CVS and Epilepsy don’t mix…

I went down to CVS a little while ago to feed my Friday addiction for RockStar energy drink. Immediately to my right as I walk in is a man lying on the floor. I notice that everyone is moving away, and I my first reaction is that I just walked into a robbery or something. Then I notice that he is shaking and coughing and I realize that he is having a seizure.

A high-school age girl is kneeling down by him, but she looks totally freaked out and is looking at everyone else. He’s on his back, and starting to choke, and time is still passing. Everyone that hasn’t moved away is either ignoring him or just watching him, and nobody’s doing anything. So I grab him and roll him over.

The girl says “Don’t touch him!” and I kind of reel, because it’s been a long time since I got my first aid merit badge in the Boy Scouts. But I know that it is easy to choke if you are on your back, which is exactly what he is doing. When I roll him over he starts breathing better, but he’s really shaking a lot. She says “Are you supposed to roll him over?” I don’t answer her, because she’s still freaking out anyway. Then his hands start flying around and the girl starts calling him “Dad”.

I ask her some questions and find out that he’s had seizures since Vietnam, but she has never witnessed one and doesn’t know what to do. I look up, and realize that the employees are still standing behind the counter like stunned cattle, tongues hanging out and everything. Someone tells a cashier to call 911, but instead she calls the pharmacist to the front.

A lot of help he is: he just stands there and says “Don’t let him swallow his tongue” like 3 times, which even I know is a myth. So another cashier finally calls 911 to send an ambulance. The pharmacist won’t even TOUCH the guy, and is totally unhelpful. When the guy starts to reach for his foot, he actually moves away.

He starts to come down from his fit, but is very disoriented so his daughter and I spend the next 10 minutes trying to keep him from sitting up, which fails, and then from standing up, which also fails. It’s a losing battle, since I’m not going to be rough with the guy, but luckily as soon as he stands up the paramedics show up.

They guide him to a bench in the store, and start helping him out. The guy actually starts talking by then, although he is still a little groggy. The girl thanks me and I ask her if she needs anything. She says they are fine, and gets a call from her mom, so I buy my RockStar and pound pavement. My 2 minute trip to CVS turned into 30.

So what’s my point? Only that it sucks that there were 20 people standing around, and nobody was helping this guy. The employees, and especially the pharmacist, should have some type of process to follow in case of emergencies. I mean, it’s a PHARMACY, there are usually sick people there.

I just realized that in during the whole situation I never heard his or her name. I guess I would have failed my merit badge, since that’s the first thing you are supposed to ask.