Acknowledging an unknown person who may have saved my life

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A few weeks back I was doing the tourist thing in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I was particularly interested in doing some urban kayaking (see this thread: https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sell-me-or-dont-on-paddling-your-urban-river) using the Mississippi River Paddle Share. So I did! The day was hot and muggy, but the journey down the river was wonderful, and I decided to walk back through city streets to the put-in point rather than grabbing a bus or an Uber.

I didn’t make it.

During the last few years I have had a tendency toward sudden and dramatic hypoglycemia, in which my blood sugar levels drop off a cliff with unpleasant results. So I check my blood sugar a lot. On this day I checked upon taking the kayak out of the water and it was a perfectly reasonable for me 125. I have a CGM [constant glucose monitor] and devices that at least in theory alert me to sudden shifts in my glucose levels, and I carry emergency glucose, so I wasn’t worried.

I walked for about 20 minutes, maybe a mile in all, and suddenly felt awful. I was dizzy, I was light-headed, I was having trouble seeing, and I wasn’t thinking straight. I stumbled upon or possibly into a bench and sat down to drink some glucose and eat a muffin, and that’s when things went very, very wrong. I dimly remember dropping most of the muffin onto the ground, scrabbling around to pick it up as I couldn’t see it properly, and then realizing when I tried to bite into it that I’d picked up a bunch of gravel in addition to the muffin, yuck….and that’s the last thing I remember for a spell.

I woke up on arrival in the ER at Hennepin Healthcare. I was extremely confused. I knew I was in Minneapolis, but could not for the life of me figure out why I was in Minneapolis, how I had gotten to Minneapolis, or how I planned to get home from Minneapolis. It was all a great mystery.

Anyway. Things became clearer as they pumped me full of IV glucose, fed me a very tasty meal of chicken and rice, and brought me back to the land of the conscious. Turned out that my blood sugar level had dropped from 125 to 40 (!) within those twenty or so minutes; my devices either failed to alert me or I failed to pay attention when they did. Anyway, at the hospital they treated me extremely well and let me go after a few hours of observation, gently lecturing me about being careful about how much I did physically on a hot and muggy day and suggesting that maybe I should’ve eaten a little more a little earlier. Both valid points, I suppose!

I am grateful to everyone concerned in this—the ambulance crew, the hospital staff, but perhaps most of all the person(s) who found me unconscious on the bench or on the sidewalk and called emergency services. I was able to express my appreciation to the first two via those “please evaluate the effectiveness of our efforts” letters and emails that arrive after you’ve been in the clutches of the medical establishment, BUT I have no way of thanking the complete stranger(s) who helped me when I needed it. I used the phrase “may have saved my life” in the OP title, and that may be an exaggeration, or it may not—but I would like to acknowledge them in some way, even though I never got a glimpse of them, being unconscious and all. And I’m not sure how to do it, exactly. A donation to the hospital or the ambulance corps “to honor the stranger who rescued me on 8-17-23”? A “pay it forward” deal, and what would that look like? Something else?

Anyway, if you have any ideas of how to appropriately honor this person I’m all ears. Thanks for reading, and thanks for any suggestions.

2

If you contact the Minneapolis local news stations, they may be interested in doing a feel good story about your rescue, and they could appeal to the public to identify your unknown lifesaver.

3

First of all, happy birthday! Glad that stranger acted so wisely and generously so that you are still among us.

Have you considered sending your thank you in a letter to the editors of the major Minneapolis/St Paul papers? It is always nice to have some good news in the paper. You write well, you wouldn’t have to edit much to just send what you wrote above.

Another idea would be to find a Facebook page for Minneapolis and post there as well. There might even be a neighborhood association page for the area in which you collapsed.

Write a thank you to the Mayor/City Council telling them what upstanding citizens live there and you hope to return soon because of the human care and kindness from strangers you experienced there.

I think you being aware of the opportunities to ‘pay it forward’ is paramount. That is how the supply of human goodness is replenished to it will be there when needed. It really is like dropping a pebble on the still surface of a pond, rippling outward and embracing untold souls. Maybe the school system there has a fund you can donate to that pays off school lunch debts or the library branch nearest where you were found would welcome a donation to buy more literacy or citizenship materials or to sponsor an artist in residence for an outreach program.

The city parks and recreation dept might welcome a donation to sponsor planting a tree in a playground or park near where you helped or to help upgrade or repair a piece of playground equipment or landscaping near there.

And when you pay it forward, do come back and tell us about it. That will inspire the rest of us.

Again, happy :confetti_ball::partying_face::tada::birthday:birthday!

4

Perhaps the local 911 dispatch could help? I assume the person called them and they provided the needed response. Perhaps there is a record of the call, and it could be traced back from there. Or, the dispatch could reach-out to the phone number that called and relay a message to them that you would like to thank them, and leave it up to the caller to decide if they want to be in contact.

5

NPR has a regular segment called “My Unsung Hero” where people talk about someone in their life who lent them a helping hand when it was needed most. Many of these good samaritans remain unidentified to the people they helped.

6

They surely saved your life. Kudos to them. I hope you find a way to honor them.

It’s humbling when your life is saved.

My CGM has failed numerous times. It’s a gadget. They can and do fail.
Carry sugar cubes. I’ve found I can get a couple in my mouth before remembering to chew becomes necessary. And they’re small.

I go down quick like that. The confusion is very scary.
You definitely needed to go to the hospital.

Glad you’re ok.
No cake but Happy Birthday :balloon:

7

And while we’re at it, make sure your monitoring devices are working now (I’m not sure how you test them without an actual sugar-crisis episode, but I’m sure there’s some way). And if they’re not working, get them replaced.

8

I’m glad you’re ok, @Ulf_the_Unwashed.

I can’t help you with your actual question, but I would like to raise two points:

Do you use a Libre or a Dexcom? I suspect you have a Libre. A Dexcom would have been more effective in alerting you to the rapid drop and would have likely anticipated the crash and would have alarmed in time for you to intervene to prevent it. If your insurance resists Dexcom coverage, you can push for a prior authorization, especially now that you have a documented history of severe, life-threatening hypoglycemia. Your healthcare provider should fight the insurance company on your behalf.

Second, do you carry some form of glucagon with you? You absolutely should, given what happened. Glucagon will very rapidly increase your blood glucose and resolve an episode of acute hypoglycemia. It is available in an easy-to-use injectable form (Gvoke hypo pen) and an even easier inhaled version (Baqsimi). Again, you may find that your insurance company won’t want to play nice. Same deal, prior auth with documentation that you have a history.

mmm

9

The glucose pens are great, in theory.
I’ve found people are reluctant to use them, unless they’re medically trained. And if you’re unable to yourself it’s useless. I carry them any way. And wear a bracelet.

ETA Dexcom are the best CGMs

10

Thanks to all for these great suggestions. I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but I feel energized about doing whatever it is, and as @BippityBoppityBoo suggests I will certainly come back and inflict the telling of it upon you.

And thanks also for the good wishes, birthday and otherwise. I am glad to be among the living. And among the conscious.

To clear up a couple of things (thanks for asking).

@Chronos, I frequently go down to levels that are not dangerous but alarm-worthy, so checking its efficacy didn’t take long. One thing that I discovered was that I had the volume lower than it should’ve been, not sure how that happened, but it’s fixed. I also switched the alarm to something more, um, piercing and harder to overlook. So far, so okay. Thanks.

@Beckdawrek, thanks for the sugar cube idea. And the sympathy from one who has been there. “Sugar Cubes and Sympathy”–sounds like a movie. You hang in there too.

@Mean_Mr.Mustard, I actually do have Dexcom, and I do have (and carry) glucagon, the baqsimi inhaled version. The Dexcom issue was hopefully just what I described a couple paragraphs above; in general I’ve been happy with it. As for the glucagon, well, it just did not occur to me in the moment that I should use it. Liquid glucose, yes, muffin, yes, but glucagon, no. It also did not occur to me that maybe I should be calling 911, although I knew cognitively that I was in big trouble. I’m told that brainpower goes way down when blood glucose drops that far, and that certainly a) makes sense and b) fits with my experience. --Maybe I’ll get a hand tattoo that says “Glucagon!!!” (well, I won’t, but it might make sense)

Appreciate you all. Back later.

11

Perhaps a tattoo that says “Glucagon!!! If you use it and I didn’t need it, it ain’t gonna hurt me!!!”

mmm

12

I like it!!

13

I was thinking about you the other day. I wondered if you used your CGM with your phone or smart watch?
I’ve found where cel service is low or non-existent (yes there are still places like that) they are not reliable.
Make sure you check that.

14

Now that’s interesting. I don’t have a smart watch, and it’s usually fine to use it with my phone. I don’t suppose cell service was an issue in Mpls, though I suppose a big city is no absolute guarantee of good connectivity, but I do spend a fair amount of time out hiking and paddling, sometimes in the boonies. Something to ask my doctor about, perhaps!

Thanks for the info, and the advice!

15

That’s just what the latest Red Cross first aid class I took said about giving sugar to someone who appears to be having a low blood sugar problem.

16

Glucagon can be harmful. Just for edification.
I have had it many times. Always, always have a massive headache afterwards. Some level of nausea. Which then puts me off food and it can exacerbate the whole issue.
Only use it when necessary. They work. There’s no doubt about it.

17

You could have a little plaque made and fix it to the bench where you were sitting. Maybe the other person was also a tourist and will never see it, but it would still be lovely.

18

Just an idea: can you research your medical file from the incident?
I assume that they keep accurate records, for both medical and legal reasons.

The file probably includes the details of the ambulance, and I assume that the ambulance keeps a log book of every run they make, listing the time of dispatch, the location, the type of aid provided, etc).
And from the time of dispatch, you can trace the specific call made to 911.
And I assume that all those calls are recorded. It’s logical that the 911 operator asked the name of the person who called in your emergency

This is a lot of bueacracy to fight, and it may be that for legal reasons they won’t release the information.But on the other hand, since it is your personal information, it seems logical that you should have a legal right to see your own file.
(Suppose a similar situation goes bad, and a patient decides to sue for malpractice…I assume that the records would be released.)

19

Okay, I have an update.

I tried several of the wonderful suggestions in this thread, largely to no avail. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I’m 99% sure they didn’t print it. Oh well. I emailed one of the TV stations. They never got back to me. Oh well again. I really liked the idea of a plaque on a bench, maybe even the bench if I could figure out which one it was, but it seems that in order to get a plaque on a bench you have to either pay for a new bench ($5,000) or pay to refurbish an existing one ($2,500), and the fact that I don’t have that kind of money is immaterial because they have a huge backlog and aren’t taking new requests. Oh well for a third time.

So I began thinking about “paying it forward,” and the line that kept coming to me involved being a “stranger in a strange land.” (Bear with me. I actually have always felt very much at home in Minnesota–it seems very like the places I’ve lived in my lifetime–but the theme of being helped by someone when I knew no one there, or almost no one there, resonated with me.) So I have done two things, one one-time, the other ongoing.

Minneapolis has been a haven for several groups of refugees over the years, notably the Hmong and the Somalis. The people of the city have a history of assisting the stranger as they helped me. I just now made monetary donations to a Hmong cultural center in St. Paul and a Somali community center in Minneapolis, with the note “This is in honor of the unknown person(s) who found me unconscious on a park bench in Minneapolis (owing to hypoglycemia) and called 911. Thanks for helping a ‘stranger in a strange land.’”

The ongoing one follows the same theme. Back in May my much-smaller-than-Minneapolis city received an influx of asylum seekers from countries such as Albania, Georgia, and Senegal. I was peripherally involved at first in helping collect clothing and other supplies, but have decided to become more involved. Currently I am transporting dinner once a week from a community kitchen a few miles to the motel where the refugees are housed. I bring my 7-year-old grandson, who helps take in the water bottles and the fruit while I handle the hot stuff. It’s not much, but it’s something, and it does fit the “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me” motif.

So, if you’ve read this far, thank you, and thanks again for all the ideas! I appreciate you all.

Ulf

20

It may be too far in the past at this point, but you could try walking into the fire department, assuming it was them that picked you up, and see if they can relay a message to the callers or drop off a gift or whatever you want to do.

The firefighters I know tend to enjoy that kinda stuff, especially if they can post a little blurb about it on facebook. In fact, come to think of it, you could probably just send them a message on facebook or even post something on their page. It’ll just take a few shares and there’s a good chance the people that found you, or someone that knows them, will see it.