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Gastonia firefighter back at work two months after suffering aneurysm

GASTONIA, N.C. — Nearly two months after Gastonia firefighter Loren Ward suffered an aneurysm while fighting a fire, he is back on duty.

This is Ward’s first week on the job since he passed out during a fire in June.

He is still about a month away from getting back on the truck and responding to fire calls.

“I'm very blessed and very lucky,” Ward said. "I remember telling somebody, 'I feel dizzy.'”

Channel 9 reporter Ken Lemon last saw Ward in the hospital after doctors performed surgery on an aneurysm, a ruptured blood vessel in his brain.

"I didn't realize I had come that close to death,” Ward said. “I was lucky because I was in the 50 percentile that made it to the hospital alive."

Doctors say many people who survive aneurysms never fully recover.

Ward is an exception.

“I wasn't 100 percent sure I would ever be able to come back to work or not,” Ward said.

Ward’s presence is an inspiration to his co-workers.

"To have happen what happened to him, and just a few months later be able to come back to work, is just tremendous,” said Assistant Chief William Warren of the Gastonia Fire Department. “Everybody is tickled to death."

Ward is still on light duty but is eager to answer the call again.

“It’s a childhood dream of mine to be a firefighter,” he said.

Ward knows the chance of another aneurysm is always looming.

"It's always going to be in the back of your mind. You know, could this happen again?” Ward said.

But that fear won't keep him from fighting fires.

Ward is getting regular evaluations so his medical team can prepare to defend against the possibility of another aneurysm.

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