How Government Red Tape
Nearly Killed Duffey
May the Bureaucrat Involved
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Someday Understand the Peril She Causes
A couple months after my heart attack, my employer suggested I fill the paperwork at the Social Security Administration to qualify for disability. On the way there, I got short of breath and felt like passing out. As I pulled into the parking lot, the weird feeling stopped. So, I went inside and got my number and took a seat to wait for my turn with the bureaucratic red tapers. Then, all of a sudden the "spell" began again and this time it was REALLY bad.
I knew I was going to die if I did not get immediate help. I went up to the customer service window, and tried to go to the head of the line. But the clerk yelled at me to get in line. I went to the end and sat pon the floor figuring the fall would hurt the least from there. When I finally got my turn before the Great Clerk God the conversation was less than satisfying: "Mam, I need help. I'm a heart patient and am having a medical emergency."
"Take a number and wait your turn, the wait time is about 90-minutes now. If you don't want to wait, go home and call make an appointment to take care of your business by phone."
"No, you don't understand...(cut off)."
"Yes I do. Everyone who comes here is having an emergency."
My energy was fading fast, I could only try one more time, "Not like this. I think I'm having a heart attack and need medical help - NOW!"
The clerk had the last word, "I don't care if you're Santa Claus... take a number and sit down and wait your turn!"
I barely made it to one of those cheap tin chairs when another client went to my rescue. A very large woman ran up to the window (I think she grabbed the clerk - but my vision was almost gone so I'm not sure) "Look you silly ass bitch, this white boy's turning pale and he's gonna drop dead unless he gets some medical help NOW!"
I'll never know who she was - but I'm forever in her debt. I KNOW I would have died if not for her. Suddenly someone from the inside of the office heard the commotion and ran through the door and sat down next to me.
He looked at me, and didn't say a word before he took a firm grasp of my shoulders, lifted me and steered me through the door out of "public" view.
He held me up while three people debated over which desk to put me. Surely it had to be one not in use (although no one was at any desks in the section of ten desks. I guessed they were worried I might steal something from an occupied desk.
I called my doctors office and they said to get to the hospital as quickly as I could. Thinking it would take too long for an ambulance to arrive, I just went out to my car and drove to the emergency room. How I got there, I have NO idea.
Thank god I had just driven from the world of incompetence to the other end of the spectrum... worth the risk of the drive!
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