A trip of a lifetime quickly turned into an unimaginable nightmare for a Massachusetts father who is fighting for his life halfway across the world after being bitten by a bug.

Scott and Claire Winslow always dreamt of sailing across the South Pacific with their family — and in April, they were finally able to turn their dream into a reality when they embarked on an “adventure of a lifetime” to enjoy their retirement, according to an online fundraiser. 

But just weeks into the three-month sailing voyage, Scott noticed what appeared to be a bug bite and his health rapidly deteriorated, WBZ-TV reported. 

His condition worsened for nearly two weeks while at sea alongside his nephew, and by the time their ship made it to land in Fiji, he was so weak that he was unable to walk.

The father-of-three was rushed to a local hospital, where doctors discovered the severity of his infection. 

“By the time they got to a doctor, he was so sick,” Scott’s daughter Lisa Babbin told the outlet. 

Scott was then transferred from a private hospital to the Intensive Care Unit at Lautoka Hospital on Vitu Levu, the main island of Fiji, where his wife Claire was heartbreakingly told to “prepare for the worst.”

The retiree remains critically ill on a ventilator, battling septic shock and organ failure.

The infection has spread to Scott’s lungs and gallbladder and his kidneys are functioning at “a fraction of their normal capacity,” the GoFundMe page says.

It’s still unclear how the infection started — whether by the insect bite, an infected wound or something else, according to the dad’s family.

While doctors are doing everything they can, Scott’s critical condition requires greater care than the local hospital can manage, according to his daughter.

“Every hour counts for my father,” Babbin said.

The family has secured a bed for the critically ill father at the Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Mass., but doesn’t know if they will be able to afford to fly him back to the United States for better care.

“All we need is a medflight, that’s the only thing we need to get him home,” Babbin said. “Medflights are not cheap.”

A special medical flight from Fiji to Boston — which is over 8,000 miles in distance — could set the family back a staggering $250,000, according to the outlet.

In addition to the fundraiser, the Winslow family has applied for a US government loan to help with the astronomical costs of flying Scott home as well as the foreign medical bills that are adding up without medical insurance coverage. 

Scott is a “hardworking, loyal, generous” man, “always willing to lend a hand,” relatives wrote on the fundraising page.

“He has spent a lifetime helping others, supporting his family, and being there whenever someone needed him.”

While Scott’s family “remain hopeful and continue to pray” for his recovery, “they are also facing the overwhelming financial burden that comes with a catastrophic medical emergency overseas,” the fundraiser says.

You’ve got to be kitten me!

A beloved feline went missing for an excruciating 30 hours in Massachusetts, only to be found in the most unlikely of places — a hole underneath a newly installed bathtub in its owners’ bathroom.

The Kirby family was renovating a bathroom in their Needham home last week when their cat, Fluffy, suddenly vanished, NBC10 Boston reported.

Assuming the snow white kitty had sneakily slipped out the front door while the construction was ongoing, the Kirby family began to fear for the worst after it failed to return home later that night.

Fluffy’s worried owners raced to Staples the following morning to print out missing cat posters and engaged a pet retrieval specialist equipped with a German shepherd to scour the Boston suburb for the cat.

Treats were also left out to lure Fluffy home — but the search came up empty.

“I thought I was never going to see him again,” Melissa Kirby told the outlet.

Thirty hours after the puzzling disappearance, things took a bizarre turn.

“I was upstairs crying and I heard a little meow,” she said. 

“I thought at that point I was hallucinating.”

Melissa was left stunned when she saw a “little paw sticking out a hole” in the bathroom floor where a new bathtub had been recently installed.

Her husband, Ed Kirby, frantically called an after-hours plumber, who asked if it was an emergency.

“Yes, this is an emergency. It’s not a leak,” he desperately recalled telling the plumber. 

“Our cat is trapped under our tub.”

Photos showed Fluffy peeking its little white head up from the hole it was stuck in.

In under an hour, Fluffy was rescued from the hole, unharmed and unbothered, and reunited with his family.

While it was a miracle that Fluffy wasn’t hurt, the Kirby family said they won’t be taking any more chances on their little escape artist — and plan to install an AirTag tracker on him.

“If he ever gets out again or gets trapped under another appliance,” Melissa Kirby said, “we’ll be able to locate him.” 

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I’ve been writing for years about immigrants filling jobs that Americans don’t want. Haitians in particular have stepped into the void where the work is hard and the pay is low – cleaning, groundskeeping, preparing food, caring for elderly and developmentally disabled people.

When an influx of migrants flooded into the United States a few years ago, a number of savvy Massachusetts employers opened their doors to them. Thrive Support and Advocacy, a developmental disabilities provider in Marlborough, hired 41 newly arrived Haitians, filling all its full-time direct-care jobs for the first time in a decade.

With the Supreme Court last week siding with the Trump administration’s attempts to end Temporary Protected Status for Syrians and Haitians as part of its continued immigration crackdown, Massachusetts stands to lose 10,000 Haitian TPS holders in the workforce. A decision on Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship, which grants automatic citizenship to nearly everyone born on US soil, is expected today.

But it isn’t just a numbers game. Employers continually cite Haitian migrants’ loyalty, hard work, and devotion to the people they’re helping — many of them elderly. Not to mention the ripple effects of losing these valued employees as the aging population skyrockets.

“At some point, many people will be rehab patients,” Adam Scott, CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife told me. “At some point, many people will be long-term care patients. And this impacts all of them.”

When the TPS ruling is implemented, 10,000 Massachusetts residents will be out of a job and expected to leave the country. But many of them have nowhere to go. A pharmacy tech I’ve been talking to over the past few months knew this day was coming, and she has a detailed plan in place that will allow her 14-year-old US-born son, who has autism, to stay. But she has no plan for herself. She can’t go back to Haiti, where she was kidnapped by gangs as a teenager. So she’s hoping to keep working until her employer tells her she has to go.

To where, though, she doesn’t know.

—

Read: Who will care for the elderly and developmentally disabled?

Also: More than 100 Venezuelans deported from the United States just hours before the deadly earthquakes are missing. Seven children were among the group, which was taken to a hotel that was destroyed in the quake. (AP)

🧩 6 Across: Bookstore category | ☀️ 88° Hotter Wed.

World Cup: Can the US soccer team beat a European national team for the first time in 11 matches and make it into the Group of 16? We’ll know tomorrow night. In a thrilling upset, Paraguay sent four-time champion Germany home at Foxborough.

Five in a row: Don’t get too excited yet, but the Red Sox followed their four-game sweep of the Yankees with a 6-3 victory over the Nationals last night. They were led by Wilton Contreras, who has been struggling with the news of the deadly earthquakes in his native Venezuela.

Cannabis rollback: If Mass. voters repeal marijuana legalization, would that put you in danger of being arrested? We answer your questions here.

Heat wave: An Extreme Heat Watch has been declared for Wednesday through the Fourth of July. Here’s how hot it will get.

Wellesley killing: The 24-year-old man charged with fatally stabbing his father had suffered serious mental health issues and battled “to contain his demons,” family friends say.

Hiya, neighbor! Cambridge wants to build “social housing.” What is it?

What now? More people are surviving cancer than ever before. Now health providers are helping people navigate the next step.

Duck Boat accident: Questions about equipment quality and decision-making are being raised about the accident Saturday that injured 11 people when the craft flipped in East Cambridge.

Beaches, shellfish areas closed: A sewer line break in Haverhill dumped millions of gallons of wasterwater into the Merrimack River.

He’s No. 1: Yes, but what made AJ Dybantsa the NBA’s top pick? He’s the exact type of player NBA teams are looking for.

By David Beard

📺 Best TV so far: A whip-smart Italian import. A New England horror comedy. A gay Lutheran minister and his sister stumble across a criminal. Check out our faves.

🏰 Home of the Week: Hail, Victorian! Brookline’s regal Webber-Bouve Mansion has hit the market for $4.3 million. Take a peek. Plus, see the 1976 home for sale that has a Revolutionary War touch.

🍕 Riverside eats: Years in the making, the $24 million Esplanade pavilion project with a café nears the finish line.

🎻 Music as a focusing tool: The jury is out on whether music helps you study or work better or takes away focus, However, instrumental music may help more than those jumping lyrical workout tunes. (The Conversation)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Tartan adventure: A Globe reporter went to Scotland to find family history, Highland culture — and a wee dram of whisky.

Thanks for reading Starting Point.

This newsletter was edited by David Beard and produced by Ryan Orlecki.

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Katie Johnston can be reached at katie.johnston@globe.com. Follow her @ktkjohnston.