This Woman Was Fired After Going Into Anaphylactic Shock During Work

What. In. The. Hell? A Canadian woman reportedly lost her job at a clothing store after having a severe allergic reaction during her shift.

According to BuzzFeed, Danielle Duperreault went into anaphylactic shock after encountering bell peppers, something she's deathly allergic to. Anaphylaxis is basically a severe allergic reaction that causes your body to go into shock.

According to the Mayo Clinic, when your body goes into shock, your blood pressure drops and your airways narrow, leaving you unable to breath. That being the case, a person in shock must go to the emergency room to receive a shot of epinephrine or the shock could be fatal.

So, you can imagine Duperreault's surprise when she received the following text message from her boss at Urban Planet informing her she would no longer be receiving any shifts, aka when she discovered, literally on the way to the hospital, she was being fired.

In addition to uploading the text message to Facebook, Duperreault also explained her side of the story. If even a fraction of her story is true, her company and her boss have a lot to answer to.

She wrote,

I got fired today, from Urban Planet. And you all would probably think it would be over tardiness or not doing my job and so on and forth. But today I came into contact with bell peppers, something I am severely allergic to. I called a manager upstairs and one came up asking me what was wrong, at that point my airway was already closing. She proceeded to show a tremendous amount of attitude, I did not have an epi pen on me at the time because mine was expired and I needed to get a prescription for a new one. So she told me to go look in my car then proceeded to of wander off.

Oh, OK, I see how it is, manager. But wait, there's more!

Duperreault said,

Meanwhile I'm getting fainty and I'm vomiting, I went out to my car and searched for one but no luck. So I go back into the store, gurgling and clutching my throat while customers and a few staff around me were freaking out and that same manager stood calmly at the computer typing away.

It seems the boss literally could not care less about her employee "gurgling and clutching" her throat and basically dying in front her.

Duperreault elaborated,

I proceed to the back room where a male staff member basically had to carry me up the stairs and get my stuff for me, because was so lightheaded I could barley stand up, and I couldn't feel my extremities. I go to clock out when I hear a colleague of mine yell 'should I call an ambulance' the manager ignores her. I clock out and she calmly says 'text me when you get to the hospital.' (I'm clearly not able to drive.) Where my friend meets me in the parking lot (another employee on her way into work) I motion her to come over and without hesitation she takes the keys and rushes me to a medical clinic.

I hope someday someone shows as little care to this woman as she showed to Duperreault. But wait, the story gets better, or rather, it gets so much worse.

Duperreault continued,

We didn't even have time to get to the hospital, we had to go to a medical clinic and have epinephrine there where I was then sent by ambulance to [Royal University Hospital]. My throat had almost completely closed and I nearly passed out due to lack of oxygen. The manager then fires both of us via text message.

This is it. I found the perfect definition of adding insult to injury. I don't think the boss could've added more insult to Duperreault's life-threatening injury if she tried. The boss also fired the employee who took Duperreault to the medical clinic and basically saved Duperreault's life. WTF?

Duperreault concluded,

I firmly believe that there should always be an epi pen on hand in every store. Who knows if a customer needs one in an emergency, or someone who doesn't know they have allergies and doesn't own an epi pen. And frankly everyone I talked to about this believes that if she seen a customer in peril, she'd jump in to help. The doctors said if I would have waited another ten minutes I would be dead. So please like and share this post to raise awareness about allergies in the workplace. There should be training on how to administer an epi pen, how to handle a situation like that, and how to deal with the after math...

Wow, just wow. It's like Duperreault's boss has never even heard of allergies, shock or compassion. It's one thing to not know how to help, like, no one expects you to help beyond your knowledge and ability. But seriously, Duperreault's boss could've done ANYTHING to help, and instead, she chose to mock, scoff, not care and eventually fire Duperreault.

It doesn't seem this way, but I hope the manager just didn't know what was happening and sincerely believed Duperreault was, I don't even know, just messing around.

Urban Planet released a statement over multiple tweets explaining how it was trying to fix the situation.

The parent company of Urban Planet confirmed to BuzzFeed that the retail store's CEO personally apologized to Duperreault over the ordeal. Dupperreault told CBC News she was still being paid by Urban Planet until she found another job. She reportedly has yet to hear from the manager who fired her.

Citations: A Clothing Store Fired An Employee After She Had A Severe Allergic Reaction (BuzzFeed), Anaphylaxis (Mayo Clinic), Urban Planet CEO apologizes to woman fired after an allergic reaction (CBC News), Saskatoon woman says she was fired for having allergic reaction on the job (CTV News)