turned my phone on in the morning people were like ‘Jenny you need to look at your Facebook’ and I was called a snob for not responding to Jacinda,” she said, speaking to Television New Zealand.

“She’s a hero of mine. I think she’s amazing, she just said how proud she was of me and the country was so proud and it was so heartwarming and that’s something I will never forget.

“I responded [to her message] and she like messaged back immediately, a little bit of banter which again was surreal, a couple of emojis and so it was very, very surreal experience.”

Ms McGee rejected any motion that the PM had been moved into intensive care when his symptoms did not warrant it, saying “he absolutely needed to be there”.

She added that she was not fazed by Mr Johnson’s status as the British prime minister, who she called “just another patient”.

“I think there was a lot of media interest about him being in hospital and to be honest that was the toughest of the lot, as a unit he was just another patient, we were trying to do our best for... so it was business as usual.

“To be completely honest with you I’ve worked in intensive care for 10 years, I’m a sister I’ve been in charge for five years and I’ve been in stressful situations and I was not fazed by this, it was just another day at the office.

“When I got in the car after work each night and I could hear things about Boris Johnson on the news that was very surreal because I thought wow! I’ve been looking after him! but I really wasn’t fazed by looking after Boris Johnson.”

Mr Pitarma, who lives in west London, admitted to feeling “nervous” when he was first told he would be treating Mr Johnson but later relaxed after meeting him.

“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,” he told the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital website.

“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 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.

“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.”

Addressing the care he received from the two nurses, Mr Johnson said: “The reason in the end my body did start to get enough oxygen was because for every second of the night they were watching and they were thinking and they were caring and making the interventions I needed.”

Mr Johnson is continuing his recovery at Chequers, the country residence of the prime minister, and is making “good progress”, according to Downing Street.