ROME, Ga., April 24, 2024 – At 71 years old, David Williams was, as they say, healthy as an ox. He ably hiked the woods around his lake cabin and took no medicine other than the occasional ibuprofen for his old football injuries. For the past couple of years, he had experienced sporadic bouts of light-headedness, but didn’t think much of it.

On the morning of Jan. 30, David woke up with discomfort in his chest. His wife, Carol, was away from home running errands. He even ran a few errands himself, but the unusual sensation in his chest didn’t go away. When Carol returned home, David told her about the uneasiness he was feeling. Her first thought was indigestion, but David told her this was a different kind of feeling, adding that he had taken two aspirin.

Hearing that her husband had taken aspirin, Carol shifted into a different mode. David didn’t take medicine. She told him to get in the car. She was driving him to Polk Medical Center, about six miles from their home in Rockmart. The couple talked casually while during the drive. Then, about half a mile from the hospital, the conversation stopped suddenly. David had slumped in his seat.

Carol sped the rest of the way to the hospital, screeched into the emergency department entrance at Polk, all the while blowing her horn to get attention. A team of caregivers rushed out to the entrance while a gentleman – neither David nor Carol knows his identity, crossed the parking lot to their car, opened the door, unfastened David’s seat belt, lifted him up and laid him on the concrete beside their car.

“He was an earthly angel,” David said. “Nobody knows or has a clue about who this gentleman was. I’d love to know who he was so I could at least say, ‘thank you.’”

The physicians, nurses and other caregivers knelt at David’s side. His heart had stopped beating. The team immediately started chest compressions, then lifted him onto a stretcher and quickly moved him into an examination room. An electrical shock from a defibrillator re-started his heart. All the while, a Polk nurse stayed by Carol’s side, comforting her.

Recognizing that David would need advanced treatment, he was whisked away to Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center by ambulance. His heart stopped again during the 25-mile drive to the hospital, and Floyd teammates again restarted his heart.

David says he has no memories of these events. His next memory is waking up a day later in the intensive care unit at Floyd Medical Center with four stents in the arteries feeding blood to his heart. His wife leaned over him and gently told the love of her life that he had suffered a heart attack. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” David said. “I have always been in such great shape.”

Now, David said, his symptoms make more sense. The occasional, but fleeting light-headedness was an early warning. The discomfort in his chest was his only other symptom.

The Williamses have nothing but praise for the care they received and the caregivers who delivered it at both hospitals.

“All the caretakers, the nurses, the doctors, even the young ladies coming in and emptying the trash, they were courteous, nice, unbelievable,” David said. “When I came more to my senses and I knew I wasn’t going to kick the bucket, I told my wife we have got to go tell all these nurses, doctors and caretakers how grateful I am that they all looked after me. That was the number one thing that I wanted to do.”

Once David was out of the hospital and had started cardiac rehab at Polk Medical Center, they did just that. Carol baked cookies and cakes and delivered them to the Polk emergency department, the Floyd emergency department and the Floyd intensive care unit.

“We wanted to make sure they knew we were so appreciative that they saved my life,” David said. “They all did such a great job. All of them were unbelievable. They were guardian angels. I told them, ‘you people are angels on earth,’ and they definitely are. They don’t get enough credit for what they do.”

Sunday, April 7, was David’s 72nd birthday, and his wife planned a special celebration during that morning’s church service. The sanctuary was filled with his three children, six grandchildren and numerous nurses, physicians and other clinicians who had helped care for him after his heart attack. David’s eyes welled with tears.

His wife stood at the pulpit and told David’s story, making sure to thank the Atrium Health Floyd teammates who played a role in ensuring he was alive to celebrate another birthday.

“She gave one of the most heart-felt sermons I have ever heard,” David said.

After the service, David walked through the church doors to find his family and Atrium Health Floyd caregivers. They assembly broke into song, singing “Happy Birthday” to the man who very easily could have missed celebrating that birthday.

“It was a very special day for me, and humbling to me,” David said. “The good Lord was looking after me. He had all these angels on earth right here. I have new insight into how good the Lord is.

“There are a lot of earthly angels here.”