A PRESTWICK dad who beat coronavirus after more than two months in hospital says all he ever wanted was to see his family again.

George Clark, 61, spent 56 days in intensive care, and all he can remember was going into an ambulance in March then waking up in May.

The dad-of-three was sedated and on a ventilator as his body fought COVID-19 for most of his time spent in Ayr hospital.

George a design engineer, was admitted on March 21, and he can recall having a “constant cough” as paramedics noticed his oxygen levels were diving.

He told the Advertiser: “It’s been a real blur, I remember very little.

“I can remember going into the ambulance to hospital. Then I woke up, asked what the date was and was told it May.

“I had no idea what happened, I missed the whole of April. When I was taken into hospital it was just before lockdown, I had no clue about anything that was going on outside the hospital.”

George has told how his whole body had taken a battering, he lost one and a half stone, whilst in an induced coma, and through it he required dialysis due to his kidneys failing, and various scans.

George said: “I was only awake in ICU for a week, I had tracheostomy to place a tube in my neck to help me breathe. It was so uncomfortable, but it saved my life.

“I can’t thank the doctors and nurses enough. They were brilliant.

“It was incredible the scale of the operation. There were nurses, physios, doctors flying round.

“I was told it took eight of them to lift me onto my front, when I was sedated to help my breathing.

“When I woke up the nurses and physios would talk to me, but you could only see their eyes. The only one I knew was Gill, because she had that written on top of her visor.

“All I could think at that moment, all I wanted to do was see my family again.”

George got his wish after a gruelling recovery period which involved relearning to walk and swallow solid foods, after being fed from a tube for so long.

His intense physio will now continue, as he gets back to full health, but his lungs, the organ worst affected have returned to normal function.

Last week, he was finally discharged from Ayr Hospital, with his family – wife of 31 years Fiona, 57, son Steven, 22, and daughter Rebecca – there to greet him.

George said: “It was brilliant seeing my family again, I had tears in my eyes even before I got to the corridor, then when I saw them, it was just such an emotional moment.

“It’s fantastic to just be home, having home cooked meals.”

George was greeted as he arrived home by family members and neighbours who came to greet him.

Steven told the Advertiser: “Words can’t describe what it’s like to have our dad back.”

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