Firefighters lay homeowner’s sod after he suffers massive heart attack

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. (WATE) — When Gene Work had a massive heart attack while working in his yard, all he could worry about was finishing laying the sod before it died and went to waste. 

The Pasco County, Fla. man was laying the last four palettes of sod to avoid fines from his neighborhood’s homeowners’ association when he suffered the heart attack. His wife, Melissa Work, said as he was going in and out of consciousness, he begged her to figure out a way to get the sod put down.

“I calmed him and kept saying, ‘Jesus will help us. It’s okay. Jesus will figure this out, babe,’” wrote Melissa on Facebook. 

After Gene was rushed to the hospital by ambulance, his brother stayed behind to continue laying the sod. As he was laying it, Melissa said he heard trucks coming down the road. When he turned around, he saw the ambulance and fire truck had returned. Confused, he thought they had come back to check on him. That’s when seven firefighters and EMTs jumped out, put on gloves and began laying the new sod so it wouldn’t die.

“They came back because they knew Gene was in serious trouble and they wanted to lay the sod so it didn’t die,” wrote Melissa. “They saved his life, dropped him off and then cared enough to save our grass.”

Since Melissa shared the post on Sunday morning, it has already been liked more than 33,000 times and shared almost 23,000 times.