A shift manager at a Michigan McDonald’s saved a man suffering from diabetic shock after his wife frantically asked for help over the drive-thru speaker.
When Susan Causey went to pick up her 84-year-old husband after he played cards at the local senior center in Southgate on September 20, she knew something was amiss.
“I could tell just by the way he was walking to the car that something was wrong. So when he got in the car, he couldn’t even talk,” Causey said, according to ABC 7.
Her husband, Ronald Causey, was suffering from diabetic shock, and Susan knew she needed to act quickly to save her husband.
“I knew from experience that he was going into diabetic shock,” Causey said according to the News-Herald. “I didn’t have anything (sugary) on me, so I drove to the nearby McDonalds.”
“When you’re a diabetic, you can drop so fast. You can go from shock to coma, and I knew he was at a very close point of coma,” Susan told ABC 7.
Diabetic comas can be life-threatening, according to the Mayo Clinic. “If you have diabetes, dangerously high blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or dangerously low blood sugar (hypoglycemia) can lead to a diabetic coma,” the Mayo Clinic states. “If you lapse into a diabetic coma, you’re alive — but you can’t awaken or respond purposefully to sights, sounds or other types of stimulation. Left untreated, a diabetic coma can be fatal.”
When she arrived at the drive-thru speaker, Causey announced that her husband was in diabetic shock and told the employee taking orders that she needed an orange juice. The News-Herald reports that the employee told his shift manager, James Dalpiaz, of the medical emergency.
“I ran. And I said, ‘I got it. I got it. I got it, I know what to do,'” Dalpiaz recalled according to ABC 7. “So I’m pouring sugar in there. And they …said, ‘oh, she only asked for orange juice.’ And I said, ‘I know what I’m doing … just trust me.'”
Dalpiaz knew what to do because his aunt has diabetes, ABC 7 reported.
The shift manager sprinted to the Causey’s vehicle and handed the couple the orange juice, informing Susan that he had added sugar to the beverage.
“I didn’t even think to tell him to put sugar in it. You know, when stuff like this happens, I don’t care how many times it happens, I always get shook up,” Susan recalled per ABC 7. “You’ve got to react pretty quick to it. And he did. So he’s my little hero forever.”
“He was my hero that day,” Ronald Causey said, according to the News-Herald. “He was an angel on my shoulder. He was on top of it.”
“I’m really humbled by all the responses I’m getting because I’m kind of a shy guy, so I feel like I don’t deserve it, you know, I’m just doing what was right,” Dalpiaz remarked per ABC 7.