Diabetic Aid refusal

Your a diabetic and you did not travel with a snack, juice or
crackers. Why did you need a doctor to treat a low blood sugar? How
were you in a semi-conscious state after eating? Shame on you for not
being prepared for delays.

You're diabetic, and you don't carry glucose with you?

I should write a complaint letter about the fact that you aren't
responsible enough to take glucose, candy, or a snack along during an
air trip.

There is simply no need to have a doctor present when you have a
hypoglycemic episode. You deal with it and go on. Test your glucose
frequently. Have a way to deal with lows, and a way to deal with
highs.

You're just writing to try to get something out of your bad vacation.
If your spouse did not understand that simply giving you food would
help, then your spouse needs to be educated.

Your nap was probably an excuse for your fatigue.

By the way, a sandwich is not a decent treatment for hypoglycemia.
Fast-acting carbohydrates (glucose/dextrose) or even plain table sugar
(sucrose) that you could have probably picked up for free in tiny
packets would have done just as well for you.

You give diabetics a bad name.

That is why Air France's nickname is "Air Chance".

'As a result of our investigation, we found that our Customer
Relations employee suggested to you he call a physician, from the Fire
Department Emergency Services, and you refused help. From our
wheelchair attendant, we found that she also asked you if you wanted
to be wheeled to the Fire Department Emergency Services, and again,
you refused.'
My fellow passenger wittnesses confirm that medical help was not
only not offered, but that Air France refused to call emergency
services when I requested them to. Some of those passengers
accompanied me to the snack bar, and watched as we left to go past
security. No one saw the attendant ask me about emergency services,
something she probably would have done in the first thirty seconds.
My own memory of events would certainly be called into question
given my state when they happened.

This has been quite an adventure for me, stepping into the world of
Planet Feedback. First of all, I have to thank all of you because
there wasn't any comments I read that didn't have something of value
in them. And, in dealing with companies it's always wise to be
forwarned about the things you might say that will tick people off who
work within their buildings.
I don't agree with everything, but I can't walk away thinking I
didn't learn something. It is possible that I may be called in one day
to recount my story, and questions are sure to be asked. While
certainly there will be a couple of surprises, many have already been
discharged in my direction, and that can only help me.
"You didn't just plot this when you got off the late plane? Or on
your way to Paris?"
"How could I have known what the customer service desk would do?"
That's probably not one I'll have to deal with, but I'm going to
remember it for a long time anyway. In every respect, it's been fun
listening to you all.

I'm a little disappointed that my fellow commenter would look past the
larger issue and look only at the OP's actions. Certainly he should
have been prepared. Which he states he was. However Air France
should have acted immediately when he asked for medical assistance.
What many of you are saying is comparable to telling a man who just
hit a telephone pole because he wasn't paying enough attention that
you won't call an ambulance for him or that he doesn't deserve medical
attention.

As I stated in one of my other posts...

Places like airports, amusement parks, cruise ships, large businesses
(etc..) act as small communities. They have their own medical units
that are capable of handling medical emergencies such as this. Many
have actual medical doctors on hand while some have first response
medical teams. For example, my father is a member of his company's
first response medical team. He has full paramedic training that his
company paid for.

Additionally, there are Good Samaritan laws all over the world
including France. In the United States you are not required to help
anyone in distress however in other countries you are required by law
to administer aid by at least calling the local emergency number. In
this case, calling the medical station. So while I agree that he
should have been more prepared to deal with his illness on his own and
he isn't owed a refund of his entire trip, he does have a valid
complaint.

I already chimed in on this once, but your responses to some of the
other posters made me question more of your "story."

First off, at no time did you pay "to have this guy and many others,
work for" you. You paid for the SERVICE of being transported. Just
because you paid your fare doesn't mean you "own" these people until
you get to your destination. Slavery was abolished centuries ago!

Secondly, just where exactly was Air France supposed to find this
doctor you expected them to provide you? I don't know if things are
different in France, but in America, the only way you'd find a doctor
hanging around an airport is if they were waiting on a flight of their
own. Airports MIGHT have a first aid station where a trained security
person or MAYBE a nurse might be on duty to tend to minor incidents,
but you aren't likely to find a doctor.

Even if a doctor had been around, who is to say that they could even
help you? What more would they do but get you some food the way the
wheelchair attendant did? God forbid the doctor they found for you
was a proctologist! What's HE going to be able to do for you? Maybe
extract your head from your posterior?

& it's fine and dandy that the FAA told you they would prosecute this.
Just out of curiosity, since you were no where NEAR the United States
when this incident occurred and you were dealing with a non-American
airline, why would you bother contacting the FAA?

(Just FYI, of course they'll agree with you, they have no stake in
this and can say anything they want - there's no culpability on their
part to hold Air France responsible!)

I doubt very seriously that the attendant told you to F-off unless you
were acting like a class A jerk. You admit you left many parts of
your story out for brevity which is commendable. Unfortunately, I get
the feeling that the parts you left out were the ones that proved how
this whole incident was just as much your fault as theirs.

While they could have been nicer to you and more helpful, you could
have been more responsible and you certainly don't deserve to have
your entire flight refunded because of this alleged "trauma."

Your assertion that we as commenters are looking for holes in your
story is correct - if it looks like swiss cheese and it smells like
swiss cheese. . .

Bottom line, my suspicion is that you were honked off that there
wasn't a cart waiting to whisk you to the next gate and you trumped up
your disability and made a scene to get them to pay attention to you.
How very 3 years old of you!

& FYI, my Dad is a Diabetic too and has never once had a problem like
this - he's also never tried to get any special treatment and he also
has a heart condition to boot. He keeps his medication with him or my
brother and I know where to find it to help him. But I guess some
people just deal with their condition instead of using it as a
weapon.

The irony here is that you might have actually swayed a few people
here to side with you had you not returned and gotten belligerent and
hostile with several of the regulars here.

Your smug attitude does you more harm than good.

You've got me curious. Can you provide a citation to the European law
(is this a French law? An EU law?) that says that an airline (or
whatever) is required to provide medical assistance upon request.

I don't doubt it. But I'm curious and want to learn more.

I'm going to say something to all of you nay sayers who are blaming me
for failing to take care of my diabetes. I was prepared. I was not
prepared for a lie in Pisa, as I was so clear explaining I had
diabetes, that I knew CDG was difficult to navigate, and I would need
assistance for me and my family to make it to the other gate on time.
We were not allowed to carry a stroller, the person booking told me
that. We were assured that there would be an Air France person to lead
us through the maze that is Charles DeGaulle, with an electric cart.
That's the first issue in my complaint to the Italian equivalent of
the FAA.
Yes the low is my problem as it always is. But if something goes wrong
THE LAW SAYS I must be aided if I request it. That's the issue,
whether I did, or did not, have cookies, whether my wife was helping,
or not, whether we did, or did not, have a stroller. You all sound
like you want to be savvy, nobody-gonna-fool-me types. Whatever I am
'trying' to do really doesn't matter. The issue is, Air France was
uncooperative, and went as far as to BREAK THE LAW! Let's try to stay
on topic, eh?
Passengers who were there to see this from a variety of countries were
outraged. I found six business cards in my coat pocket and vaguely
remember people glaring at the agent, and then handing me the cards. I
think it's easy to cast me as someone you're all familiar with, like
the people who sue McDonalds when they spill coffee on themselves.
Maybe you just had to be there, and my description isn't convincing.

Were you in an airport?

I am trying to get a clear picture.

You also said you had cookies in your coat pocket but you were so "out
of it" you couldn't find it. I am not a diabetic, but my mother, aunt
and uncle all are and their mother died from diabetic complications.
Now, my grandmother always had pepomint candy with her, I remember
that a great deal. My mother keeps some type of candy with her as
well. She maintains her diabetes well.

I have had the sugar drop, faint feeling and I have not learned to
have hard candy with me all the time. But if I feel that coming on, I
start searching out the hard candy or something to help me.

If you were in an airport, did they not have something you could have
eaten? You say an attendant stopped and got you a sandwich. I would
think that would have helped just a little...just enough.

Next time, let your wife hold your cookies for you. At least she
could have remembered where they were.

I think I'll forward this letter to my diabetic father.

That way, next time HE forgets his snack and has a 'sugar fit' (as he
calls it) in public, he can conveniently assign blame to whatever
establishment he happens to be at.

I'm going to call BS. As a diabetic, I never travel anywhere without
a roll of Lifesavers or glucose tablets or SOMETHING in my pocket.
And, if your blood sugar was so "dangerously" low, you wouldn't have
made it 25 minutes. And furthermore, you got a sandwich. Sure, the
somewhat-complex carb and protein combo is good for slow blood sugar
raising, but where is the sugar laden soda to bring it up
immediately?
Nope. Too many holes.

At what point did your wife go find you some juice? Orange juice is
the best thing to bring up a sugar level. I would not have let my
husband fall into that type of condition. Why wait that long? Your
medical problems are YOUR problem. You are responsible for bringing
needed meds along with you. Most diabetic patients would not be
caught without their needed meds, snacks or juice. Shame on you for
trying to blame the airlines.

I've been thinking about this for a little while now, and I guess
these are my concerns:

1. While I agree that if you told them it was a medical emergency they
should have treated it like a medical emergency, sitting around in an
airport and waiting for half an hour is not the action of people who
believe they are in the middle of a medical emergency. It's one thing
if you've seen the triage nurse in the emergency room and been told
that you can wait for a few minutes while the guy with the gunshot
wound can't, but I am not trusting my life and health to people at an
airline customer service desk.

2. What exactly would a doctor have done for you? Helped you find
something that would raise your blood sugar. A guy pushing a
wheelchair managed to do that for you just fine -- and *before*
getting you through the control points -- which makes me wonder why
your wife (who would not have wanted to leave you to look after your
kids in that state) couldn't find someone else to ask for help in
locating food?

3. Not that I don't grasp that nondisabled people who have the ability
to control where other people's wheelchairs go don't sometimes
completely ignore what the person riding says they need, but if you
were desperately trying to get a doctor, why didn't you say anything
at the security checkpoints? The guy pushing the chair wasn't the one
doing the screening too, was he? (And I think the phrase you're
looking for isn't "truck"; it's "lift" and/or "aisle chair".)

4. I also can't imagine a flight crew that would merrily take off
while a passenger is having a medical emergency (and even though your
kids were upset, your wife still could have shouted something at a
flight attendant as you were hurtled down the aisle in the aisle
chair, right?); and in my experience flight attendants imagine
medical emergencies where there are none because, unlike the people at
the customer service desk, they really and truly do end up in
situations where they can't summon medical help for a passenger. So
if you were semiconscious or unconscious between your arrival at the
gate and the time someone went through to make sure everyone had his
or her seat belt fastened, I would have expected that you and your
crying family would have been removed from the plane pending medical
clearance. Moreover, if your wife and kids were upset to the point of
crying, I'm pretty sure that a passenger or two would have noticed.
Hysterical infants on a flight do sometimes get "ignored" by people
who don't think their input would be welcomed, but hysterical adults
are another matter.

5. After Air France just about let you die right there at the CDG
customer service desk, why on Earth would you need to add problems
with your luggage in order to make a complaint? For that matter, why
didn't you demand to speak to someone in authority when you landed in
New York?

What this letter suggests to me is that you asked for medical help
that you didn't actually need, that you were willing to wait some time
before getting any medical help at all, that you and your family were
traumatized but never asked anyone for help, and that your medical
emergency was apparently undetectable by the flight crew and the
passengers around you.

As I say, I agree that as soon as you said "I need a doctor" someone
should have called for one. But given the way you appear to have
behaved, I can honestly see why someone who hadn't called for a doctor
in the first 5 minutes after you asked for one wouldn't really think
it was a priority. After all, if you've got a glucose meter on your
person the odds are that you have enough experience with your diabetes
to know whether or not you're having an emergency and your family's
behavior will reflect that knowledge.

Knowing the plane was late, why didn't you ask the stewardess on the
Air France plane for something to raise your blood sugar levels? I
have friends who are diabetic, but I have never heard of someone's
blood sugar dropping to the point of semi-consciousness from a quck
hurry through an airport. Your blood sugar was dropping while you
were still on the (late)plane, while you could have prevented this
(i'm sure a transAtlantic jet has something on board that would raise
your bloodsugar.
While I agree they should have called for medical help (thus causing
you to miss the next plane, but, hey, your luggage might have caught
up), you are responsible for preventing this type of occurance in the
first place.

Here's the problem. Most companies instruct their employees not to
give out any medical aid or advice unless they are specifically hired
and trained for just that particular purpose. The most that any
employee can do for a seriously injured person is call emergency
services. Any employee who tries to give medical aid to anyone else
more often than not risks possible reprimand and/or termination. Why,
you might ask? Well, ask the well- meaning waiter who tried to give a
choking customer the Heimlich maneuver and perhaps cracked a rib. Did
the customer who's life was saved thank the quick-thinking waiter?
Nope. They turned around and sued the waiter and the restaurant for
millions. The kind-hearted waiter who was just trying to save the
life of a fellow human being? Oh, he got fired for his trouble.
Thank you very little. A lot of the stupidity can be cured by
stopping frivolous lawsuits. (look up the "Sylvia Awards") If you
didn't have the proper supplies to care for any medical possibilities,
I'm sorry to say, that's your bad.

I'm guessing this trip was pretty expensive. I'll give you credit
that this stunt to get reimbursed that cost is certainly genius.

But you tripped yourself up. If you had your glucose meter with you,
why didn't you also have medication or candy with you? Clearly you
knew what you needed.

It's not Air France's fault that you have this condition and it's not
their job to provide for you since you apparently aren't responsible
enough to take care of yourself.

Travel ALWAYS involves lots of time and lots of waiting. I doubt this
was the first time you'd ever traveled, so you should have known
this.

Next time be prepared.

Even diabetics who always seem to be prepared go down sometimes. This
was just one of those times. I had sugar, but couldn't find it. I
couldn't find my passport, either. I was pretty confused. But the law
says...and this is important...a person requesting medical aid cannot
be denied such aid. It's a crime. A wheelchair attendant cannot make
the decision of whether or not a passenger can board. That was the
issue.

You sound like a typical guy but your wife should have more sense. I
am hypoglycemic and i am never without food on my person. Let this be
a lesson to you. You are an adult, you are responsible for your own
well being, airlines are not in the healthcare business. And no
letters about how i am unfair to men, please. Most of them aren't
prepared, that's not a slam, it's my observation.

I have to agree with the others. Your disease is your responsibility
to manage the best you can. Having a family member who is insulin
dependent, we never leave home without everything we need (including
glucose tabs).
I can see the point of your letter but One thing I don't understand is
why is your beef with Air France when the flight from Pisa (Italy) was
late (which caused you to run to a non existent plane, get your blood
sugar out of whack, wait to be re-booked). The attendent DID stop and
get you something and speeded you through the control points... I'm
sorry, but you should NEVER have gotten on a plane in a semi consious
state. Your life isn't worth the risk you took.

Sorry, I'm not buying this.

Diabetes, while manageable, can still lead to extremely dangerous
situations. What diabetic traveling isn't prepared by carrying a
snack or juice? To not do so is a death wish.

It sounds as if you were slipping into a diabetic coma, for which
emergency personnel should have been summoned immediately. You'd have
been taken to a hospital and given an IV. If you were that "semi
conscious," you'd not be able to eat that sandwich. And while a
sandwich is fine, juice or candy is a more efficient way to get the
sugar you need. But of course, as a diabetic, you know that, right?

If anything, you ignored your own medical condition and expected
people to jump through hoops for you. They owe you absolutely
nothing. Next time, buy a damned Snickers bar at one of the kiosks at
the airport.

Dude, you are the one responsible for taking care of your medical
condition. Yes, the airlines could have been quicker in assisting you,
but you and your wife could have been better prepared for such
eventualities.

I have one friend who has various allergies that tend to come about
unexpectedly. When I travel with her, I always carry extra pills and
epi pens in my bag, just in case. Same with a friend who is lactose
intolerant, another who is epileptic and my mom, who takes various
meds and vitamins twice a day. Yes, I am paranoid and yes, it annoys
my friends, but they don't complain too loudly because it has come in
handy more than once. :)

Being hypoglycemic, I completely understand the feeling of low blood
sugar... however, I always have something to give me a boost. Juice
or dark chocolate. Something with enough sugar to hold me over until
I can eat a meal.

I was with you until you asked that they pay for your trip. When you
requested medical attention, it should have been given to you. You
should still take personal responsibility and take it as an "I'll know
for next time" kind of thing.

Oh, for goodness sakes! Have you never shopped the diabetes supplies
aisles in the drug store? You can buy all sorts of items to ingest to
raise your blood sugar.

Here's a quick and easy one you don't even have to purchase at the
drug store: Orange Juice (I'm sure they sell it somewhere at the
airport, I'd bet your wife could have gotten it for you).

I don't understand why you were not able to deal with a low blood
sugar situation on your own and felt you needed a doctor. Isn't it
SOP that a diabetic carry a appropiate snack for times when your blood
sugar is low? That's what my mother does.

You traumatized your family by not being prepared for a diabetic
emergency. If you felt that bad, you could have asked other airport
personnel for assistance. I'm sure security would have contacted the
medical unit for you. You do realize that if you went to medical, you
would have missed your plane, right?

Although in a perfect world Air France should have immediately stopped
what they were doing to summon a doctor for you, I believe that you
need to accept a little more responsibility for this situation.
Diabetes is not a heart attack - - it's a diagnosed medical condition
for which the patient is educated on maintenance procedures. It is
your responsibility to anticipate various situations (such as airline
delays if you travel) that may arise and be prepared for them in terms
of medication and food (such as health bars, etc.).

The fact that you were not prepared to handle your own health
situation and that your wife and two infants were crying does not
appear to be justification for a refund.

If you have such low sugar, why not carry around something for it,
like candy or a heath bar. I have low blood sugar and I have to keep
something on me at all times, mostly in the mornings.

It surprises me that "I need a doctor" was not answered immediately.
It also surprises me that someone is serious enough medical need would
wait a half hour.

However... I had a similar experience. I had a minor medical
situation in an airport once. I notified the gate agent that I needed
assistance with my carry-on baggage such that I could take care of the
situation (it was a case where I was able to self-medicate, but needed
to do it in another location). She said that the best should do was
call a wheelchair for me, which would be a 30-45 minute wait.

Granted, my situation was not one where I said "I need a doctor." But
I can see what you're saying.

TRAUMATIZED YOU?

Exaggerate much?