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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think shops and cafes should give free sugery drinks to diabetic people in emergency situations?

232 replies

ikeaismylocal · 19/07/2014 12:47

I saw a mum with 3 children having what looked like the beginnings of a fit at a shopping centrer today, everyone else was walking past ignoring her ( whole other thread) I stopped and tried to talk to her but she was very confused and kept trying to tell me her mobile number. I ran into a shop and asked them to call an ambulance ( I had no phone or money, dp had all my things in ds's pushchair and I was meeting him at the car, I'd stopped to go to the toilet)

Her children were about 6 months, 2 and 5, the poor 5 year old was terrified and wouldn't say anything but I chatted to her and told her everything would be ok and after a while she told me her mum was diabetic.

I ran to the nearest cafe and explained there was a diabetic woman who needed a sugary drink and could I have a coke and come back and pay after as I had no money, the lady gave me a coke and I ran back, the diabetic mum drank the coke but was still shaking and sluring her words, I ran back to the cafe and explained and asked for another coke, the lady said no she wouldn't give me anything as I hadn't paid, I'm 7 months pregnant so running isn't something I look at ease doing, I also don't think I look like a kid trying to get some free coke.

I went to a shop further away and they gave me 2 cans of coke. The diabetic lady recovered quite quickly once she had drunk the coke.

Aibu to think that shops and cafes should give free sugery drinks if they are needed?

OP posts:
Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:18

Nothing wrong with thinking of your job over someone who is coming in and possibly scamming you for bottles of sugary drinks that cost more than 20 or 30 pence

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:20

Aww thanks lots of cheese, you have one too Biscuit

JellyBabiesSaveLives · 19/07/2014 23:20

Hmm, risk losing my job vs risk letting someone die when I could easily save them - yep, that one's easy.

Yellow, is it easier if you stop thinking about diabetes and imagine the mother is bleeding to death and needs something from your shop as a tourniquet?

Low blood sugar KILLS. Fast.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:21

Woman in shop doesn't know it is life or death hence OP should get the campaign going

lampygirl · 19/07/2014 23:23

Sorry,pint of coke. Had no problem. Wasn't really poor control, I'd broken my thumb, and the shock had made me feel a bit wobbly, went for better safe than sorry. Had no issues. I also know that including the gas it costs less than 10p for a postmix pint. The guy behind the bar was glad to help.

I've also had to get coke and some biscuits for someone else and had no problems there so mostly the places where it comes out of taps seem better.

You absolutely shouldn't have to legislate this, it should just be common sense. Most of these places can give out free stuff if you are kept waiting in a queue!

In my years of working in a bar when I was younger I have never been asked. It's hardly an everyday thing, more stock is lost in waste daily than I've ever seen given out free to customers in need in emergencies

JellyBabiesSaveLives · 19/07/2014 23:23

Another thing to help the thought processes. Type 1 diabetes just happens, out of the blue, to people with no apparent risk factors or family history, to as many adults as to children. It could be you, next week.

paddyclampo · 19/07/2014 23:24

Well done OP!

As someone who has type 1, it's good to know there are people like you about :)

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:24

"Nothing wrong with thinking of your job over someone who is coming in and possibly scamming you for bottles of sugary drinks that cost more than 20 or 30 pence"

Yes there is, actually.

I would say that someone who assumes that a heavily pregnant woman who rushes in saying there is a medical emergency outside and can she have X to help it is scamming, and thus refuses to help out in any way with said medical emergency, is intensely paranoid.

I think yellowfins you need to accept that your worldview is not in fact the way that the majority of people in the UK think (thank god).

edamsavestheday · 19/07/2014 23:25

Well done, OP. Lots of people walk on by when strangers are in trouble. You didn't and you made a huge difference to that woman and her kids.

Shame about the woman in the shop - maybe she thought, unfairly, you were trying it on, or maybe she was worried about getting into trouble herself. Or maybe she thought one drink should have been enough, who knows.

I am profoundly grateful to the nice woman who saw me collapse in the street and rushed outside to bring me in and made me lots of hot, sweet tea.

Not so grateful to the miserable sod who watched me have a seizure on the tube and did nothing. It was a weird one - as I curled up my eyes were fixed on him. Maybe it freaked him out. No-one else helped either but I don't know how many other people would have realised. But given I know I was staring at him, he certainly must have known things were very wrong indeed.

NB for all the judgmental types, I do take medicine for epilepsy, but sometimes however good the control you can get a breakthrough seizure, even after years of being fine.

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:27

I have helped people as well. You just don't think about it do you. Well I don't.

I suspect people react differently in situations though.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:27

Pregnant women can be scammers and criminals you know!

I have worked in a shop and nothing surprises me any more and women with small babies were the most common shoplifters along with pregnant women Grin

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:27

And people have helped me as well Smile which was lovely of them.

Jux · 19/07/2014 23:29

I have ms and one of its delightful manifestations is that once my energy has run out it doesn't get replenished easily. As a result I can collapse. What I need is a shot of instant energy - glucose or sugar, and I usually carry sachets of sugar with me just in case.

I have been caught without though. Thankfully, I tend to realise what state I'm approaching and am able to ask someone to find sugar for me, and thankfully, even in crowded rush hour Waterloo station (last time it happened), the kiosk people were nice enough to hand over half a dozen sachets to the total stranger who was asking for them for me.

Thanks to both, no ambulance was required, and I could make my way to a cafe where I could sit down, rest, and eat a cake before catching the next train.

I know the costs mount up for businesses, and I know that a few pence can make the difference between breaking even and making a loss, and that can make a significant difference to the ultimate viability of the business, so I would not judge someone who wouldn't part with stock for my sake. I am just grateful that some people do.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:30

Good point Jux

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:30

Why do you keep grinning yellowfins? It's not funny.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:31
Grin
ProcessYellowC · 19/07/2014 23:32

aie aie NO - my comment looks like its being taken the wrong way -no, I am not saying it may be right decision that the person in the 1st cafe took based on their employment circumstances. But surely there must be something that would make the person refusing the drink think that they should? Again, to be clear I am not saying its the right choice - but why on earth would someone refuse?

Though reading some of this thread it appears there are many who would have refused the drink Sad

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:33

You understand that the consequences of hypoglycaemia can be extremely serious, and that this woman was having an attack while out with 3 children, one of whom was becoming distressed by her mother's behaviour?

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:34

There are some on the thread who think the OP shouldn't have even asked in the first place, because she didn't have the money to pay for it on her Hmm

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:34

but why on earth would someone refuse?

Because someone could lose their job over someone who could be lying?

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:35

Some are acting like the OP Hmm

SevenZarkSeven · 19/07/2014 23:37

Give it up yellowfins.

Everyone understands perfectly well what you are saying.

There is a reason people are reacting badly to your posts.

You need to remember that when situations arise, not everyone reacts the same way, not everyone has the same thought processes, and that is just fine. In this case, it is a good thing that people have thought processes and reactions that are different from yours.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:39

You need to remember that when situations arise, not everyone reacts the same way, not everyone has the same thought processes, and that is just fine

That is why it is understandable that shop woman refused a second bottle of sugary drink

SecretWitch · 19/07/2014 23:41

If I had to choose between my job and the life/ health of stranger, the stranger would win every time.

Yellowfins · 19/07/2014 23:43

Woman in the shop couldn't know that to be fair to her

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