UK PM was just another patient, says nurse who treated him

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was just "another patient we were trying to do our best for", the New Zealand nurse credited with helping to save his life from the novel coronavirus, said on Thursday.

Jenny McGee was praised by Johnson for standing by his bedside "when things could have gone either way" while he was in intensive care with coronavirus.

"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," the BBC quoted McGee as saying to Television New Zealand (TVNZ).

She was not "fazed" by treating the Prime Minister, she said, adding it was "just another day at the office".

"As a unit he was just another patient we were trying to do our best for," she said.

McGee, who has worked in intensive care for 10 years, said it was "heartbreaking" to watch some patients pass away without their families, calling it the "saddest part" of her job.

She said nurses were glad to offer some comfort to these patients by "holding their hand", when the virus makes it "unsafe" for some loved ones to visit.

After being singled out by Johnson in a video thanking NHS staff, McGee, from Invercargill on the South Island, became known globally as "Jenny from New Zealand", the BBC reported.

She told TVNZ that Johnson's praise came "totally out of the blue", adding her first reaction was that her friends were playing a "joke" on her.

"I couldn't believe what he said on TV," she added.

She later received a message of thanks from her "hero" New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

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

He spent several nights in the intensive care unit where he was given oxygen.