Subway Delays Caused by Ladies on Diets

I recommend that if a passenger faints on the train, they should drag the person to the platform and THEN tell the conductor. That way the train can go along on its way without causing any delays and the EMT’s will respond to the sick passenger.

Everybody Wins!

"we'll dig to find out the number 1 and number 2, but if anyone knows, tell us!"

or you could just read the rest of that article, as the answer is provided about 8 paragraphs down...

This is an old story. . . . Typical amNew York b.s.

May 15, 2005
The Destination Is Beauty, but Someone Just Pulled the Cord
By JOHN FREEMAN GILL
Striving for slender figures that could stop traffic, young women are instead stopping trains. Among the roughly 30 subway passengers treated each month by emergency medical technicians working for New York City Transit, a majority are women in their 20's and early 30's who pass out as a result of skipping meals.

"I can tell you a good 70 percent of our cases are young women who haven't eaten," said Caryn Selby, a co-manager of the agency's Sick Customer Response Program. The trend, first reported this month by the newspaper Metro, is expected to become more pronounced as temperatures climb.

"That it's young women is key," said Dr. Jana Klauer, a New York physician who specializes in nutrition and weight reduction, "because a young woman is a menstruating female, and during that time of life there's a tendency of anemia because of the loss of blood on a monthly basis. So many of these women are probably anemic."

The fainting typically takes place in the morning. "Most of them say they're watching their weight and haven't eaten since lunch the day before," said Asim Nelson, a technician who was working his usual morning shift inside a small room on a platform at Grand Central Station the other day. Under the sick customer program, an E.M.T. is deployed at each of nine busy train stations during rush hours.

Mr. Nelson said that he offered assistance to four to six ailing passengers daily, most of them young women who had passed out from not eating, but that two-thirds refused medical attention. As he spoke, the door to the room swung open, and a transit worker escorted in a thin young woman who looked woozy. Mr. Nelson was at her side in an instant, taking her blood pressure (low) and asking if she had any medical condition (she didn't) and whether she'd eaten breakfast (a small one: toast and apple juice).

"I just felt like if I didn't say something, I was going to pass out going up those stairs," said the woman, Lyzza Andrad, 26, who added that she had felt similarly lightheaded the previous morning.

"Do you want to go to the hospital?" Mr. Nelson asked several times. Ms. Andrad, looking miserable, declined.

"You got a little candy?" Mr. Nelson inquired.

Ms. Andrad produced a package of Starburst fruit chews, unwrapped an orange candy with her long pink fingernails, and popped it into her mouth. Smiling weakly, she slowly made her way out of the quiet little room, back into the churning mob of humanity.

copyright 2005, New York Times

Samantha T, what's your problem?

Are you saying maybe that he didn't really do that and she never went to the hospital, or that he perhaps did something inappropriate to her, or?

The same "skinny bitches faining on the subway" story was on channel 2 this morning (can't remember if it was the local or national news).

I think more delays are caused by people chucking AMNY and Metro onto the tracks, with those rags gunking up the works. They both suck. I guess it's a slow news day.

I think the "findings" of the amNew York are complete and utter bullshit. I believe the No. 1 cause of subway delays are "police investigations," especially at such opportune times as rush hour. The No. 2 delay is people propping the train doors open as it is about to leave the station. I would say that sick passengers are the No. 3 reason for train delays, and I bet you only a small fraction of those sick passengers are fainting female dieters. Most sick passengers are probably those suffering from flu and other illnesses, or who overindulged on food, alcohol or drugs (ha!).

Where's the credit to amNY?

I never understood the policy of delaying thousands of people because of a sick passenger. Unless someone has an injury where they cannot/should not be moved, why can’t the sick or injured passenger be moved from the train to the platform to await medical attention? Why slow down the whole system for one person????

The only logical answer has to be that this policy is designed to avoid frivolous lawsuits.

That is bizarro! Come on, change your eating habits forever, don't fast or diet.

Gosh, I always thought that "sick passenger" was a euphemism for "dead passenger." O_o

Oddly, each of the two times I passed out on the subway, it was because of the flu. And no one called the EMTs. In fact, no one even got up out of their seats.