On Aug. 10, 2024, the Unitied Community Volunteers of Holy Mother of Sorrows Parish, held a ziti dinner fundraiser on behalf of Dupont resident and councilman, Bob Price, to aid Price with medical, travel, and living expenses while recovering from the loss of his leg. Front row, left to right: Julie Manganiello, Linda Falzone, Bob Price, Kelley Tayoun, Lois McHugh. Back row: Jim Falzone, Very Rev. Zbigniew Dawid, church pastor, Mike Manganiello, Jon Price. Absent: Ellen Price. Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch DUPONT — Bob Price, a Dupont councilman and long time photographer, fell on bad times in recent months when a flesh-eating bacteria entered his left leg and as a result, had to have it amputated above the knee.
As Price recalls, he was attending a Dupont Lions Club meeting at the end of June when fellow Lion Linda O’Boyle Zaneski, who is a Registered Nurse, noticed his color was off and wasn’t acting right.
Zaneski took action and called the ambulance when it was discovered Price was in full A-Fib with a pulse of 180 bpm.
“I was hooked up to IVs and it was determined I had a flesh-eating bacteria in my leg that was working its way up to my heart,” Price described the situation after he entered the hospital. “That would have been game over.”
Soon after entering the hospital, it order to save Price’s life, the leg had to be amputated.
“Surgery was Tuesday, recovery was Wednesday, I was in rehab on Thursday and then released from rehab to go home on July 3,” Price recounted. “I got home, I was recovering, and doing my best to get my strength back.”
In the meantime, Price is still healing and mending from the surgery and is looking forward to getting fitted for a prosthetic leg to resume a normal lifestyle once again. His wife Ellen, along with son Jon, have been helping Price get to events to photo until he’s fully recovered and on both feet with the aid of a prosthetic leg.
“I’m doing the best as I can until I get my prosthetic, but I’m still getting out to some events, but at a much slower pace,” Price said. “Once I get my prosthesis, I’ll be able to walk normal again.”
Price, for the last several years, has been very active out in the field shooting photographs of many Greater Pittston events to post them on Facebook. He’s become a very popular figure in the area; so much so, in 2018 he was named the Sunday Dispatch’s Person of the Year.
On Aug. 10, the United Community Volunteers of Holy Mother of Sorrow Parish Church, Dupont, held a Ziti Dinner selling approximately 400 tickets raising enough money to aid Price with medical costs, travel, and living expenses.
According to Price, the money will come in handy due to the fact he was initially denied his medical disability by the company he works for, therefor not having any income for nearly two months.
Price said the entire process has been humbling and knows things could have been worse and the outcome fatal.
“Lois McHugh and Linda Falzone organized the Ziti Dinner and it took on a life of it’s own,” Price remarked. “I can’t believe the outpouring from the community and the people with donations and the well-wishes, the number of people that showed up just to donate and not even have the dinner.”
According to McHugh, there were 61 gift baskets were raffled off on the day of the Ziti Dinner.
Price, in addition to thanking McHugh and Falzone and the entire United Community Volunteers organization, would like to thank the Very Rev. Zbigniew Dawid, Holy Mother of Sorrows Parish pastor for the use of the church all for the Ziti Dinner.
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