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Woman Suffering Asthma Attack Denied Inhaler


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http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/health/Woman-Suffering-Asthma-Attack-Denied-Inhaler-at-Pharmacy_68350054

A New Jersey woman suffering an asthma attack was denied an inhaler at a pharmacy because she was $1.99 short, MyFoxNY.com reported.

Katherine O’Connor and her boyfriend were walking home from McDonald’s in Garwood, N.J., Thursday morning when she had the asthma attack, but she did not have her inhaler with her. She went to a nearby CVS, hoping to get a refill on her inhaler prescription.

But, O’Connor was denied the refill because she did not have enough money to pay for the prescription. The medicine cost just over $21, and the couple was short $1.99.

"I had exactly a $20 bill. It came to $21 and change," said O’Connor’s boyfriend, Jack Brown. "I offered him my cell phone, my wallet. I said, ‘I live right around the corner.’ I come in here all the time."

Brown begged the pharmacist to give his girlfriend the inhaler, as she was on the floor wheezing, but the pharmacist would not give in.

Brown called a friend who is a paramedic, who showed up immediately and treated O’Connor.

When questioned about the incident, a store manager had “no comment.”

“The well-being of our customers is our highest priority and we are looking into this matter,” said a statement from CVS corporate offices.

welp, at least she didn't die!

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Fuck everyone in this story. The reporter is being a dick for bringing up that she was walking home from McDonalds. That lady sucks for walking home from McDonalds and then not having enough to pay for her medicine. But really, most of all CVS and the dude working there can go majorly fucked for not helping someone in need. I think regardless of shittiness, you help someone out if they are sick.

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Unless you work in the healthcare industry you have NO idea how often people fake these kinds of symptoms expecting sympathy, attention and free stuff. It happens alot, a WHOLE lot. In fact, I'd bet that 80% of the seizure pts we make are not having (and have not had) a seizure. We still treat them as if they are sick for liability issues. I wasn't at CVS during this incident, but I'm sure none of you were either. So it's a little premature to jump the gun and chastise the pharmicist.

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It wasn't like he was handing over painkillers though. Yeah, she may have been full of shit, but there was an equal chance she really was suffering. A) Why take that chance? B) Helping people is nice. Withholding something that could save your life, or at the very least relieve you of some shitty pain, just because your short a few bucks is bullshit. Be nice, motherfuckers.

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There has to be some link between CVS being sued for selling an ingredient used in making meth and this story. There just has to be.

It's called Sudafed. Everyone sells it.

I back most of what tattoomike said. People who have never worked in healthcare have absolutely no idea how frequently people attempt to take advantage of stuff. I'm fairly certain this story is exaggerated.

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Unless you work in the healthcare industry you have NO idea how often people fake these kinds of symptoms expecting sympathy, attention and free stuff. It happens alot, a WHOLE lot. In fact, I'd bet that 80% of the seizure pts we make are not having (and have not had) a seizure. We still treat them as if they are sick for liability issues. I wasn't at CVS during this incident, but I'm sure none of you were either. So it's a little premature to jump the gun and chastise the pharmicist.

read the article again. they had $20 even. they werent asking for it for free. while i dont doubt what you are saying, you're comparing apples to oranges. any sensible person would cover the $1.99 (if thats truly what it takes) and give the woman her inhaler so she doesnt suffocate to death.

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Unless it was apparent to the pharmacist that she wasn't actually suffocating to death. How do you know the woman didn't have a history of pulling stunts like this? I'm not saying that the article is definitely not true, but I'm simply pointing out that this stuff happens all the time.

sure, it does. if we were talking about a $200 prescription, id agree with you. were talking about a $1.99. hell, there was a few times when i worked retail where if our drawer was short a buck or two -- id just throw it in to balance it and not deal with the hassle of it.

i grew up with an asthmatic. you dont take asthma attacks lightly as they can escalate very quickly. this woman is stupid for not having an inhaler with her and hopefully it serves as a lesson learned to her but the pharmacist is equally stupid for not being able to recognize the difference between helping somebody thats suffering and $1.99. they werent asking for it free. its just an exercise in common sense. give the woman the inhaler and have her stay (if she was truly having an asthma attack, she wont be walking anywhere - especially outside) while the boyfriend goes and gets the rest of money. ive seen people give bums on the street more money than a $1.99.

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Guest errolwest

^this. saying she could be exaggerating to "cheat" the system is ridiculous. it was 2 dollars. that doesnt really sound like a scam to me...

and even if this was a really shitty scam, if someone needs an inhaler that bad where they are trying to short you 2 dollars you may aswell just hand it over.

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Be nice, motherfuckers.

If I was in a situation where I could either

A) Save somebody's life

B) Prevent a huge corporation from get ripped off for $1.99

I wouldn't even have to think about it.

And if I ever become so jaded that I would let somebody die because there's an off chance that they're scamming me, then kill me too.

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^this. saying she could be exaggerating to "cheat" the system is ridiculous. it was 2 dollars. that doesnt really sound like a scam to me...

and even if this was a really shitty scam, if someone needs an inhaler that bad where they are trying to short you 2 dollars you may aswell just hand it over.

Just because it doesn't sound like a scam to you doesn't mean it's not. I assure you it happens far more than you'd expect. I wasn't there, so I can't say for sure what happened. But some of ya'll are automatically assuming that she was struggling and this guy was a dick. That's exactly the kind of attitude that these people feed off of. I know it's only 2 bucks, but if this person has a history of doing this then that $2 adds up. You don't know that she hasn't done this to the same pharmicist in the past and he gave it to her. This does happen.

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And it has nothing to do with saving someone's life. People do fake this. We help EVERYBODY that calls 911. But we do have people that call every single day, sometimes twice a day. We also make people who fake symptoms to get out of being arrested, or to get stuff that they can't afford.

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