PHOENIX - A Peoria nurse is in need following a medical emergency while on vacation.
Ed Rivas contracted a contagious bacterial infection and had to have part of his leg amputated.
Rivas has been a nurse for 15 years. He is so used to helping others, but now the tables have turned, he needs the community's help now.
"Everything is different. Everything is different," he said of his current predicament.
This summer, Rivas cut his foot on a beach in Florida.
He says there were no signs of an infection until he returned home days later.
"We went to the emergency room and within a couple of hours, they're like, 'Ed, you're septic,' meaning the infection was in your blood, and we need to admit you and start you on multiple IV antibiotics," he said.
That's when doctors told the father of two he had MRSA.
He underwent three surgeries, but that did not stop the flesh-eating bacteria from spreading.
Doctors told Ed his left leg needed to be amputated immediately.
"The doctor had stepped out for a minute and I asked my wife, ‘hang on, did I hear him right? Did he say, ’we have to take my foot?'' She says, ‘yeah,’" Ed said.
Ed spent 15 days in the hospital.
His recovery has taken longer than he anticipated.
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"Everything is difficult," he says.
He's leaning on his family to get him through this challenge.
"My boys and my wife, they couldn't have been better," he said.
Ed is eager to get back to his routine, including work.
"I keep teasing them. I'll get my prosthetic on Wednesday and go back to work on Thursday," says Ed.
However, there are a few hurdles he has to get through first.
For one, being able to afford a prosthetic leg. With no income for the last four months money has been tight.
"It's hard asking for help, you know. I don't know if that's because I was a nurse or just because I am me, a little bit," he said.
Ed is hoping to raise enough money to buy a prosthetic leg and to pay off some medical bills. A GoFundMe has been set up.