Daily Express Wednesday, April 8, 2020 3OF SUPPORT FOR THE PM
BEAT THIS SAYS RAAB
Pictures: PIPPA FOWLES / NO 10 DOWNING STREET, GETTY, PABy Giles SheldrickBy Aine FoxPraise...survivor Andrew7KHUHLVKRSH
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A CORONAVIRUS patient
who made a full recovery after
six days in intensive care has
paid tribute to the medical staff
who cared for him.
Andrew Hodge was put into
an induced coma to help his
body beat the virus and said he
wants people to know “they
can survive this”.
The 54-year-old electrical
engineer was discharged on
March 27 and is recovering at
home in Laleham, Surrey.
The Ashford and St Peter’s
Hospitals NHS Trust said he
wanted people to know that
being ventilated for Covid-
“is not game over”.
Andrew said: “I don’t want
to dilute the seriousness of it,
but I want people to realise
they can survive this. There is
so much negative communica-
tion about how many people
have died, as opposed to how
many have survived.”
He praised the treatment and
care he received during 10
days at St Peter’s Hospital in
Chertsey, describing the team
there as “phenomenal and
attentive”. And it wasn’t justthe intensive care team who
made a huge impression.
Andrew, husband to Dawn
and father to Isabella, 17, and
Genevieve, 11, also paid
tribute to one nurse on Aspen
ward at the hospital who
simply held his hand for a
while, the trust said.
Bosses said the team at St
Peter’s were “delighted” to see
him recovering so well and
back at home, and wished him
all the best.Sending prayers...
Donald Trump7UXPSSOHGJHV86GUXJ
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DONALD Trump has ordered US
drugs companies developing
experimental coronavirus treat-
ments to offer Boris Johnson help.
The US President, who did not
name the pharmaceutical giants
or therapies, said his country
stood ready to assist the British
Prime Minister and all Americans
were praying for him.
Mr Trump has repeatedly
championed the
anti-malarial drug
hydroxychloroquine
with an antibiotic
azithromycin, calling
the combination a
“game-changer” in the
battle against Covid-- However, there is no
proof they are
effective.
The
White House said it was working
to “tear down barriers, cut red
tape, and encourage cooperation
across private industries and
government” and pledged
whatever assistance was needed.
Mr Trump said: “We’re very
saddened to hear that [Mr
Johnson] was taken into intensive
care and Americans are all
praying for his recovery.
He’s been a really good
friend.
“We have made
tremendous progress on
therapeutics and I’ve
asked two of the leading
companies, these arebrilliant companies – Ebola, Aids,
others – they’ve come with the
solutions and just have done
incredible jobs. And I’ve asked
them to contact London immedi-
ately...they’re genius.
“They’ve really advanced
therapeutics and they have arrived
in London already.
“We’ve contacted all of Boris’s
doctors and we’ll see what is
going to take place, but they are
ready to go.
“They’ve had meetings with the
doctors and we’ll see whether or
not they want to go that route.”
Other world leaders who have
so far wished Mr Johnson a
speedy recovery include French
President Emmanuel Macron,
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo
Abe and Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau.tribute by staff on Nason Ward at
George Eliot Hospital in
Nuneaton, Warwickshire.
Student nurse Beth Porter
said: “Nason Ward is a big lover
of Boris Johnson and we wish
him a speedy recovery.
“The photo idea came from
nurse Sarah Clayton. We are staff
nurses, health care support
workers, doctors, domestics and
ward clerks – a team working
hard together.”
Michelle Richardson, another
nurse on the team, posted the
picture on Twitter and had more
than 2,000 “likes” within hours.
Staff at the acute medical unit
at Solihull Hospital, near
Birmingham, also wished Mr
Johnson a speedy recovery and
the intensive care unit at
Derriford Hospital, Plymouth.
They held up signs reading:
“Get well soon Boris, you can
beat this.”
Posters wishing the Prime
Minister well also appeared
across Britain in windows.
Health minister Nadine
Dorries, who suffered the virus
herself, said: “Boris is the most
relentlessly positive person any-
one could meet and would be sotouched by such an uplifting
gesture for him and every patient
in intensive care struggling to
beat this awful disease.”
Mr Johnson’s intensive care
admission raised concerns he
had been pushing himself too
hard leading the Government
while in self-isolation.
But former Tory leader Sir Iain
Duncan Smith said: “He was
elected to run this country and
no prime minister is going to
suddenly say, ‘Look, I’m not
well, I’m just gonna let some-
body else do it’.
“He does it up until the point,
quite rightly, where he feels he
can no longer contribute,
because of the circumstances
surrounding his illness. And I
think he’s done that. Now that
may have taken its toll.”
Mr Johnson’s condition has
meant his fiancee Carrie
Symonds, who is pregnant with
their first child, has been unable
to visit him in hospital.
Ms Symonds said at the week-
end she was “on the mend” after
herself displaying symptoms of
the disease.OPINION: PAGE 12Best possible
hands...team
look after a
patient in ITU