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rd.com 11They Saved
His Life—
and His Lawn
By Andy SimmonsO
n a steamy July day in Bayonet
Point, Florida, Gene Work and
his brother-in-law, Mark Rouco,
were resodding Gene’s yard. It had
grown brown and patchy in the heat,
and the homeowners’ association had
threatened to impose a hefty fine if
the situation wasn’t remedied. The
new sod was sitting in the driveway
on four pallets, but the job was slow-
going. Gene, then 40, wasn’t feeling
right. He went inside to take a break
and collapsed on the couch, clutch-
ing his chest. His wife, Melissa Work,
called 911 quickly.
Even though he was staring down
death, Gene had one thing on his
mind: that lawn. If the sod wasn’t put
down that day, it would die. “While he
was having his heart attack, literally
in and out of consciousness, he kept
begging me to have it put down be-
cause he didn’t want it to go to waste,”
Melissa wrote in a Facebook post.
Soon Pasco County Fire Rescue ar-
rived and took Gene and Melissa to
the hospital, leaving Rouco behind to
tackle the yard. Within an hour, he hadmanaged to remove the old grass. He
was about to lay the new sod, which
he feared would take him well into the
night, when two emergency vehicles
appeared. Seven men—the same ones
who had treated his brother—got out.
Gene had told them how badly he’d
wanted to get the sod down, so they
had returned to help. The job was
done in under two hours.
Meanwhile, Gene had surgery to
insert stents in his heart, alleviating
a potentially deadly blockage. He’s
home now, fully recovered—and en-
joying his beautiful lawn.
The Works are still amazed that
those EMTs went above and beyond
their job description. “These men,”
Melissa told tampabay.com, “saved
Gene’s life, and then came back to save
his grass. That’s just so awesome.”These EMTs returned from the hospital to
make sure their patient’s lawn didn’t die.