Longtime Boston TV personality Bob Lobel facing yet another health fight

It wasn’t the signal that was fading in and out as Bob Lobel and I were talking on the phone early Sunday night.

It was Bob who was fading in and out. Confined to a bed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, this after being transported home last week from Fort Myers, Fla., via Angel MedFlight, the 76-year-old retired sportscasting legend at WBZ-TV (Channel 4) admits he’s “tired” and “worried about where all this is going.”

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What’s going on with Lobel is that he has been diagnosed with transverse myelitis, which the National Multiple Sclerosis Society defines as “a neurological disorder caused by inflammation (swelling) across both sides of one level or segment of the spinal cord.”

“Ironically, with all the chaos going on outside with the (coronavirus), what’s happened with me is totally different from all that,” said Lobel, who has battled a variety of health issues over the years, including spinal stenosis.

As it was, he was using a pair of metal canes to get around. Now, he said, he is paralyzed from the waist down.

“They’re treating it and they’re hopeful, but I’m pretty devastated if you want to know the truth,” Lobel said.

But because this is Bob Lobel, the story takes a variety of twists and turns and with an assortment of characters from early chapters in his life making surprise appearances.

Such as Mike Lynch, the recently retired sportscaster at WCVB-TV (Channel 5) who was Lobel’s longtime competitor.

Also making an appearance is Lobel’s ex-wife, former Boston television personality Susan Wornick, who stepped in and helped line up medical treatment.

His girlfriend — Deedee O’Brien prefers “partner” — runs Ironstone Farm, which uses horseback riding to provide therapy for patients suffering from physical, cognitive, emotional and mental disabilities. She and Lobel were in Naples, Fla., on March 2, looking into buying a winter place, but then, said Lobel, “All of a sudden I had this really bad pain in my back. I knew I was in trouble, and that’s when Deedee got me to the hospital in Naples.”

Enter Mike Lynch. The two longtime rivals have been doing a podcast together, and the producer, Hank Morse, texted Lynch to apprise him of the situation. Turns out Lynch was at his winter place in Naples.

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“I went over to Naples Community Hospital to see how he was doing,” Lynch said. “I helped get him back into bed after they were doing the diagnoses and I kept in touch with him.

“When I walked in there that first time, his two feet were hanging out from the blanket and I instinctively tapped him on the right foot and said, ‘How you doing, Bob?’ His girlfriend, Deedee, texted me that night and said, ‘He moved his right foot. Can you come back tomorrow and touch his left foot?’”

Lynch did make a return visit, and, he said, “Bob was in a new room by then, and everyone was figuring out how to get him back to Boston safely.

“I had genuine personal concern for his well-being,” Lynch said. “Despite the fact we were rivals for more than 30 years, we were never enemies. We were always friends.”

O’Brien decided to reach out to Wornick because, well, it was Wornick who introduced Deedee to Bob.

“Bob is one of the most wonderful and one of the most important people in my life,” Wornick said by phone from Aruba, where the former WCVB consumer affairs reporter and news anchor has been vacationing. “I’m probably going to tell you more than you need to know, but even though we are divorced and did not have an excellent marriage history we were always and continue to be best friends.”

When O’Brien called her and said, “We have a situation,” Wornick made a number of calls. One of those calls was to Jodi Brett, senior director of the patient liaison program at Beth Israel Deaconess.

“I said, ‘Jodi, Bob is in trouble, what can we do?’” Wornick said. “She said, ‘I don’t know, but I will make some calls.’”

Jodi Brett’s father is Rich Reynolds, who is Wornick’s fiancé.

“So my fiancé’s daughter worked to help save the life of my ex-husband,” Wornick said.

Within an hour, a plan was in the works to get Lobel to Beth Israel Deaconess. In case you’ve forgotten about the kind of money sportscasters made in the crazy 1980s, Lobel wrote a check for somewhere in the neighborhood of $18,500 for his specialized flight to Boston, with Deedee by his side.

“I am doing a lot of searching and there are a lot of machines involved, trying to get some motion back in my lower extremities and even get my balance back,” Lobel said. “I’m getting the greatest care possible.”

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When I spoke to O’Brien late Sunday night, she said, “We still don’t know how serious this is. He’s just starting to move his feet. Tonight, they used a lift and were able to put him in a chair and for the first time since this happened he was able to eat dinner sitting up.

“He’s been very depressed,” she said. “He thought it was over and he was talking about what he was going to say to his kids. But there’s been some progress since then.”

In the background, Lobel began to pipe up when O’Brien mentioned Wornick.

“This story is really crazy,” Lobel said.

(Top photo of Lobel: Paul Marotta / Getty Images)