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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
HomeShowUK PM Boris Johnson 'owes his life to NHS staff'

UK PM Boris Johnson ‘owes his life to NHS staff’

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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he owes his life to the NHS staff treating him for coronavirus.

The 55-year-old prime minister thanked medics at St Thomas’ hospital in London, where he continues to recover after spending three nights in intensive care.

It comes when it is expected that the UK deaths from the virus to pass 10,000 on Sunday.

The UK recorded 917 new coronavirus deaths on Sunday, taking total hospital deaths to 9,875.

To curb the spread of the virus, ministers are continuing to urge people to stay at home over the Easter weekend, despite warm and sunny weather across parts of the UK.

Mr Johnson made the first public statement since being moved out of intensive care on Thursday. He paid tribute to the medics treating him, saying: “I can’t thank them enough. I owe them my life.”

Home Secretary Priti Patel said in government’s daily coronavirus briefing on Saturday, the PM Johnson needed “time and space to rest, recuperate and recover”.

N 10 does not mention any specific time when the PM might leave the hospital or be back at his desk, but a return to work does not look imminent.

‘A kind and compassionate hero’

Abdul Mabud Chowdhury, 53, was a married father-of-two and a consultant urologist, who had died with coronavirus on Wednesday.

His son Intisar described him as a “kind and compassionate hero” who had been in “such pain” when he wrote an appeal to the government on Facebook, warning about a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS workers.

Dr Chowdhury was described by family and friends as “compassionate” and “so caring”. Source: Golam Rahat Khan

His son said: “He wrote that post while he was in that state, just because of how much he cared about his co-workers.”

Fellow doctor and Family friend Golam Rahat Khan said Dr Chowdhury liked singing, and enjoyed celebrating Bengali and English culture and heritage.

“He was so caring, he would call us very often to come to his house,” he added.

Mr Mabud is among those NHS workers who have lost their lives fighting coronavirus.

52-year-old Julie Omar had been working as a sister on Ward 14 at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, and had also previously worked with the trauma team at Worcestershire Royal Hospital.

The Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said, of its nursing team, Julie was “much-loved member, and a “dedicated and highly experienced trauma and orthopaedics nurse”.

She died at home on Friday from coronavirus and leaves a husband, Laith, and a grown-up daughter.

You may read: NHS workers’ lives at risk over PPE shortages, says BMA

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