DUPONT – Bob Price, a Dupont city councilman and longtime photographer, found himself in dire straits in recent months when flesh-eating bacteria invaded his left leg, forcing it to be amputated above the knee.
Price recalls attending a Dupont Lions Club meeting in late June when fellow Lions Linda O’Boyle Zaneski, a registered nurse, noticed that his skin color was wrong and that he was not behaving properly.
Zaneski intervened and called an ambulance when it was discovered that Price was suffering from severe atrial fibrillation and his pulse was at 180 beats per minute.
“I was hooked up to IVs and they discovered I had flesh-eating bacteria in my leg that was working its way up to my heart,” Price said after entering the hospital. “That would have been game over.”
Shortly after being admitted to the hospital, Price’s leg had to be amputated to save his life.
“The surgery was on Tuesday, recovery was on Wednesday, I was in rehab on Thursday and was released from rehab on July 3 and was allowed to go home,” Price said. “I came home, recovered and did my best to get my strength back.”
In the meantime, Price is still recovering from surgery and is looking forward to being fitted with a prosthetic leg so he can return to a normal life. His wife, Ellen, and son, Jon, have been helping Price get to events to take photos until he is fully recovered and able to stand on both feet with the help of a prosthetic leg.
“I’m doing my best until I get my prosthesis, but I still go to some events, but at a much slower pace,” Price said. “Once I get my prosthesis, I’ll be able to walk normally again.”
Price has been very active in recent years, photographing many events in the greater Pittston area to post on Facebook. He has become a very popular figure in the area, and was named the Sunday Dispatch’s Person of the Year in 2018.
On August 10, the United Community Volunteers of Holy Mother of Sorrow Parish Church in Dupont hosted a ziti dinner, selling about 400 tickets and raising enough money to assist Price with medical, travel and living expenses.
According to Price, the money will benefit him because the company he works for initially denied him his disability benefits, leaving him without income for nearly two months.
Price said the entire process was humiliating and he knew it could have been worse and the outcome could have been fatal.
“Lois McHugh and Linda Falzone organized the Ziti Dinner and it has taken on a life of its own,” Price noted. “I can’t believe the outpouring of enthusiasm from the community and the donations and well-wishes, the many people who have come just to donate and not even attend the dinner.”
According to McHugh, 61 gift baskets were raffled off on the day of the Ziti dinner.
Price would like to thank not only McHugh and Falzone and the entire United Community Volunteers organization, but also the Reverend Zbigniew Dawid, pastor of Holy Mother of Sorrows Parish, for the use of the church for the ziti dinner.
