Woman Having Asthma Attack Denied Meds Over $1 (and Change)

[Asguard]

Apparently you've never worked in retail. You would have been fired on the spot for giving away merchandise. Kids who work in stores try to pull stunts like that all the time for their friends, and they're very creative at inventing them.

What's truly unfortunate is that we've created a society in which no one feels that they can trust a stranger. People fake much worse things than asthma attacks in order to get something for nothing.

Yes I understand that if she ponied up $20 for a $21 purchase she was almost certainly honest. But the people who run these businesses don't feel that they can give their employees that much leeway to make decisions. What if she only had $10? What if she only had $1? Where do you draw the line?

People have gotten so skillful at pulling cons, that everyone feels that they have to err on the side of caution. Faking an emergency is one of the oldest tricks in the con-man's book. When we see someone in trouble, we focus on helping them, not on wondering whether they're honest.

If you, the clerk, had simply pulled the $21 out of your pocket (to simplify the story) so you wouldn't get busted, I promise you that there are at least three "customers" in that store who will see you do it. They'll categorize you as a mark. In a couple of weeks they'll come back and pull a similar con, but one you don't recognize, some place else so you don't see a pattern, and it will be for a lot more money.

I carry an inhaler with me everywhere I go. All my friends have one of mine in the glove compartment of their car and in their medicine cabinet at home. If you have asthma and you "forget" to take an inhaler with you, you're kind of a big doofus.

i doubt it (here at least). organisations which provide first aid and medical services (and are paid for it like work place first aid officers, not joe blow who has done a first aid corse) are required under the OH&S act to provide that treatment. Now more than once i have taken stock off the shelves at work if the first aid kit is short in order to provide treatment. Now it would depend on what level of care was required but even if ventilin was above the min requirement (which its not in alot of institutions including schools) the media backlash alone would ensure that the pharmacy was hurt and thats before the unfair dismissal suit which could well say that they acted in the way a fair and resonable person would act

 

[chimpkin]

Americans face the possibility of being sued if they perform CPR and fail to save a person's life.

Depends on the state. Most states have Good Samaritan laws that prevent you from getting sued so long as you're certified.
So go get certified to do CPR

*flicks hands*

shoo.

I think if someone sued me for saving their butt I'd mail them a ripe roadkill possum in a gift box with a fake return address.

I do have really bad asthma...and I use the left hand path of illegal internet ordering (bwahahah!) to make sure I have a spare rescue inhaler at the bottom of my bag if I accidentally leave the regular THREE out.

 

[Asguard]

Depends on the state. Most states have Good Samaritan laws that prevent you from getting sued so long as you're certified.
So go get certified to do CPR

*flicks hands*

shoo.

I think if someone sued me for saving their butt I'd mail them a ripe roadkill possum in a gift box with a fake return address.

I do have really bad asthma...and I use the left hand path of illegal internet ordering (bwahahah!) to make sure I have a spare rescue inhaler at the bottom of my bag if I accidentally leave the regular THREE out.

thats odd, in Australia the ambos will try to guide you to do CPR over the phone wether your certifided or not. There dead, you cant do MORE damage, anything you do will help

 

[Orleander]

A woman was having an asthma attack when she entered a CVS pharmacy to purchase an inhaler. She had only $20, but the co-pay was $21 and change. She was, according to her boyfriend, on the floor wheezing yet the pharmacist refered to give her the medication until she came up with the extra dollar.

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/loc...dnt-buy-inhaler-during-asthma-attack-20101014​

A dollar and change and he wouldn't give her the emergency medication she needed? I'm as capitalist as they come, but come on. I'd have paid the dollar out of my own pocket in that situation. What do you think?

My husband has paid for an elderly strangers meds before. It infuriates me that this ass refused to help her because of a $1. I hope CVS took him to task over it.

 

[JuNie]

I've paid for someones things before. Most of the time I have spare money that's going to be wasted on something stupid anyway. So if I see someone that doesn't have enough money I'll pay for it if it seems as if it's something they need. I guess it boils down to how we want to live as individuals in a society.