UPS Driver Listens to Gut and Enters Old Man's House, Man Had Been Lying on Floor for 7 Days
Many young, able-bodied people run so quickly from one thing to the next that they rarely cross paths with mail carriers, delivery people or other regular “visitors.” They just find the result of their visit: mail and packages.
For some people, though, those deliveries are the only regular human interaction they get. With all the food and grocery delivery services available now, it’s entirely possible to go for long stretches of time without leaving your home.
While this is convenient for many, it also makes the brief interactions of delivery people crucial. Todd Holland, who’s a Navy vet and has been a UPS driver for 25 years, was reminded of this earlier in February.
As he was making his regular rounds, he noticed something was off at one stop. The elderly gentleman in this particular home always made a point to come outside and talk to Holland, but this time there was no sight of him.
After knocking on the door and getting no response, Holland figured the man was just not home at the moment, so he placed the package on the doorstep and continued his rounds.
The next Tuesday, Holland had another package for this particular location, but when he got there, he saw that the package he’d delivered on Friday was still in the exact same spot, untouched.
“I had a bad feeling, so I knocked on the door and called his name,” Holland told Yahoo Lifestyle. “I heard his Rottweiler barking, so I turned the door handle and entered the house. I saw his feet first.”
Thankfully the door was unlocked and Holland was able to get in, but the sight that greeted him was heartbreaking. The man was still alive, but he’d been lying on the floor for seven days.
“He moved his hand to get my attention and I called 911,” the deliveryman said. “While we waited for the ambulance, he squeezed my hand and said, ‘I love you.'”
Holland had found him just in time, as the man wouldn’t have survived much longer. “His muscles were deteriorating and the EMTs said he otherwise wouldn’t have made it through the night,” he said.
Holland made arrangements for the dog to be cared for so that the elderly gentleman wouldn’t worry about it. While the man is recovering in the hospital and described as being in “fair” condition, Holland can’t help but wish he’d acted sooner.
“I just wish I could have found him Friday,” he told WXII. “A close friend of mine said it was just not in God’s will to find him Friday, that God has got a plan for everything and it was his plan for me to find him yesterday.”
“I made it a point to tell the guys at work this morning, if you deliver to people — and a lot of people that we deliver to, especially in these rural areas, us, the FedEx man and the mail man might be the only people they see during the week. I told them, if you realize and get a gut feeling that something is wrong, check it out. It probably is.”
“Everyone is busy, but we have to stay aware when something doesn’t seem right,” he added. “There is no reason this man should be alive today — he’s the miracle.”
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