On Sunday, a customer at my work went into diabetic shock. On Monday, I learned that he had passed away.
Sunday is my biggest shift of the week, nine hours of being the only employee working the front. It’s usually not tooo busy (because it’s Sunday) but this weekend was a holiday weekend and it was a pretty lively shift. I had about an hour left when two elderly men came in and ordered three burgers to go. One gentleman had a green baseball cap, the other wore a bright yellow sweater. They were both a little larger than average, but especially the man in the yellow sweater. There were a few other customers ahead of them, and one lady behind them, and everyone had placed their orders and were just waiting for their food when it happened. There was a strange noise, I can’t even remember enough to describe it, really, and the man in the yellow sweater had keeled over, sliding to one side off his chair. His friend in the hat had lunged forward, and was supporting him, speaking loudly to try and get him to respond. The impaired man’s eyes were closed, and he sort of shook wildly for a moment before going still. I came forward asking if there was anything I could do and the man in the hat asked me if we had any ice cream, because the impaired gentleman was diabetic. We’d run out of ice cream a few hours ago. A bearded customer who had rushed forward to help ran next door to buy a candy bar, and we tried giving the man soda, but he was clearly unresponsive. I had previously asked about calling 911, and now I was further prompted to go ahead and call them. The lady on the phone kept asking me about the man’s breathing patterns after the emergency services had been dispatched and I had a hard time telling if he was breathing. I think I was freaking out a little, but I was trying to stay as calm as possible. The man in the yellow sweater was slowly turning grey, and the bearded customer told me that his pulse was faint. Five minutes after making the call, a fire truck arrived with paramedics, just as my boss arrived to relive me from my shift. The man in the yellow sweater was taken away on a stretcher, and the bearded customer mentioned to me that he hadn’t had a diabetic identification bracelet on. We were lucky he’d been here with a friend, otherwise no-one would have known what had happened to him. I thanked the bearded customer for his help. My boss, upon learning what had happened, told me that I’d done the right thing, and that there really hadn’t been much more I could have done. Everything felt a little surreal as I went home, and I was genuinely worried about the man in the yellow sweater.
Mondays I usually work a 4 hour shift, but this Monday was a holiday, so I worked for 6. Again, close to the end of my shift, the man in the green cap, the friend of the man in the yellow sweater came in. His expression was grave, and he informed me of the fact that his friend had passed away. I knew from giving 911 the man’s information that the man in the yellow sweater had been around 75. The man in the green cap thanked me for my help the previous night, and I told him it was no problem, and expressed my condolences to him and the deceased’s family.
I didn’t really want to make a big thing about this because I thought I was fine. It was a weird thing to happen, and it was pretty scary at first on Sunday, and it sucks to learn that someone died, but I didn’t know this man. I had a brief interaction with him, and then he went into diabetic shock in my store.
I can’t explain it, but I’m rattled. I feel weird, and slightly out of it. I can’t stop thinking about what happened.
I can’t shake this feeling, and I’m not even really sure what this feeling is.
