For Man in Diabetic Shock, McDonald's Worker Knew What to Do

A scary bout with low blood sugar ended in relief for an elderly Michigan man thanks to a quick-thinking McDonald's worker last month. On Sept. 20, Sue Causey went to pick up her husband, 84-year-old Ron Causey, at a senior center in Southgate, where he'd been playing cards—and right away, she knew something was wrong. He wasn't walking right, and when he climbed into the car, "he couldn't even talk," she tells WXYZ. Ron Causey, who has diabetes, had suddenly experienced a drop in blood sugar, and Sue Causey knew he could go from shock to coma very quickly if she didn't get something sugary in him.

Where she headed immediately: a local McDonald's, whose indoor section was shut down and whose drive-thru had several cars ahead of her. By the time she got up to the speaker, she was frantic. "I need a large orange juice," she told drive-thru staff. "Can you please have someone run it out to me? My husband's in diabetic shock." That's when an employee told shift manager James Dalpiaz what was going on, a lucky turn of events since Dalpiaz knew a little something about diabetes.

It turns out his aunt has the disease, so he knew the OJ needed an extra helping of sugar. "I said, 'I know what I'm doing ... just trust me,'" he tells the station, recalling how after he dumped the sugar into the drink, he ran it out to the Causeys. Ron Causey was able to get the juice down and immediately started feeling better. "I didn't even think to tell him to put sugar in it," Sue Causey says of Dalpiaz's actions. "You've got to react pretty quick to it. And he did."

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A bit of coincidence also found its way into this story: When Sue Causey saw the name on Dalpiaz's name badge, it rang a bell, and they soon figured out that Dalpiaz's aunt used to be her neighbor, per the News-Herald. Sue Causey made sure to thank her husband's rescuer on Facebook. "You are my hero!!" she wrote of Dalpiaz later that day. "He was an angel on my shoulder," Ron Causey adds to the News-Herald. (More uplifting news stories.)