Edinburgh dad fighting for life in Belgian hospital after suffering 'severe cardiac arrest' in France

Andrew Weyzig, 50, was driving through Belgium after visiting family in Aix-en-Provence when he was forced to pull over after suffering a cardiac arrest on July 1.

Andrew was rushed to a hospital in nearby Liege where he was placed in a medically induced coma by medics and his concerned family soon booked flights to fly out to be at his bedside.

The dad-of-two, from Portobello, has spent the past three weeks unconscious in the Belgian hospital and is due to be flown back to Scotland to continue his recovery later this week.

Andrew Weyzig, 50, is fighting for his life | Other 3rd party

Friends and family have now set up a fundraising page in an effort to help with the £16,000 cost of hiring the private air ambulance needed to transport the heating engineer back home.

Son Brandon, 27, said he and his family have been left “overwhelmed” by the hundreds of messages of support and donations made to the Go Fund Me page so far.

Financial worker Brandon said: “My dad had spent a couple of weeks visiting family in France and was driving home when I believe he became unwell. He had managed to pull over near an industrial estate and luckily a catering worker spotted his car door was open and rushed over to help and called an ambulance.

“It wasn’t until later that night the authorities in Belgium managed to track us down and after making contact with us me, my sister and my gran all flew out on the next available flight.

“We were in total shock and really upset as he’s a big healthy guy and we didn’t really know the full extent of what had happened until we got to the hospital.” 

Brandon revealed his dad had suffered “a severe cardiac arrest” and has been unconscious for the past three weeks as Belgian medical staff battled to save his life.

Andrew with his son Brandon | Other 3rd party

He added: “He had the European Travel Card that will cover the cost of his treatment in the hospital but unfortunately it doesn’t cover the cost of the air ambulance needed to bring him home.

“A family member set up the fundraising page at around 8pm on Monday night and we can’t quite believe how generous people have been so far. At the last count the figure was at almost £12,500 in less than 24 hours - it really is mind blowing.

“We’ve been overwhelmed with the support from friends and family and his employers at Warmworks have been so kind and generous too.

“We will hopefully be getting him home this weekend and I believe he will be needing a special pacemaker but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ve been visiting him every day and been speaking to him constantly so hopefully he knows we are all here for him.

“We are all big Hibs fans and have season tickets together so I’ve been filling him in on the recent results, but I’m not too sure if that’s a good thing or not at the moment.”

He added: “My dad was actually heading home to attend my sister Grace’s graduation ceremony after she graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with an Honours degree in Criminology and Sociology when he fell ill.

“He really wanted to be there for the ceremony as he was so proud of Grace graduating.”

Brandon said the family were also touched by a video posted by the football team Andrew plays for, Almond Star over 35s, who gave their stricken teammate an emotional standing applause before their match against Bonnyrigg Rose 35s last week. To donate to the fundraising, go to www.gofundme.com/f/go-fund-me-andrew-weyzig