THE family of a Prestwick dad who spent 56 days fighting coronavirus in intensive care want his amazing recovery to give other families hope.

George Clark, 61, took a major step in his recovery last week as he was transferred out of the Ayr Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where he spent nearly eight weeks on a ventilator.

His family, wife Fiona 57, two sons Ryan 27, Steven 22 and his daughter Rebecca, 25 have thanked the NHS heroes who ‘never gave up on him’.

Fiona has told how she first thought George had a cold before his symptoms worsened and he was rushed to Ayr Hospital on Saturday, March 21, just days before the country entered lockdown.

She told the Advertiser: “We’d all had colds – none of us were really ill. We just followed the guidelines which told us to self-isolate, but it was clear things had started to get worse for George.

“I’m a nurse and I thought he didn’t seem right, so I called him an ambulance and we got him into hospital.

“He was in the combined assessment unit for a few days. They tried giving him antibiotics but his breathing became really bad, so they took him to intensive care where they had to sedate him and put him on to a ventilator.”

The following weeks became an agonising wait for the family, who thought he wasn’t going to make it.

Fiona said: “As the weeks went on, we kept checking the news, following other cases to see if anyone else had survived longer. We were just looking for anything that would give us hope.”

George was given numerous tests throughout his whole body, with CT scans on his brain to ensure it was still functioning.

Throughout his ordeal he has escaped from a second lung infection and had to be placed on dialysis after his kidneys failed as his body fought the virus.

He was also given a tracheotomy, a surgical procedure to insert a breathing tube into a patient’s windpipe.

Fiona, who has been married to George for 31 years, believes her husband ‘owes his life’ to the fast acting doctors and nurse of Ayr’s Intensive Care Unit, who ran every test to make sure the dad-of-three would make it.

She said: “The staff were just amazing throughout it. The care they delivered was outstanding. He went through the mill, but they tried everything. They never gave up on him. They are real heroes, he wouldn’t be here without them.”

Every night his family would contact him with Rebecca singing her own recorded version of Adele’s Someone Like You down the phone for him to listen to.

And Fiona has told how she got the shock of her life, as she received a call and heard her husband’s voice for the first time in weeks.

She said: “With his tracheotomy, it prevents someone from speaking. We knew he was doing better but the tube was not out, and that was the last step.

“So, he FaceTimed me, it was a huge surprise.”

Now George faces the challenge of being able to move again, having been off his feet for more than two months. He will undergo intense rounds of physiotherapy, but his family are so relieved he has came through the worst.

Fiona added: “We just want everyone out there not to give up hope. He managed to overcome everything.”

Rebecca said: “I just want to thank every single one of the doctors and nurses. They are beyond incredible. They have gave me my dad back.”

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