In 2018, Jerry Carter (left) suffered a heart attack. The ER staff at Macon Community Hospital worked on him for 20 minutes and used a defibrillator twice to save his life. Three years later, Tim Carter (center), Jerry’s son, needed that same lifesaving care.

It was March 23, 2021. “I was taking the tires off my lawn mower trailer when my chest started burning bad,” Tim remembers. “It eased off for a bit. But later, the burning came back. Then both my arms started throbbing like a bad toothache. Being 50 years old at the time, I thought I was too young to have heart attack. I called my daughter, Chelsea (right), with the phone by my side because I couldn’t life my arms. I was still being hard-headed about going to the hospital, but she convinced me to go.”

When Tim arrived at Macon Community Hospital, the staff immediately gave Tim aspirin and nitroglycerin and was setting up a chest X-ray when Tim’s heart stopped. “I remember feeling nauseated and then I passed out,” Tim says. Fortunately, the ER team used chest compressions to revive and then stabilize Tim before transporting him by helicopter to a hospital in Hendersonville, where he recovered completely.

“Macon Community Hospital saved my father’s life and then mine,” Tim says. “There’s just no doubt about it!”