North Myrtle Beach business owner stuck in Bahamas after suffering stroke on cruise

NORTH MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WMBF) – A North Myrtle Beach small business owner and his wife are in need of a Christmas miracle.

Bruce and Sue Campbell, who own Sea Critters Depot, set sail on a cruise before the holidays. Sue said the trip started perfectly with walks on the beach.

“We went out to the beach where my little grandson, who’s autistic, made a little Christmas tree for us to take with us and we took and put it on the beach and took a picture of that,” Sue said.

But then the trip took a turn three days into it.

Sue told WMBF News the two were playing bingo on a Carnival Cruise line when Bruce suffered a stroke.

Carnival officials said they provided emergency medical assistance on board and changed the ship’s itinerary to get him to the closest available hospital in Freeport, Bahamas.

“It took six hours for them to decide what to do with us, so they offloaded us in the middle of the Atlantic, onto a little tug boat and sent us here to Freeport,” Sue said.

The cruise ship they were on returned home on Monday, but the Campbells weren’t able to leave because of Bruce’s condition.

“They were willing to put him back on one of their ships, once they cleared him here, and if their doctor cleared him. But now that’s out of the picture because they won’t let him travel anywhere except for by Medevac,” Sue explained.

Sue said they have no money, no insurance and need help getting home. She said they also don’t have passports.

“On Carnival Cruise, you just need a birth certificate and driver’s license and that’s our other problem, we can’t get off here without a passport.

So now they’re both stuck in a hospital in the Bahamas with no way of getting home and Bruce is in critical condition and getting worse.

“They’ve just taken him back to do another scan of his brain, something else is going on, because he’s deteriorated and I’m afraid he’s given up and I need to get him home,” Sue said.

Sue talked with the family’s doctor in Myrtle Beach about Bruce’s condition and he said Bruce needs to get home as soon as possible.

“He told us time is of the essence and we need to get Bruce to the mainland because we’re almost at the threshold where he may not recover,” Sue said.

A GoFundMe has been put together in an effort to try and get the Campbells back home.

WMBF News will continue to follow this story and will bring you any updates on Bruce’s condition and their effort to get back home.

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