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Lifestyle & Human Interest

Security Guard Survives After Lying Unconscious in Sun 7 Hours with Fire Ants on His Face

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Doctors are calling a Florida man the “Miracle Man” after he survived lying unconscious in a parking lot for over seven hours with fire ants on his face.

Exhausted from the heat, Clifford Rice was trying to find his car at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium when he suddenly collapsed into a seizure.

According to St. Joseph’s Hospital, the 49-year-old man was working as a security guard and passed out between two parked cars.

He wasn’t discovered until seven hours later.

“The last thing I remember is the ants coming for me,” Rice told WFTS-TV. “A lot of them.”

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“[The fire ants] were just coming in a line like, ‘hey, man, come get some meat,'” he said. “I was like, ‘wow, OK, this is a bad way to go out.’”

After he was discovered, Rice was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital where the staff miraculously helped him recover.

“When he arrived at St. Joseph’s Hospital he was unresponsive, unable to breath on his own, dangerously dehydrated, in organ failure and had extensive physical injuries from prolonged exposure to the elements,” the hospital later wrote on its Facebook page.

“His chance of survival was very low.”

When Rice finally woke up out of his coma, he was partially blind in one eye but was so thankful to be alive.



“I wasn’t supposed to be alive. They had never seen anything like it before and, you know, I barely had any life left in me when I got [to the hospital],” he told WFTS.

The New York native said his pride — which got in the way of him asking for help before his collapse — is to blame for his near-death experience.

“I definitely should’ve did it a different way,” Rice said. “That New York pride, man. It’s just like, I don’t need no help. I can do this on my own.”

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He was released from the hospital on Sept. 25 after a seventeen-day stay.

“He defied the odds,” the hospital wrote. “We wish you well in your continued recovery, Clifford!”

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Kayla has been a staff writer for The Western Journal since 2018.
Kayla Kunkel began writing for The Western Journal in 2018.
Birthplace
Tennessee
Honors/Awards
Lifetime Member of the Girl Scouts
Location
Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
News, Crime, Lifestyle & Human Interest




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