Coronavirus: Boris Johnson reveals doctors planned for his death

Boris Johnson discusses how dire his coronavirus battle was, with his newborn son named after the doctors who saved the British PM.

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Picture: AFP

Boris Johnson’s health was so dire as he was battling coronavirus that his doctors were planning how to declare him dead, he has revealed.

In an interview with The Sun on Sunday the UK prime minister said that “litres and litres of oxygen” was needed to keep him alive.

“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it. They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” Mr Johnson told the newspaper.

“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 badly wrong.”

Mr Johnson spent three nights in an intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital in central London last month, battling through a virus he knew he had to overcome for the sake of his country – and his pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds.

Carrie Symonds shared a photo with baby Wilfred. Picture: Instagram

“It was hard to believe that in just a few days my health had deteriorated to this extent. I remember feeling frustrated. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting better,” Mr Johnson said.

“But 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.”

Thankfully, Mr Johnson was able to make it through to the other side and witness the birth of his sixth or seventh child, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson.

But he could not have done it without the help of the St Thomas’ nurses, who he credits for saving his life.

“It was thanks to some wonderful, wonderful nursing that I made it. They really did it and they made a huge difference.

“I get emotional about it … but it was an extraordinary thing.”

Wilfred was named after two of the couple’s grandfathers and the two doctors who recently ensured the prime minister lived, Symonds revealed.