A Simple Answer for Much Aggrevation

It makes me very frustrated when I cannot help people out. It makes me even more frustrated when the only thing from keeping me from connecting with someone is a language barrier.

An older man came into the pharmacy and immediately he began to yell, "Hey, Hey" to me and the other staff. I walked over to the counter to help the gentleman. He then proceeded with, "Me, Medicine". I tried to ask him a few questions as to if he needed to pick up a prescription or if he was looking for a medicine in the store but he just stared at me. Without many answers I tried to ask for the man's name. I kept repeating the word "name" and I think things clicked as he gave me a name. I looked up the name in our computer and found that the man had 2 medications ready. So I brought them to the counter.

I then proceeded with the legal jargon, "Could you please verify your address?" The man stared at me again. I tried it a different way, "Where do you live?", still nothing. I tried, "Where is your house?", nothing.

The man was getting annoyed by all my questions. He started to yell in a foreign language. I recognized it as Eastern European but beyond that I had no idea what he was yelling at me. He started to grab for the medicine and kept yelling, "Me, Me" while pointing and throwing his arms around. I would have loved to just hand over the medicines but we have to legally verify the patient. I felt horrible that I could not understand the man and seemed to only be making him more upset with my English.

I tried a number of things, including asking him to write down his birthday, address or even provide an ID. It was useless as the man did not understand me and just kept getting more and more angry. He kept yelling in his native tongue, while grabbing at the medicine and pounding his fists on the counter.

The assistant manager was passing by the pharmacy and realized what was going on. He started asking the man to stop yelling and stop with the aggression. The old man kept yelling. The assistant manager (thankfully) understood the man's language and started to speak to the old man in the foreign language. They both got into a yelling match. The assistant manager explained that the man was upset because I was keeping his medicine from him.

I told the manager that I just needed to verify the patient and was not trying to keep anything from anyone. The manager then explained to the older man the confusion and what was needed. I told the manager an ID would suffice if speaking in English was too difficult. The manager explained this all to the older man.

The older man began to blush as he took out his ID and said "Sorry, sorry, sorry" over and over. I smiled at him trying to let him know that it was ok. I was not offended.

From that moment, every time the older man came into the pharmacy he always smiled and had his ID out before he even reached the counter. He has always been thankful and I have always been happy to help him.

Who knew that such a simple question as an address could spark such a volatile situation? If only I could speak every language then I could help every patient without feeling bad again.