North Myrtle Beach man who had stroke on cruise dies, donates organs

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WPDE) — The North Myrtle Beach man who suffered a stroke on a cruise died Saturday morning, but not before saving the lives of others.

Bruce Campbell, the owner of Sea Critters Depot in North Myrtle Beach, suffered a stroke on a Carnival cruise to the Bahamas on Dec. 21. He was sent to a hospital in Freeport, but it lacked the equipment to properly treat him. His wife, Narcene Campbell, said she didn’t have the money to get him back to America.

On Tuesday evening, an anonymous donor paid for the couple’s Medevac from Freeport, Bahamas to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, N.C. Narcene said her husband was declared brain-dead early Friday morning.

“So we immediately got to the hospital and we were sitting there and they were talking to us about what was going to happen next, and it just clicked. I said, ‘Wait a minute, he wanted to give life to someone else,'” Narcene said.

Narcene said she remembered that her husband wanted to donate his organs to someone in need. Around 6 Friday evening, she said the hospital informed her that he was an eligible organ donor.

“They couldn’t take his lungs or heart because of his age, but they were to take his liver, his two kidneys, his corneas, maybe to give somebody sight, and a skin graft,” Narcene Campbell, his wife, said.

She said as her husband was wheeled into the surgery room, hospital staff lined the hallways and offered words of support.

“People we didn’t even know were lined up to tell us how happy they were for him, that he was able to give life in this tragedy,” she said. They even gave her a plaque with Bruce’s hand-print on it.

“I was at peace because I was able to fulfill one of his last wishes and knowing that one other person out there may have a chance to have a full life because of my husband, I can’t tell you the words. I can’t tell you the words,” she said.

She said her next step is to return to the Grand Strand, a community that has stood beside her throughout this entire journey, starting from when she was stranded in the Bahamas. Loved ones and friends started a GoFundMe when they received news about Bruce’s stroke. The page has since raised tens of thousands of dollars.

“I can’t tell you what the continuous support will mean to me because soon it’s just going to be me. My oldest daughter had to go home today, and my youngest daughter, she’s going to have a son to go home to. I have me once they all leave, so knowing these people, even strangers I’ve never even met, are out there to help me, is more than I can say,” she said.

Narcene said she also made the decision to close Sea Critters Depot.

“That was his baby. He stated that from the ground up with nothing and made it into what it was today, and for me to make that decision, that was probably the second toughest decision of my entire life I had to make, but I know I am not in any state to run the store,” she said.

She said she will, of course, find all of the livestock in the store a home before shutting the doors.

“It’s really killing both me and my daughters to do this, but we know for me this is the right thing to do. I can’t function. I don’t even know if I can walk into that shop at this point. My goal today is to walk into my own home, which is going to be hard,” she said.