George Banks did not expect his illness to sideline him for 61 days. At one point, the situation was dire.

“The doctors told my wife I had a 20 to 40 percent chance to live,” Banks, 45, told Spectrum News Monday during an interview on his front porch in Port Ewen.

Banks, a volunteer firefighter and state corrections officer, did not want to go to the hospital on Easter Sunday when his headaches and shortness of breath worsened to the point that he passed out.

“I’m a little stubborn,” he said smiling. “It takes a little bit sometimes.”

His family and fellow firefighters talked him into it.

“I was like, ‘You gotta go,’ ” Banks’ oldest daughter Kathleen recalled. “You’re going to either end up dying here you’re going to get saved there and get the medical attention that you actually need.”

That kicked off two months of hospitalization at two facilities with no in-person contact. Banks started out on a floor designated to COVID-19 patients, was moved to intensive care, was moved back to a COVID-19 unit, and eventually was put on a ventilator for three straight months.

“The roughest part was not being able to be with them, hug them, and talk face to face. That was very rough,” Banks said of his family not being allowed to visit due to the disease’s spread.

Then last week, his family and colleagues — the same people who pushed Banks to up to the hospital in the first place — escorted him home with lights and sirens, drawing cheers from every direction. 

“The outpouring from the community with friends and strangers, it was very overwhelming,” Banks said.

Banks advises anyone who hears his story to listen to family when they sense something is wrong, and not to slack on social distancing and face coverings, because the pandemic is not over.

“It’s serious. Very serious stuff,” he said. “You just don’t know who, where, when it’s going to happen. I didn’t expect it at all.”