PRECARE

For Georges, it started like any other morning.

‘Wake up in the morning. Like everyone else and had my coffee, normally I do a bit of training, I love my training… then normally I’d go to work as a security guard. I like to laugh, to joke, to have fun with everyone at work. That is who I am, I don’t like anyone upset.’

But this morning, something felt off.

‘This day I said to my wife, I don’t feel well… I said can you call the ambulance and that was it, that’s all I remember.’

For Georges’ family, the moments that followed are unforgettable.

‘I remember waking up at, like, 730… and I think my dad was first having his heart attack… to see that kind of happen to your dad is absolutely terrifying,’ his son recalls. ‘My dad is someone I really, really look up to… I try to be as strong as he is.’

As Georges collapsed into cardiac arrest, their home quickly filled with paramedics and urgency. ‘Ambulance came in, and within two minutes, all those people were suddenly coming through the door with all their equipment,’ his wife Lillian says. ‘There was honestly about 12 people in our living room, looking after him…’.

When the PRECARE team arrived, Georges had already been in cardiac arrest for over 20 minutes. Despite ongoing efforts, he wasn’t responding. ‘The paramedics were doing an amazing job, but he wasn’t responding to conventional treatment,” PRECARE’s Dr. Natalie Kruit explains, ‘The only option we had was to put Georges onto this heart lung bypass machine.’ In a tight bedroom, surrounded by family, a hospital-level procedure began. Lillian recalls it all vividly. ‘They opened up that living room and made it into a surgery’

Right there in Georges’ home, the PRECARE team initiated the procedure, circulating oxygenated blood, protecting his brain, and giving Georges a chance to make it to hospital. ‘This is pretty game changing, we were able to commence this procedure in his living room, buying him essential, crucial minutes.’

Georges doesn’t remember that day, but he knows what it gave him.

‘After my recovery my doctor said, you’ve got a guardian angel. That’s all I can describe.’ Today, he’s back doing what he loves most. ‘I’m now back to my sport, I play with my granddaughter. Take her to the park and just play, just to be with them means a lot to me.’

For Lillian, beneath it all is the quiet, confronting truth, ‘He could have very well easily passed away and we wouldn’t even be having this conversation, and that’s the reality.’

What began as an ordinary morning became a fight for time, fought by family, paramedics, and the PRECARE team, with the innovative ability to bring a once thought hospital only procedure, into a home. And because of that, Georges got something extraordinary. Extra time.

PRECARE thanks Georges for telling his story.