Navy veteran from Mass. trying to get home after sudden illness leaves him stranded in Las Vegas

Family and friends are worried about Bob Rice.

The Navy Veteran from Dedham was vacationing in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago when he suddenly fell severely ill.

“Both of his knees started swelling up with one worse than the other and he very soon went septic because of it, and the sepsis has spread throughout his body,” said Kurt Tarvis, a family friend.

Tarvis says Bob had a liver transplant 14 years ago and now that liver is failing.

He also started having neurological issues while recovering in the ICU at a hospital in Vegas.

“They’re not designed to treat these kinds of patients, they don’t have a dedicated liver team out there and that’s who he needs to see because of his unique condition,” said Tarvis. “The problem is if his liver rejects, the odds of survival are slim to none.”

So Bob’s family and friends are trying to get him to a hospital with specialized care.

“Almost every hospital we’ve reached out to said that they’re full and they cannot accept him out there, but we were able to get him a bed at Tufts, now the issue is just getting him home,” said Tarvis.

Tarvis says they need an ICU med-flight to safely transport Bob from Vegas to Tufts Medical Center in Boston, but he says that flight would cost about $50,000 out of pocket, and they won’t know if insurance will cover it for 10-15 days.

“We might not know for up to two weeks and he doesn’t have two weeks of survival at this rate,” said Tarvis.

The father of six has several grandchildren and a few great-grandchildren all praying for him as they try to raise donations for that flight to get him home.

“Every hour is just getting closer and closer to death,” said Tarvis.

If you’d like to help the family, there is a link to the GoFundMe to help Bob.

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