Why do I see a lawsuit coming???

Even if they thought the man was drunk, their proper procedure has got to involve contacting authorities and handing him over to the cops at the next stop, even an unscheduled one. Oy.

Yeow!

Geez, even had he been drunk...

About a month ago one of my employees called me to the front, he said we had a problem customer. (My forte.) The customer was a doe-eyed woman about twenty-five years old. She was casually dressed and standing near the front of the store staring into space. She was unresponsive to my questions "May I help you with anything?" "Are you feeling okay?". She only swayed back and forth without making eye contact.

We are located around the corner from Beth Israel's Psychiatric Unit and have on several occasions met up with persons in catatonic states or others who engage in shouting matches with themselves. (Those people are sometimes difficult to discern from persons engaged in conversation on their cellphones, but I digress.)

The woman became more and more agitated as time passed and she began to stumble into the register counter and a display of GE SoftWhite Light Bulbs. I asked one of the cashiers to call 911.

I got the woman to sit down on the floor and I sat down with her. She still said nothing but continued to look around wild-eyed. When the medics arrived, (in less than two minutes I might add) they took over, talked to her for a bit and got her to go with them out to the ambulance.

That was the last I saw of him for the rest of that day. The next morning there she was again, this time in the paint department. I walked over to here and asked "How are you?"
"Good." She said, " Good."
"You gave us kind of a scare yesterday" I said.
"Oh," she replied, "Was this the place I was in? I was in diabetic shock, I missed my count or something but the attendants brought me around."
"Well, good to see that you are alright." I replied, meanwhile I am shaking my head at remembering how close I was to just getting her out of the store and onto the sidewalk.

What happens to a person in diabetic shock?
How soon does it become diabetic coma?

For her part, should she bear some responsibility for putting herself in danger?

It's not all cut and dried.

The folks on the train were jerks and I was very nearly one.

Joe(then there was the agitated guy who wanted to buy a hatchet)Nation

The guy was lucky he didn't go into a coma. They could have kiled him. I hope he gets a nice hefty settlement

There is a little more to the story:



From the same source.

Judging from his age and medical condition I doubt he "fled" into the woods. More likely he incoherently wandered into the woods.

I don't know how long it takes, Joe. The diabetic shock and coma result directly from hypoglycemia, if that helps. Probable cause is misjudging how much insulin they should take. Sugar is safe; insulin is not, unless you have actually taken a blood sugar reading.

I think I don't know all the facts, I also think MM doesn't know all the facts. I reserve judgment.

Incoherently wandered sounds like the person I had on my hands. He's going to win something, but he's going to have to show that he was completly, or nearly completely, without fault.

Joe(Where'd he go? "Dunno, thought you was watching him.)Nation

I posted a link to the article,I based my comments exclusively on that article.

Do I know all the facts?
No,I dont.

But it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that Amtrak was wrong on this one.

Didn't read the article, but the news yesterday was saying he had just found out he was diabetic the day before. He probably wasn't familiar with his condition yet, as far as knowing the signs, what to do, etc.

I accompanied my wife to a "bead supply" shop in DC about 15 years ago and while she was caught up in the possibilities which every single bead presented, (and there were billions), I was shunted off to a sort of Auto deslers waiting room where the bead company had a nice collection of magazines and coffee. I sat there reading something like "Modern Pigeon Fancier", when all of a sudden, in stumbles this woman who almost crashed through the door. She was obviously ill or drunk (I chose ill and called the manager). The manager, unphased, just took her by the arm and led her out to the landing where she proceeded to tumble down the heavy marble stoop. She hit the pavement and I went running out . I had a "bag phone" with me and called 911(bag phones were a few generations before cell phones) and , with a gathering crowd of sidewalk samaritans we sat with the lady. Everyone who had a medical degree in that bunch (and Ill bet it was half the people , according to the banter) stated that she ws apparently in diabetic shock. She had, to make matters worse, really gouged her head and was bleeding heavily. A stranger applied a pad to stem the blood and when the ambulance arrived, they quickly did a BGI and got her to respond fairly quickly.
All the while the store manager was standing at the doorway of the shop and seemed unconcerned, although he did come out and stated to one iof the EMT's that he'tried to asist the lady but she fell as she made it to the pavement"
The story got more interesting when, after a few months , I was contacted through the womans attorney to give an accounting of what i remember of the incident. I told the attornies my tale and later discovered that the store settled with the woman for an undisclosed amount.

Diabetes is a manageable disease, its a chronic condition that must be controlled. So the woman bore responsibility to keep herself from going into hypoglycemia , but , as I saw it, she should not have been treated as she was by the store manager. That act of leading her out the door to the top of a big high stone porch was just wrong. I felt guilty about not intervening and only after she fell down the steps did I reneder any aid. In retrospect I was just as wrong as the store manager. However, I did not cause her fall, as he did.

Ive often seen people just standing in subway platforms with that thousand mile stare consistent with diabetic conditions. I often wonder how much badly monitored or uncontrolled diabetes is out there?.

As far as the railroad, there is no excuse and the RR should be held responsible for jumping to a conclusion like that without any confirmation.

I wouldn't have known that diabetic shock resembles drunkedness if I hadn't read this thread and I'll bet there are many others who wouldn't have either.

I don't think Amtrack is completely blameless but they really were between a rock and a hard place. The conductor was waiting with him on the platform and had called police when, it seems, the man wandered off into the woods. Should the conductor have chased after him, leaving the train behind? That doesn't sound like a good idea. Or, what if they guy had just been drunk? I don't know what his behavoir was like but I'd guess people had complained or that there were enough problems reported that the conductor stopped the train and put the man off. If he had been drunk should he just be allowed to continue whatever he was doing that disrupted the train? That doesn't sound like a good idea.

It sounds to me that if anyone is at fault that it would be the police on the scene that obviously didn't make much of an attempt to find the man.

I'm just playing devil's advocate because the finger pointing "big fat settlement" crowd bug the bejesus out of me.

The Amtrack officials claim that the man "fled into the woods" when authorities arrived. Is this to say that the youthful, fleet-footed police could not outrun a 65 year old man in a diabetic shock? Something is wrong with this picture.

Even if he was drunk, he shouldn't have been left alone by Amtrack OR the police. How many drunks do we hear about wandering onto the railroad tracks?

What if he'd been having a seizure? Would they have found him disruptive and left him on his own then?

Yes, that was my point before. Even if he were drunk instead of diabetic, they boot him off the train in the wilderness?

This does seem an indicator for wearing a diabetes bracelet or some kind of tag, but it seems like they wouldn't have checked anyway.

for some odd reason I'm thinking about some egyptian medical students who stopped in to a cafe for lunch and a waitress overheard them talking about some moving logistical problems and eventually Jeb bush announced on the telly that 'he wasn't sure what they were guilty of but he was sure they were guilty of something and he was going to make sure they were convicted of something'

You got a link to this,or are you just talking thru your hat?