When Susan Causey picked up her 84-year-old husband, Ron, from the senior center, she knew right away that something was wrong. He didn’t acknowledge when she drove by and when he stood up, he was unsteady on his feet. She recognized the signs. “I knew from experience that he was going into diabetic shock,” she says. “I didn’t have anything (sugary) on me, so I drove to the nearby McDonald’s.”
There was a line of cars in front of her at the drive thru, but rather than leave her husband in the car, she decided to wait in line. Things got worse for Ron by the time they reached the drive-thru intercom, so she yelled, "I need a large orange juice. Can you please have someone run it out to me? My husband's in diabetic shock!" The employee on the intercom went to the manager, James Dalpiaz, and asked if he could help Causey. He told the employee to get an orange juice, then, knowing what the situation calls for because his aunt also suffered from diabetes, Dalpiaz added some sugar to it before rushing it out to the car.
Causey knows from experience how close to disaster they were. “He was just about ready to go into a coma,” Causey says. “I could see myself having to call 911. That’s how low his sugar was. James’ fast acting saved him a lot of grief.” Dalpiaz, for his part, is just glad to have been in the right place at the right time.
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