‘DOCTORS PREPARED TO ANNOUNCE MY DEATH’
UK PM BORIS JOHNSON RECALLS HIS BATTLE WITH COVID-19
LONDON: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed that doctors at a London hospital where he was admitted after contracting Covid-19 had made arrangements to announce his death. Johnson, 55, was rushed to St Thomas’ Hospital on April 5 when his condition had worsened a few days after he had tested positive for the coronavirus. After spending a few days in intensive care, he emerged on April 12.
Recalling his near-death experience in an interview to The Sun published on Sunday, an emotional Johnson said he was administered “litres and litres” of oxygen, but ICU monitors were showing little progress, compelling doctors to make plans to announce his death.
“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 wrong.
“It was hard to believe that in just a few days, my health had deteriorated to this extent... 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 presentationally.”
The report said the UK PM’S voice faltered and eyes reddened during the interview in Downing Street. “I’ve broken my nose, I’ve broken my finger, I’ve broken my wrist, I’ve broken my rib. I’ve broken just about everything. I’ve broken all sorts of things. But I’ve never had anything as serious as this,” he said. “The indicators kept going in the wrong direction and I thought, ‘There’s no medicine for this thing and there’s no cure’. That was the stage when I was thinking, ‘How am I going to get out of this?’”