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

[ikeaismylocal]

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?

there shouldn't need to be a policy for shopkeepers to give what is needed to help out when people rush in saying there is a medical emergency outside their door and can they have X.
pretty bloody depressing view of the world to think that is needed.

I don't understand why it's "depressing" that people need to be educated about the symptoms of this particular illness. I know fuck all about diabetes. AFAIK the symptoms of one type of episode (hyper? hypo? I have no idea) involve being extremely thirsty and sleepy; and the symptoms of the other kind of episode are almost indistinguishable from drunkenness.

I worked in catering for a really long time and TBH if someone had ever run in and said they "needed" a Coke because someone in the street outside was having a diabetic episode I'd probably have thought "piss taking liar" BUT I'd have given it to them without question because I just wouldn't be prepared to put up a fight about 40p profit to my employer who was only paying me minimum wage anyway.

I just don't think it's as straightforward as the naturally good-hearted, honest people on this thread think it is.

OP you did a fab, timely thing.

Yellow (and some other posters I think), your attitude is weird. Yes I can vaguely understand that in a frazzled moment a shop assistant might end up saying no to a second free drink. However I'd hope that given the situation (heavily pregnant woman saying there's an emergency outside), most shops and people would help. 'Cause it's the human thing to do.

Diabetes can kill - it's really serious. I probably wouldn't recognise someone going into a hypo and wouldn't know what to do. Thank god for people like the OP who don't delay. Going for the security guards first could've been a terrible mistake.

None of this is funny.

your first thought would be 'piss taking liar'?

interesting.
I wonder what % of the population has even seen a bad hypo? I wonder what % of people in shops, have ever been asked for a coke, for a diabetic.
0.001%

yet you assume piss taking liar.
if someone came to me and said someone was having a fit/heart attack/ whatever, my first thought WOULDN'T be piss taking liar.

vicmack needs to be educated on diabetes. and every other disease and illness and possible accidents and emergencies.

so that her first thought isn't piss taking liar.

god give me strength.

if someone came to me and said someone was having a fit/heart attack/ whatever, my first thought WOULDN'T be piss taking liar

Ok, fair play - in my first three years in catering it wouldn't have been my first thought either.

Where are you getting your figure of 0.001% of people ever having been asked for a sugary drink for a diabetic from?

joke vic.
I just plucked it out of thin air.

what do you think the % is?
of mn'ers who have seen a severe hypo?

of the population, who have witnesssed a severe one.

do you know the legal definition, of a 'severe' hypo, as opposed to a hypo?

you say you worked for years? how many years? how many hypos you seen?

you say you worked for years? how many years? how many hypos you seen?

In catering? About 15, I think. I have no idea how many hypos I've seen because - as I said - I don't even know the difference between a hypo and a hyper. That's why I think I need educating.

I don't think severe diabetic hypo's are the only area of life that you need educating in!!

try educating yourself on empathy, general life skills, and doing the right thing.

you seem to need educating in lots of areas of life!!

op can teach you.
she is very caring. how about you try starting to educate yourself on 'being caring' first!

Wow. Ok.

This is a different situation but I work on the london underground and we have many people fainting/fitting on trains, some may be diabetic, epileptic or maybe they are hot or just haven't eaten breakfast but my colleagues on stations will pay for coke/cold water out of their own pocket. When I used to work on stations they still had the chocolate machines on platforms and I scrambled for my change a few times in emergencies when diabetic passengers needed something sugary. I guess we see it more than most shop workers though so are less inclined to assume someone is a piss taker!

Unfortunately I have witnessed a shopkeeper refusing to give tissues to someone who had fallen and was bleeding outside. It was an independent pharmacy and the man was about 90.

Fucking wow at the shocking twatty posts on this thread. I really really hope I don't know you in rl yellow. I really hope you have done all this for the 'tinternet and the attention.

I too have had help from people in shops when I've gone hypo. Every time I have had bloody sugar on me before you start! The latest one 5 years ago when I was 12 weeks pregnant. I had testes my blood sugar 15 mins earlier and it was 5. Something (that is spot on btw). I collapsed in tesco and a random man caught me . I must have come round and told the shop assistant I was diabetic because next thing I remember I was eating a mars bar!

It happens. I think for me it has been twice in 25 years.

I was on holiday with a friend who had a similar view to you, yellow. I had a dodgy batch of insulin and it wasn't working effectively. I was very hyper and had no way of beinging it down. I needed to get to hospital. My friend told me I was a drama queen and actually left me on my own in a strange city. I think she was pissed iff I had ruined her night out.
Obviously we didn't remain friends. I had a phone call about 10 years later out of the blue. It was her ringing to apologise and to tell me she had just been diagnosed as type 1 ! Karma?

Thank you, OP. .

I did not have testes!

Sorry for leaving the thread last night, I fell asleep whilst reading.

I don't think there needs to be a policy about providing drinks to people who need them in emergency situations I just think that people are able to help no matter if they are an individual or if they work in a shop they should help.

I felt so helpless that the cola the mum needed was right there and I had no way of getting it for her.

Possibly I'm projecting but losing conscious whilst alone with my child is one of my main fears as a mother, I have had dizzy spells in this pregnancy so I'm a little bit over the top about putting the pushchair break on when we are waiting on train stations or bus stops, my ds can escape his pushchair straps.

I was reassuring the mum before I knew what the problem was and whilst she was drinking the cola that her dc were safe and I was there and I wouldn't leave them, she was trying to hold onto her double buggy but jerking and falling forwards when she was losing consciouness, she was sitting and I tried to persuade her to sit/lie on the floor, she was sitting on a bench and to let go of the buggy but she understandably couldn't see my logic.

This made me all the more angry that I had to go further and take longer as I really wanted to be there for the children.

People were walking past and looking disgusted and walking purposefully away. I don't live in the UK and theculture here is to not get involved, this is the 3rd medical emergency I have helped with in 3 years, the only other people who have helped have been immigrants.

I think the solution would have been to single people out and give them specific job "excuse me, lady in the red t-shirt, can you come and hold the pushchair to make sure it doesn't topple over" "excuse me, man with green jacket can you please go and get some coke, this lady is diabetic and desperately needs it" I'm not great in an emergency situation so those ideas didn't occur to me at the time.

OP, you are great in an emergency!
Without your intervention, the woman would have slipped into unconsciousness. An ambulance would have been required for paramedics to inject her with glucagon to bring her round. She would probably have felt very unwell when she did eventually regain consciousness, probably in hospital. And her children would have witnessed that, as well as being left unattended.

You were excellent!

And for anyone reading this thread who doesn't recognise the signs of hypoglycaemia, they are:
-pale, sweaty, clammy, glassy-eyes

• slurred speech/confusion/shaking/disorientation.

The correct treatment is a mini size can of full sugar drink eg cola, or, 5 dextrose tablets (no mars bars, chocolate, hot drinks). Repeat again if no improvement in 10-15 mins. Call paramedics if person unconscious or cannot take treatment (don't rub stuff on gums, it's a choking hazard).

When you ran into the first café, you should have told them to radio security. They would have been more inclined to believe you and you would have had assistance sooner.

this thread has deeply upset me. i am a controlled type 1 with a toddler. i am well controlled, DAFNE educated but i have had hypos. i carry dextrose but sometimes with diabetics thats not enough. you cant even get them into your mouth. your brain shuts down, its deprived of vital glucose. you feel like you are dying and you are starting to. its incredibly important that someone like the OP helps. that woman had 3 small kids with her. she would have been terrified. and guess what. she would have known EVERYTHING about control and hypos. to have 3 pregnancies is so so hard. testing 10, 20 times a day. paranoid that your sugars might lead to a birth defect if not tightly controlled. hypos throughout the first trimester. possible eye damage. all to ensure you have healthy babies. so the diabetic in question would have done all this. so guess what, you smug, sanctimonius ill informed posters, I hope to god I never encounter you in a similar situation. i hope noone you care about ever gets sick and is denied life saving first aid because you are mean, stupid or pathetic enough to withhold a life saving remedy. shame on you.

I think the solution would have been to single people out and give them specific job "excuse me, lady in the red t-shirt, can you come and hold the pushchair to make sure it doesn't topple over" "excuse me, man with green jacket can you please go and get some coke, this lady is diabetic and desperately needs it" I'm not great in an emergency situation so those ideas didn't occur to me at the time.

I'm sure I read somewhere in an article about how people are more likely to help the more people are helping, that if you give people specific jobs they are also more likely to help. But as you say in emergencies you're not trained it's hard to think of everything

Hear, hear, glamping!!

The attitudes of some posters on this thread are despicable & shameful. What utter ignorance & nastiness.

Here here glamping.

PICK PICK PICK PICK, I can't believe the crap the OP is getting over helping that woman and her young children.

It's a proud moment for AIBU really, especially picking at the cost of the coke.

Well done OP for your quick thinking, I'm not sure I would have had a real clue about how to help her. But now I do if I ever see a similar situation.

Queen - ffs lay off the OP. Perhaps you could explain to us in detail all the times you have had experience of offering help to a hypo woman with 3 children in a shopping centre whilst being 7 months pregnant? Yes, thought not! Go glamping!

And to the people telling the OP what she should have done. Bravo, well done on your wonderful hindsight.

Well said glamping.

I think the OP did really well but I'm not sure how realistic it is to expect all shops to dish out freebies on demand though.

In some areas, once word got round, there would be a never ending stream of people trying it on & the upshot would be that no-one got a freebie ever again.

All the diabetics I know and/or work with tend to have an emergency source close to hand all the time. One person has a small pouch with dextrose in, which is always on her person.

I also know a couple of people with severe nut allergies, and they're totally responsible for carrying their own emergency medication around with them (they'd die very quickly without it), I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a diabetic to do the same TBH.