Diabetes Trick
Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 2:17 am
I don't have diabetes, but I can only imagine the pain in the butt it is for those that do.
However, noticed in addition to the race card, their is the diabetes card. They are pulled in different situations.
One day, while at the Olive Garden, a man was told it was a forty minute wait for table. He said that he had diabetes and could not wait. Now even if he was sat then, it would still be a while before the food came. The host kindly offered him bread sticks and water, but that wasn't gonna cut it for him. He got angry, demanded to see a manager and then began to show his diabetes supplies. Now, I think the bread sticks and water was a reasonable accommodation.
There are also memories of guests wanting FOTL passes for rides for diabetes, not an alternative waiting area or a return time. Which brings me to the point of this post, the most memorable guest in 6 years of working at a theme park. Since I took the report, I remember her full name to this day.
A young woman in her twenties comes into GR upset because she was bumped into by a sweeper while she was injecting insulin into herself. Ouch. I kept offering to call first aid. But she didn't want medical help. She wanted a refund. But what baffles me is why would you inject insulin, with your elbow crooked out in a crowded amusement park? That is like asking for trouble. To make this more interesting, she said the syringe was empty, so she shot air into her stomach and the needle broke off inside of her. Still, she refused medical attention. I never saw the offending needle, even when she claimed to have pulled out of her, she never showed it to me. Concerned about embolism (even though that probably wasn't the case) i picked up the phone to call FA. She told me not to call. I gave her a chair to sit on and she kept giving me the evil eye. The convo dwindled down to her wanted a refund. Keep in mind the park had been open 8 hours already. Since tix are non-refundable I offered discounted tickets ($10 ea) for a next visit. No. Comp ticks? Nope. Not gonna do it for her, and she mentioned the L word "lawsuit". Red flags went off. This sounded like a slip and sue to me, only with syringes and a sweeper that didn't speak english. I told her I had to end the conversation with her and had a sup speak to her. I hate the L word.
Well, he got FA to come. The guest was POed that we brought first aid in. Apparently, she had be diabetic since she was a child and never learned not to inject insulin in a place you can get bumped. My sup offered her discount tickets (at a higher price) and she took them. Here is the real shocker... she said "thank you (sup's name) you were so helpful, that other girl didn't help us at all." By now I was behind the partition helping a newhire close out their till. OMG was I pissed. It took everything in me not to go out there and tell her off.
I told this story to a diabetic co-worker and he said that those needles are very hard to break. Which made be feel like this girl took us for a ride. Anyway, her GSR expired and she never got her comps. Yay.
Ever since that day, when some one can in and said they had diabetes, my blood ran cold in fear that I would get another guest like the one mentioned above. So am I crazy or are there other diabetes tricks out there? Or am I the only one that happened to run into the most difficult diabetic ( or not) in the world?
However, noticed in addition to the race card, their is the diabetes card. They are pulled in different situations.
One day, while at the Olive Garden, a man was told it was a forty minute wait for table. He said that he had diabetes and could not wait. Now even if he was sat then, it would still be a while before the food came. The host kindly offered him bread sticks and water, but that wasn't gonna cut it for him. He got angry, demanded to see a manager and then began to show his diabetes supplies. Now, I think the bread sticks and water was a reasonable accommodation.
There are also memories of guests wanting FOTL passes for rides for diabetes, not an alternative waiting area or a return time. Which brings me to the point of this post, the most memorable guest in 6 years of working at a theme park. Since I took the report, I remember her full name to this day.
A young woman in her twenties comes into GR upset because she was bumped into by a sweeper while she was injecting insulin into herself. Ouch. I kept offering to call first aid. But she didn't want medical help. She wanted a refund. But what baffles me is why would you inject insulin, with your elbow crooked out in a crowded amusement park? That is like asking for trouble. To make this more interesting, she said the syringe was empty, so she shot air into her stomach and the needle broke off inside of her. Still, she refused medical attention. I never saw the offending needle, even when she claimed to have pulled out of her, she never showed it to me. Concerned about embolism (even though that probably wasn't the case) i picked up the phone to call FA. She told me not to call. I gave her a chair to sit on and she kept giving me the evil eye. The convo dwindled down to her wanted a refund. Keep in mind the park had been open 8 hours already. Since tix are non-refundable I offered discounted tickets ($10 ea) for a next visit. No. Comp ticks? Nope. Not gonna do it for her, and she mentioned the L word "lawsuit". Red flags went off. This sounded like a slip and sue to me, only with syringes and a sweeper that didn't speak english. I told her I had to end the conversation with her and had a sup speak to her. I hate the L word.
Well, he got FA to come. The guest was POed that we brought first aid in. Apparently, she had be diabetic since she was a child and never learned not to inject insulin in a place you can get bumped. My sup offered her discount tickets (at a higher price) and she took them. Here is the real shocker... she said "thank you (sup's name) you were so helpful, that other girl didn't help us at all." By now I was behind the partition helping a newhire close out their till. OMG was I pissed. It took everything in me not to go out there and tell her off.
I told this story to a diabetic co-worker and he said that those needles are very hard to break. Which made be feel like this girl took us for a ride. Anyway, her GSR expired and she never got her comps. Yay.
Ever since that day, when some one can in and said they had diabetes, my blood ran cold in fear that I would get another guest like the one mentioned above. So am I crazy or are there other diabetes tricks out there? Or am I the only one that happened to run into the most difficult diabetic ( or not) in the world?