SF Snippets 5

This section is a tragicomedy. Or a comitragedy.

The morning that I left SF at an ungodly hour, I got into the Super Shuttle and there was a woman I knew. So, we chatted a bit and people were entertained by our chatter.

She told me a story about an adventure she had while in SF. She and two friends were on the tram headed to the Golden Gate Bridge, when a woman in the back (around 17 years old) started having trouble standing, and it almost looked like a seizure. She got off the tram, and the three women got off to help her. It wasn’t clear what the problem was, but the woman said ‘I need sugar!’ so one person ran off to get some sugar, and another handed the poor woman a tootsie roll.

Now, this is the comedy part in a sort of twisted way. Imagine having a diabetic attack and needing sugar and someone gives you a tootsie roll – the most difficult candy in the universe to chew, except maybe milk duds. At 4:30 in the morning it was a very funny thought.

But then the woman’s vision was going in and out, and she could hardly stand, and when they spoke with her they found out she had come with her father, a pilot, from Australia the day before, or even that day. And once she had the sugar it didn’t seem to help. The symptom were such that it seemed likely that either a blood clot was going through her brain or she was having an aneurysm. The medics arrived and took her away, and since the three women weren’t family they have no idea what happened to her. But it was good they helped.

So, on long flights, remember to move your muscles! Move around! Very sad things can happen otherwise. Read more about 'long haul blood clotting' here.