Epileptic, 72, who had fit in charity shop told to pay for broken bowl
WHEN Sandra Kirkham collapsed in a charity shop, she smashed a glass bowl and cut her foot.
When she regained consciousness, the pensioner was confused, and her foot was covered in blood.
But instead of a kind word from the shop manager as she struggled to understand what had happened, she was badgered about paying for the damage before paramedics arrived to take her to hospital.
Mrs Kirkham, 72, crashed into an unsecured display of glassware after suffering an epileptic seizure as she tried on sandals at the Mencap shop on Monday.
A bowl shattered and cut her foot as she writhed on the floor.
Mrs Kirkham said: ‘The gentleman (shop manager) did call an ambulance, because my foot was bleeding and there was blood all over the floor, but he was more interested in me paying for the goods than me having a fit. All I can remember as I regained consciousness is the shop worker repeatedly saying, “You’ve got to pay for the goods. I’ve got to charge you for the goods”.
‘When you come out of a fit, it takes a long time to work out what is happening and initially the voice sounded so far away. I was so confused as I didn’t know what had broken and why there was blood everywhere.
‘I was eventually taken away in an ambulance and it was only then that I was really able to make sense of what had happened. My husband said they didn’t show any sympathy or offer any kind of apology.’
Mrs Kirkham has had epilepsy since she was a child, but said she didn’t get the usual warnings she was going to have a seizure in the shop in Congleton, Cheshire.
After she fell unconscious, her husband Kevan, 56, fetched a chair for her while he went to pay for the sandals with a £20 note – the only cash he had. But the shop manager said he would keep the £17 change to pay for the glassware.
Mrs Kirkham, a mother of two from nearby Sandbach, said she was discharged from hospital later that day.
She added: ‘I am fine now but just annoyed with how I was treated. Mencap should prepare their staff for this kind of eventuality – it’s a charity who should definitely be aware of illnesses like this.’
Glen Hall, of the learning disability charity, apologised to Mrs Kirkham yesterday and said Mencap was ‘mortified’. He added: ‘Unfortunately a new member of staff who was temporarily in the shop on their own was unsure how to react and made the wrong decision.’