A week after he was admitted to St. Thomas hospital with symptoms of Covid-19 disease, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson released a video on social media thanking the care he received for the medical team that accompanied him.
The 55-year-old politician left a special thanks to two nurses who never abandoned him at his most critical time, among them a Portuguese nurse, named Luís, who Boris Johnson said was “close to Porto”.
Hours later, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced that he had contacted Luis Pitarma, thus revealing the identity of the Portuguese nurse and thanking him for his work and vigilance towards the British Chief Executive. But, after all, who is this nurse whose name has traveled the world in less than 24 hours?
Luís Pitarma is a 29 year old Portuguese nurse, born in Aveiro. In 2009, he moved to Lisbon to study at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, a course he completed in 2013. During that period, he joined the Erasmus program, through which he traveled to Lahti, Finland, to study at the University of Applied Sciences , according to the information revealed on your LinkedIn profile.
A few months later, Luís started working at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, also at the NHS (national health service), located on the outskirts of London.
Two years later, he moved to St. Thomas, where he has worked for four years. In the meantime, he filled his curriculum with various courses and training for intensive care in institutions such as the Royal Free Hospital, a reference hospital for teaching health care.
It was precisely at the Intensive Care Unit of St. Thomas hospital that the Portuguese nurse met with Boris Johnson, who did not spare his praise for his work. According to the British politician, the nurse watched him “every second of the night, taking care and making interventions at a time when things could have gone wrong”.
These words of the British Prime Minister did not pass over to Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who published a note on the official website of the Presidency to explain that “he has already personally thanked the nurse Luís Pitarma”.
The President of the Republic took the opportunity to thank the “professionals of other nationalities who, reinforcing the National Health Service, provide an invaluable service to Portugal”.
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