Not the kind of diagnosis I usually do...

Posted by AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 86 comments

TL:DR - I inadvertently diagnosed a serious medical issue and might have saved a remote user's life.

First off, I know this is a bit out there but other than possible misrememberings not a word of this is a lie. Didn't want to post anything until I was sure the user was all right and this had a happy ending.

I was working the helpdesk early one afternoon a few months ago and the phone rang. It was someone I'd helped before, a salesman at a remote location. He was in the office and having trouble logging into his laptop.

I'll never understand how users can use the same password for months and then one day just forget it, but that's what the user reported and it wasn't a super uncommon issue. I reset his password in AD then forced a sync to Azure AD (we're a hybrid environment) and provided him the new password.

I'm of the belief that hanging up on a user before confirming they're up and running is right up there with closing up a computer before confirming it boots - you're jinxing it. So I'm sitting there for a couple minutes and ask, "How are things going?"

"It's still saying I can't log in."

"All right, can you click in the bottom left where it says "Other User" and type your email address in manually?"

After a while, "It's still not working."

Hm, weird. I confirm in our management software that his laptop is online and reachable, and just to make sure I used his new password to log into office.com in a private window. So I very carefully spell out the password and have him read it back to me. A few more minutes pass, he still can't log in. I text him the password (somewhat against policy but...) and still not working.

So I use a little undocumented trick where I make like I'm going to remote into his machine but send it a reboot command a few seconds later. Ordinarily I need user approval to connect, but if the software was still trying to connect after the reboot it would connect at the login screen.

Logged in with my admin account so it was connected to Azure AD just fine, so I logged out and told the user to try to log in again.

What I saw was really concerning. He wasn't even typing in the password field, he was in the user name field and had managed to badly mangle his own email address. Not just misspellings, but there were 5 plus signs in a row and over time the user was backspacing and "correcting" over and over again.

So for the first time ever I asked, "Sir, are you feeling all right?" without any snark whatsoever.

I'm pretty sure the slight slur was there before but I hadn't really been listening for it, but it was there when he said, "Oh, yeah. I went to the doctor yesterday and they said I had a fever, but I'm okay now."

Fever didn't explain everything I was seeing, so I asked, "Do you know you've been trying to type in your email address for ten minutes?"

"Wow, really?" He sounded almost impressed. He then started talking in a way that sounded almost coherent but with a lot of misplaced words.

Okay he was either extremely drunk or this was a serious medical issue, and being that he'd driven into the office and no one else noticed I didn't think he was drunk. Plus even while he was talking he was very slowly and deliberately still trying to type and making more mistakes.

"Can you keep trying to log in? I'm going to see if I can find someone to help you."

I pulled up Teams and checked his location to see if anyone was online, thankfully the Branch Manager was online. I called up her cell.

"Hey this is ATG with IT, and this might be a bit of an emergency. Are you or anyone onsite today?"

"I am, and is too. What's wrong?"

"Maybe nothing, but can you go check on real quick? I think he may be having a serious problem."

She puts down the phone and after a while comes back and says, "Oh my goodness, I'm so glad you called me. We had to take to the hospital. He barely recognized me."

"He said he had a fever, plus slurred speech and some language involvement. Can you call whoever's taking him and let them know he might be having a stroke?" I wasn't sure could tell people what he'd told me.

"Uh, okay. I'll do that. Thanks again!"

Didn't hear anything back on that for a long while except from HR telling me I did good making sure he was okay. A few weeks after that call we got a ticket to disable his account as he was on medical leave, but then a week after that we got a ticket to re-enable him. I was actually lucky enough to be the one who got the call when the user needed his password reset - neither he nor I remembered what I'd set it to a couple months back.

Turns out yes, he had a stroke. He had no memory of that entire morning until he was in the hospital later that day. Prognosis was good (fever after a stroke generally means it was pretty severe so I'd been worried) and they were going to treat it with diet and blood pressure meds.

As of now the user is back at work and still has a few issues with typing - one of the scarier aspects of strokes I learned after this is the issues you have during it can potentially be the parts of your brain that are dying.

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Trin959@reddit

Wow! Outstanding! The temptation to just get frustrated and dismiss the User must have been enormous. Compassion can make a difference even in tech work.

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AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit (OP)

It's hard to explain why it skewed different. He was 100% lucid in speech (at first) but it was almost like uncanny valley, it was just off enough to raise a red flag.

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greenie4242@reddit

Great job noticing the signs and kudos for acting upon your instincts. It's important to disregard protocol and just say "Are you okay?" if something seems off.

One of my best friends who's also an IT admin was saved a few years ago by a colleague with your life-saving skills of observation. Rode his bike to work but his colleague saw him walk through the door to the office and said "I'm calling you an ambulance." My mate tried to dismiss him, saying he always felt a bit off after a bike ride, he just needed rest, but his colleague insisted. Ambos eventually told him if he'd sat down he'd have died in his office chair. Scary!

Back in 2023 a "password reset" notification on my mobile phone was what alerted me to the fact my Dad was having a stroke. I administer the family's email server and wondered why my Dad had tried resetting his password three times in ten minutes. It shouldn't even need a password, his mail client should handle credentials.

Walked upstairs to his office and discovered him staring blankly at his keyboard. He'd forgotten how to open his local email client but somehow remembered the web portal so was trying to log in there but couldn't remember the password. Tried resetting it but couldn't re-type the same password twice.

Asked if he was okay and he smiled and said Yes. Asked why he reset his password he said Yes. Quickly realised he couldn't form a sentence but could only repeat the word Yes.

Took him straight to hospital. He was being treated for prostate cancer but somehow some opportunistic melanoma cells found their way into his brain causing a bleed in the speech centre resulting in aphasia. He lasted another six weeks, still smiling until his last day. Miss you Dad!

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commentsrnice2@reddit

Why would sitting down be dangerous?

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Sp4ceCore@reddit

Orthostatic blood pressure would be my guess. You know when you stand up too fast and get stars ? This is your blood pressure dropping. When you sit down it probably increases slightly while the heart adjusts.

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dolphin-centric@reddit

This is exactly what happened to me when I had a TIA (mini-stroke). I don’t call my parents very often (because we text and live 5 minutes away from each other so lots of visits), but for some reason one evening I called to ask him something because it was too difficult to text it all out. He asked if I’d been drinking, and I hadn’t been. I could tell that something wasn’t right, but I felt kinda euphoric so I wasn’t worried. I even went to my bathroom mirror and did the stroke tests (smiling, sticking out my tongue, lifting both arms, etc) and I was fine. Next morning I woke up and needed to call my dad again, and I was still slurring and talking slowly and deliberately, like a robot. He came and got me and I spent the rest of the day in the ER. Baby aspirin daily for the rest of my life, and I’d say I’ve made like, 98% recovery. Still working on some short-term memory issues but I’m alive and (knock on wood) haven’t had any problems since.

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Trin959@reddit

I think I know what you mean. Decades ago I drove up on a highway intersection where a thick cloud of dust was blowing across it, which still happens sometimes in SW Kansas. It was obvious there had been an accident so I parked in the ditch and started checking on people. The first guy I checked was young, late teens/early 20s, had a crumpled front fender, and said he was fine, just a little dazed. I went on to the other cars. None of them had been involved. They were just parked back a ways to give others some warning and we're waiting for the cops. I went back to the first guy since he'd seemed a little off. By that time his eyes were dilated and his speech was slurred. Since I couldn't be sure anyone had even been called (this was long before cell phones) I ended up taking him to the emergency room then went to the cop shop to let them know what had happened and that he hadn't fled the scene. His mom called me later to thank me and said he had a concussion. Turned out another car had stopped in middle of the intersection in the dust then fled the scene when he slammed into the back of them.

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SwitchWide9406@reddit

Top tier!! You're amazing!!

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CoolDragon@reddit

You win the internet this year! 🏆

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mailboy79@reddit

Wow

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rusticusmus@reddit

Doctor here, so damn proud of you. You saved that guy’s life.

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P5ychokilla@reddit

Well done you !

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Wonderful-Cup8908@reddit

Good on you for this. To my dying day I will regret not making my dad go to the hospital when I saw his right eye drooping. He had a massive stroke days later.

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Shadow5825@reddit

Oh man, I'm sorry for you loss.

So something many people don't know is that the signs of a heart attack in women tend to be very different then the "classic" signs. Women are more likely to experience jaw pain, nausea, vomiting, extreme fatigue, and lower back pain when having a heart attack. Chest pain doesn't generally show up until its nearly too late.

Oh and keep 81mg Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) around the house, if you suspect a heart attack chew 2 pills, it will absolutely save your life.

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shortstuff813@reddit

And boob pain. My mom’s first heart attack she didn’t quite think that’s what was happening bc her chest didn’t hurt, her boob did. She made sure to tell all her friends about it afterwards, bc she had never heard about women having that symptom before.

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ishfery@reddit

My mom had a numb tongue and we were all just like that's weird. She had a much bigger stroke a few days later but survived.

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castlerobber@reddit

I developed a week-long headache when I was eight months pregnant with my first child. Figured it was from fluctuating hormones. I wasn't concerned until one side of my tongue went numb toward the end of the week. I was coherent, but I sounded like I'd been to the dentist and the Novocain hadn't worn off yet.

My husband, a former EMT, took me to the hospital. Once they determined I wasn't having a stroke, they scheduled me for an MRI, where they "examined my head and found nothing." ;-)

The neurologist called it an atypical migraine. I'd never had a migraine before, and have never had anything like that again in the almost 30 years since.

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archaeologistbarbie@reddit

I had an “ocular migraine” a few years ago that showed up in the form of extreme vertigo (resulting in vomiting every time I tried to move). They kept asking me over and over again if I had a headache (I did not), and I eventually learned you can get an ocular migraine without the typical migraine part?? Bodies are so weird.

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hpfan1516@reddit

Oh.

Good to know...

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ShalomRPh@reddit

So when I was having a heart attack I chewed 4 low-strength aspirins, (equal to one regular strength aspirin, which was what I had been taught to use), 3 sublingual nitroglycerin, 4 tablets of 30mg diltiazem, and one of whatever beta blocker I happened to have handy (acebutolol, probably).

Pharmacists make the worst patients, according to an EMT I knew.

Went to the hospital the next afternoon (had to find coverage for the store). They had me in the Cath lab two hours later, sent home with two stents. Have five now.

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Future_Direction5174@reddit

My MIL was suffering from “extreme fatigue”. It started when she was walking to the doctors and she had to sit down for a bit. She didn’t mention it to the doctors, but was complaining about it still being present a week later.igot FILto take her to the “Doctor NOW!” Where yes, he discovered that she had had a heart attack and FIL was given a letter and told to drive her to the hospital NOW as it would be quicker than awaiting an ambulance.

She had a pace maker fitted the following day. And that pacemaker was now “nearing end of battery life” but the risk of operating to replace the battery was borderline on being safe. She outlasted the 15 year battery…

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bob152637485@reddit

Emphasis on CHEW. Taking like normal will do a timed release. Chewing makes sure you get all the potency at once.

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Shadow5825@reddit

And according to the 911 dispatcher, if you accidentally swallow the first 2 pills, you can take and CHEW 2 more without it interfering with the medications the hospital is going to give you. Just make sure you actually tell the paramedics this when they show up.

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Corfiz74@reddit

The problem is that you can't really make them - old people can be so goddamn stubborn, and still have agency.

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Wonderful-Cup8908@reddit

I didn't even try, that was the thing that kills me. And he was only 58.

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PNW_ProSysTweak@reddit

I’m sorry you had that experience. My father in law had a stroke and we didn’t know. Everybody in the family got a crash course in recognizing stroke symptoms after that. You only know what you know - maybe you’ll be able to help somebody else later on with the knowledge you have now.

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itskdog@reddit

I haven't seen a FAST ad for a long time (UK). I wonder if the kids growing up now would know the signs.

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hpfan1516@reddit

I still see them in doctor's offices in the US occasionally (I mean, probably every time but I notice them every few).

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itskdog@reddit

In the UK there used to be a TV ad from the NHS going through the signs, so anyone who watched non-BBC channels would see it.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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AliisAce@reddit

My dad had a TIA which is sort of like a mini stroke. He had some asymetry and a massive headache. Mum gave him aspirin and a trip to the hospital when he eventually told her.

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_Rohrschach@reddit

Got one last year, after several trips to the ER with massive headaches i always got sent back home. Went to another GP(hadn't had picked one yet after moving) and got sent to ER by him for fear of meningitis. That time they checked me more thoroughly and found an aneurysm that tried to burst the next day. Got it operated on twice and had to stay for five weeks. Got lots of question as it was a schooling hospital and most groups of students came to visit me, as a TIA is pretty rare for a 31 year old. As a TIA counts as a stroke I was also banned from rifing my bike for another 14 days afterwards. Didn't feel like riding anyway, but at least I was allowed to walk home on my own(they can give you a wheel chair and ban walking aswell, which would have sucked massively)

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JauntyYin@reddit

Don't beat yourself up. My dad was actually sitting in the hospital for an outpatient appointment when he had a classic stroke with left side deficit. There was not a lot they could do even then other than fluids as he was on chemo for cancer.

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cofclabman@reddit

He's lucky he got you on the call. That would have been very easy to miss remotely and time to respond for a stroke is super important. Good job.

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Sepelrastas@reddit

My grandmother was home alone when she had a stroke. By the time my uncle got home and called an ambulance it was too late to do much for her. She briefly gained consciousness in the hospital and spoke with my father. She died the next day. The doctors said she'd had minor strokes before that at least twice.

Really great work from OP.

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Environmental_Art591@reddit

My best friend bad just got her learner licence two delays before her single mum had a stroke. Mum (she practically helped raise me too) was on the phone in the kitchen while bestie was making boiled eggs for her and her younger sisters, mum started slurring and her arm dropped.

Besties first "official" driving lesson was around the corner to the drs office (thank god it was so close) and they did what they could and called the ambulance from their.

Mums friend picked up the little kids from the drs and arranged to get mums car back home and bestie went home and found boiled eggs exploded all over the roof.

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dtbmnec@reddit

5 months after coming back from college and I finally decided to learn to drive (given I had a car I could access and practice with) and my dad has either a heart attack or a serious case of vomiting. Less than 24 hours later I'm taking my first real drive with my mom to the heart hospital the next town over while my dad is recovering from a massive-he-shouldn't-even-be-alive heart attack.

0/10 recommend that you learn to drive while in emergency situations. I got my intermediate level license shortly after that night. Spent the next year "practicing" driving him to the hospital on almost a nightly basis. By the time I was able to go for my full license, I could drive with my eyes closed.

He lived for another three years after that. We were given a 40% survival rate within the first year and he was deemed too sick to get on the heart transplant list. I didn't even know you could be too sick to have a transplant (disqualified for other reasons, yes....like an alcoholic being ineligible for a liver transplant).

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castlerobber@reddit

Well done.

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goldenscythe22@reddit

Good job! Stroke awareness is something everyone should know.

When I was 20, I had what I at first thought was a stroke (did you know migraines can cause speech aphasia? I didn't at the time!) and while it turned out to not be one, I learned about the S-T-R signs (which were what helped me verify that I wasn't having one) and memorized them shortly thereafter. My grandmother had passed away from a stroke not that long before that, which was why it was my first assumption despite being so young.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know, the S-T-R signs are: 1. Ask the person to Smile, look for facial asymmetry and one-sided drooping. 2. Ask the person to Talk, have them speak a simple sentence and listen for aphasia and slurred or odd speech. 3. Ask the person to Raise both arms, look for one-sided weakness. There is also F-A-S-T, which stands for Facial drooping, Arm weakening, Speech difficulty, Time to call emergency.

Also, unrelated to strokes: After I had that migraine, for a long time I thought it was a one-off as it was the only time I'd ever had migraine aura, and it was pretty severe multisensory aura to boot. (Dizziness and weakness, pins and needles in one hand, vision blurring and melting, a curved-zigzag-shaped flickering shape in my vision, speech aphasia and difficulty typing.) And then years later I finally put two and two together that the headaches I had on a regular basis, that over-the-counter meds didn't work on, and that made me "get stupid" (mild speech aphasia) while having them, were in fact also migraines. And I got prescribed migraine medication for them!

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thambassador@reddit

You're a lifesaver! Glad you were the one helping them that day

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Cabala03@reddit

Good on you!! You know you saved his life right?!!

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insufficient_funds@reddit

There are so many signs of stroke. And the one time I encountered a stroke, he wasn’t showing any of the main ones they teach you to look for- FAST- face droop, arm weakness, slurred speech (and t is “time to call 911”). My dad in the middle of the night started just acting like he was really drunk. Losing his balance, laughing at stuff, cracking lewd jokes, and then commented he was seeing double. He was fine thankfully but it really opened my eyes to how varied stroke symptoms can be.

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ThisIsTenou@reddit

Balance and double visions ARE indications of a stroke as per the expanded BE-FAST scheme.

B = Balance (Loss of balance, dizziness, headaches) E = Eyes (Changes in Vision)

F = Face (One-sided drooping) A = Arms (Weakness in one limb) S = Speech (Difficulty speaking or understanding others) T = Time (Call 911 immediately should any symptoms apply)

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bob152637485@reddit

Now we need to find another two possible symptoms so we can expand it further to "BE-FASTER"!

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Purple-Penguin@reddit

Time to go to the ER?

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lunarchoerry@reddit

wouldn't work in countries (like the uk) where it's not called the ER (it's a&e here: accident & emergency), and be-fast/fast is used in the uk.

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Morlark@reddit

It's actually called the Emergency Department here in the UK.

The term A&E has been gradually phased out since the 2000s, due to lots of people turning up for accidents resulting non-emercency minor injuries (cuts and bruises, basically) that they could easily have treated at home.

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lunarchoerry@reddit

huh, i live in an offshoot jurisdiction (not mainland uk) and there's no signs of it changing from a&e here! but thanks for updating me bc i did NOT know that!

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soberdude@reddit

My dad had a stroke in the hospital after a heart attack. I noticed him slurring, and the nurse said it was just because of the pain meds. She was very dismissive and didn't even come all the way into the room.

A lot of my family is in the medical field, so I went to the nurse's station after she left, and asked the head nurse why my dad's pain medicine was only affecting his left side (his eye started drooping). She had heard me ask about the slurring and ran in there.

They caught the stroke in time, he occasionally had trouble with some words, but he lived another 25 years. Both the head nurse and the one that was having a bad day came in to tell me that I saved his life by pushing.

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iiiinthecomputer@reddit

For the stroke I was present for as a kid, a distant relative I was visiting started inserting random unrelated words until her speech. This moved on to full word salad where each word was clear but they made no sense together. She appeared to be unable to perceive the change in her own speech and confused about why we couldn't understand her.

It was recognised promptly and she was rushed to hospital. She made a strong recovery and lived healthily decades longer. It doesn't always work out that way, but it was good to see.

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AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit (OP)

There are a few videos around where police pull over stroke victims - most elderly, some not - who look and act very drunk. It can be hard to notice the difference even for professionals - police are trained to look for many of the same symptoms with a different cause.

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Jceggbert5@reddit

A friend of mine had a stroke. His wife called her niece (nurse) for triage and she diagnosed stroke over the phone. She took him to the ER immediately and they kept trying to turn him away for being drunk. It took them like 6 hours to get back and get checked out and, no way, it was a stroke.

Thankfully, he's more or less recovered. Can't really drive anymore and his speech is still quiet and slightly slurred though.

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darkest_irish_lass@reddit

The scariest part is the stroke victim might not recognize the symptoms because their brain isn't working right. My MIL had the classic symptoms and insisted it was nothing, or was her blood sugar, or she was just tired.

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Ich_mag_Kartoffeln@reddit

Stroke symptoms can be damn near anything. A mate's dad had a stroke last year. He'd been sick for a couple of days, so they called an ambulance (late at night). Ambos checked him out, couldn't identify anything specific, "But we're pretty sure it's not a stroke." (because he passed all the stroke tests like FAST).

But they took him to hospital anyway, because they agreed something was wrong. He walked out and got in the ambulance unassisted.

That night they called in the neurosurgery team for an emergency surgical intervention, because he wouldn't have lasted until the morning. Six hours after surgery, he passed every physical and neurological test to be medically cleared to go home (obviously he wasn't released for several more days, and after several more tests).

I visited about a month later, and didn't know anything had happened until they told me about it. He seemed the same as ever.

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soberdude@reddit

So, what I'm hearing is that IT will now determine if a medical issue is severe enough to warrant action....

Obviously kidding, you're the reason that guy is alive. Always be proud of that.

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year_39@reddit

We had a user who was never particularly good with computers but was able to get by. At some point she started to have a harder time and it was gradual enough that we didn't make a connection. My boss got a call one day from the manager of account services asking him to check on her after she needed them to reset her password 8 times in half an hour. That's how she found out she had rapid onset dementia. Our frustration and annoyance with her being rude and difficult to work with was immediately replaced with sympathy. Sadly, she died less than a year later.

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just_me-1999@reddit

You are definitely a hero!

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hey_nonny_mooses@reddit

I read that they now do a texting test for recognizing a stroke. People can pass the verbal and written test but still fail texting as it uses a different part of the brain. Nice job OP!

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jamoche_2@reddit

My mom had a stroke, and for a month or so afterwards she had trouble saying the right word, but I had no idea; even before that we had always texted since she was in Texas and I was in California, and her texting skills were unaffected.

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hey_nonny_mooses@reddit

Fascinating and wonderful she could still communicate

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wubbalab@reddit

Well done. You saved a life that day. It surely paid off being patient and using your technical options to get to the root of it all.

A stroke is no fun. If it is treated early chances are good. But it can turn south very quickly.

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AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit (OP)

Yeah stokes are something everyone should know about and then never think about until someone starts showing symptoms. Absolutely vital medical knowledge that is existentially terrifying nightmare fuel.

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Blizerwin@reddit

Just ggf my recertification for first aid. (I volunteer to be a first aid contact in our company. In Germany there usually has to be a certain amount of them if you are over a minimum size. The "Berufsgenossenschaft" even pays for them, done they are the insurance that pays work related accidents (and they want to reduce the fatality rate since they even do payout in case of death)

First of all, if you have learned first aid and it's longer then 4-5 years ago .. get recertification, you forget more then you think and teachings change. If not: Get a first aid certificate or at least learn how to CPR. Even if done bad, it saves lives. (F.e. in Germany technically every driver has to learn how to first aid as part of their license. Why isn't this a more common practice) Second stroke are no joke, brain is life, if some one has a stroke you have 3-5h before he starts losing parts of his brain. Learn the fast / befast / fast4d method (acronym) to identify and do not hesitate to call an ambulance if your "patient" has symptoms of befast or fast4d. Even if they patient is unwilling (I know this is a hard decision outside of Europe)

So everything well done 👍

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AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit (OP)

I keep my cert up to date because my son is nonverbal autistic (being able to diagnose based on physical symptoms is important) and my mother lives with us and she's in her 80's. Definitely have a vested interest in keeping my knowledge pertinent.

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Relatents@reddit

I hope that this call becomes part of the training program for new employees.

Most of them will never encounter such an event but creating the awareness of the possibility could help them recognize such a situation if they encounter it.

You did a wonderful thing for that customer, and by posting this here, increased awareness of stroke indicators in the Reddit community.

Thank you

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AnonymousTechGuy6542@reddit (OP)

I'm using it as an example to teach baby techs how to keep an open mind and practice good differential diagnosis. Also to never make assumptions - if I didn't have that weird backdoor to remote in this might have gone differently. I'd like to think I'd still have contacted another user onsite but who knows?

Heck, if he'd gotten the password right even one time I would have closed the ticket and hung up.

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Elegant-Winner-6521@reddit

My father had a stroke, it's the most terrifying memory of my life. As I read through your post I knew what was going on.

You're a good person, thank you.

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FionnagainFeistyPaws@reddit

Well thats it. Gotta get off reddit. Gotta end on a good note.

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DamnitGravity@reddit

"So, tell me about a time when you went above and beyond for a customer."

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jeffrey_f@reddit

30 second stroke assessment.

Smile: Any drooping of the mouth or one side not moving +1
Hold arms out and close eyes: Any arm drop +1
Have them say: Sally sells sea shells by the seashore. Slur? +1

If you have 3, call 911

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Guilty_Objective4602@reddit

Well done, sir or madam, and quick thinking on your part!

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No_Negotiation_6017@reddit

Nice wiork chief, proper above & beyond. How was the patient about it all?

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WVPrepper@reddit

I'd totally award this post if I could figure out which award is which. Don't want to give one that doesn't apply, but there's no indication of what is what...

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drsoran2@reddit

That's what you call 1st level support as in super good job done!

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gravitationalarray@reddit

Thank you for caring!

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JaschaE@reddit

Well done!
And you areone of the few tech support people to actually figure out what is wrong with the caller XD

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orreregion@reddit

Thank you so much for trusting your gut and reaching out to their manager to get them help. You saved that person's life - way above and beyond what anyone expects from tech support! You're an Internet stranger so I can't, but you should treat yourself to some ice cream or something. :) You more than earned it!

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admik@reddit

I've got family alive because of this kind of situation awareness and good humanship.

Thank you!

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laughatbridget@reddit

That's awesome! I had a similar experience, a vendor I spoke with almost daily was using the wrong words (but sort of close to what she meant) and said she had a headache and seemed a bit confused. I told her to call her husband and go to the hospital because I suspected a stroke. I called her husband after our call as well (they co-owned their business so I had his number). She went to the ER and had a TIA - transient ischemic attack - basically a mini-stroke. She was fine thankfully!

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