The work-day began uneventfully enough. I was working in the booth that day. I got to work at 2:30 and stepped in just in time so Cindy could go home. After counting the safe I had a few customers to attend to so I came out of my booth and worked the customer service counter. Lots of people wanted money orders that day.
During a transaction a woman ran into the store yelling at me to call 911 because her husband was bleeding from the head. As soon as I lifted the receiver, she ran back out of the store. I called 911 and relayed what just happened to the operator. I calmly gave them the store’s address and phone number while another customer came to me and suggested I call emergency services. I let him know with a nod that I was on the phone with 911. The operator assured me fire rescue was on the way and then disconnected the line.
I moved on to the next customer in line. During his transaction another customer came in the store and requested I call 911. I told him fire rescue had already been dispatched. Now I’m getting the gist of how serious this is. Three requests for 911 in less than 10 minutes.
(I found out later that cell-phone calls to 911 weren’t getting through because the lines were busy—my call from the land line was the only call to successfully summon help.)
As the seriousness of the situation set in, I decided to let a manager know what was going on. Jerica was the senior manager on duty, but I skipped over her because she is pregnant and I didn’t want her around the blood. Instead, I called Tami, the assistant manager, and told her what was happening and what I had done so far. She had a clerk take over her checkstand and she went outside to evaluate the situation.
Another customer came in to tell me the fire rescue trucks had passed by the store. I called 911 again to say they missed us at the same time as the trucks made a u-turn at the light and pulled into our lot. I forgot they can’t navigate into our lot directly—they have to pass and make a u-turn. I apologized to the 911 operator who assured me it was okay that I called her again.
I kept working with customers at the service counter, but glanced out the window every few minutes to keep an eye on what was going on. There was quite a crowd of folks gathered around just staring at this poor man lying on the ground outside the store. (Why are people so attracted to blood and all things tragic?) The wife was literally clinging to Tami as the paramedics worked on her husband.
I was summoned to bring Tami her car keys. I desperately searched the manager’s office for her purse and then brought it out to her. I had to walk around the man and the paramedics to get to Tami. The wife was still clinging to her. Tami told me she was going to drive the wife to the hospital. (We never found out why she didn’t ride in the ambulance with her husband.)
After the paramedics left, Jerica told me that hazmat should be coming to clean the mess. Tami had already asked me to gather our blood cleanup kits-just in case. We had one complete kit. Ugh. It wasn’t too much longer before Jerica got the call that hazmat wouldn’t be coming and we were left with the cleanup duties.
According to union rules, blood cleanup has to be done by management level employees. Because Jerica is pregnant, I told her that I would not allow her to help. The paramedics had echoed that sentiment before they left. Mike, a second-level assistant manager, showed up about this time. Jerica suggested he could either help clean, or cover the customer service counter for me. He opted for the counter. What a jerk! I have lost all respect for him as a manager.
So, Jerica insisted on helping me clean up. We used the SpillMagic product we normally use for cleaning oil spills. It is super absorbent and actually did a great job with all the blood. Then we mopped the concrete with hot water and lots of bleach. When I left work at 11:30 PM, the caution tape was still up. I think the blood stains will be there for some time to come.
We swept all the mess into a hazmat bag, dropped in the broom head, the dustpan, mophead, our masks and gloves. The bag was then locked in my booth until hazmat decided to show up to retrieve it. That didn’t happen until after 10:00 PM, so I spent the rest of the day tripping over a bag of blood every time I needed to get in the safe.
Tami returned to work a few hours later. She was completely messed up after her ordeal. The wife’s family hadn’t shown up for quite some time and the hospital chaplain didn’t stay with the wife, so Tami stayed with her so she wouldn’t be alone. The man passed away at the hospital and the wife asked Tami to come with her to view his body. Tami told me she was horrified at the amount of blood in the room and the sight of his lifeless body. She didn’t even know these people, but everything she saw had been so overwhelming. She broke down in tears right there in my booth with me. I told her to go home and spend some time with her family.
I guess Mike didn’t realize Tami had left. A little while later someone paged Tami to the bakery. I paged back that she had left for the day. Then I heard Mike say it sure would be nice if we all could just leave whenever we wanted to. Seriously? What a jerk.
I am grateful at least for my friends and family who responded to my status updates on FaceBook during the afternoon and evening. It was all the well wishes and uplifting comments that kept me going through the rest of my shift.
I don’t know anything about the man and his wife except what the wife told Tami. Apparently, the husband had recently been diagnosed with cancer and had just undergone his first treatment. This trip to the store was his first outing away from the house.
My hope is that they know Jesus Christ as their personal savior. My prayers are that he is now in heaven enjoying a perfect body with no more pain or sadness. My heart cries out for the wife that she is comforted by the eternal hope given by our Lord Jesus Christ—that she has peace in the knowledge of where her husband is now. Of course, I don’t know… I can only pray and hope.