Coronavirus: Boris Johnson was ‘simply one other affected person’ – New Zealand nurse

Boris Johnson was simply “one other affected person we had been attempting to do our greatest for”, the New Zealand nurse credited with serving to to avoid wasting his life has mentioned.

Jenny McGee was praised by the PM for standing by his bedside “when issues might have gone both approach” whereas he was in intensive care with coronavirus.

She mentioned her job concerned getting sufferers “by way of the night time”.

Nurses additionally maintain the fingers of dying sufferers whose household can not go to, she mentioned.

Talking to Tv New Zealand (TVNZ), Ms McGee mentioned it’s “heartbreaking to look at” sufferers go away with out their households, calling it the “saddest half” of her job, saying nurses are glad to be there to consolation them, and “maintain their hand”.

After being singled out by Mr Johnson in a video thanking NHS workers, Ms McGee, from Invercargill on the South Island, turned identified globally as “Jenny from New Zealand”.

She mentioned the PM’s reward got here “completely out of the blue”, including her first response was that her buddies had been taking part in a “joke” on her.

“I could not consider what he mentioned on TV”, she added.

She later obtained a message of thanks from her “hero” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Ms McGee mentioned: “I feel she’s superb, she simply mentioned how proud she was of me and the nation was so proud and it was so heart-warming and that is one thing I’ll always remember.”

Mr Johnson was discharged from St Thomas’ Hospital in London on 12 April, one week after being admitted to be handled for coronavirus.

He spent a number of nights within the intensive care unit the place he was given oxygen.

In a video message after he was discharged, he mentioned the NHS had “saved my life, no query” and particularly thanked Ms McGee and one other nurse, Luis Pitarma from Portugal.

He mentioned the rationale he was in a position to get sufficient oxygen was as a result of pair maintaining watch by his bedside for 48 hours “considering… caring and making the interventions I wanted”.

Ms McGee insisted Mr Johnson didn’t obtain particular therapy, saying he “completely wanted” to be in intensive care.

“We take it very significantly who comes into intensive care, these sufferers who come into us, it is a very scary factor for them so we do not take it calmly”, she mentioned.

She was not “fazed” by treating the prime minister, she mentioned, including it was “simply one other day on the workplace”.

She mentioned the pair “chatted away” and that Mr Johnson was “fascinated about the place I got here from and what my story was”.