Bring out your dead

[rbaker]

I am starting a new thread as I could not decide which thread:

Most Batsh*t Crazy Thing You've Heard a Patient Say?

or

I can be there in 15 minutes when I close in 5

Is most appropriate.

Many many years ago I received a phone call at home from a distraught patient informing me that her mother (a long time patient) had passed away earlier that day. When the funeral director went to the hospital to pick up the mortal remains the hospital staff could not locate her glasses. The daughter wanted me to fabricate a replacement pair and have them at the funeral home the following afternoon for the calling hours. 11:00PM and I head down to the office, pulled Mother Johnsons chart and see that she was wearing a B&L Balgrip mounting (Cordelle, if memory serves.)

I edged grooved and mounted a pair of plano glass lenses. The next afternoon about an hour before the wake started a drove the glasses over to the funeral home and gave them to Igor the undertaker who was quite relieved as the daughter was having a conniption fit. The undertaker assured me that he would return the glasses after the viewing was over.

About an hour later I received another call from the daughter informing me that the glasses were all wrong The dearly departed had trifocals and these glasses were single vision! I spent a half hour trying to explain that mother no longer needed trifocals particularly because her eyes were closed, permanently closed.

To top it off the glasses were buried.

Screwed again!

[Paul Smith LDO]

I learned many years ago that no good deed goes unpunished and when working with the public you are also dabbling in the art of Psychiatry. You performed a beautiful sentiment that was meet with criticism and frustration. I charge for all of my services irregardless of the situation, if the party expresses gratitude for the extra mile I go, I will send a note with a check to help defer any additional costs that may have been a hardship for that individual. Some people need tangibles others stimulants, Pavlov's dogs taught us that.

[Chris Ryser]

To top it off the glasses were buried.

Screwed again!

I am sure that is not the only good story of about buried glasses.

I do not remember that any of my parents or grand parent had been exposed and cremated with their glasses.

However I still have a few boxes in the safe containing jewelry and watches belonging to them and that had been removed before burial.

[Uncle Fester]

I'd have sent a bill to Igor.

[rbaker]

You must realize that this was back in the day when the Optician was a member of the professional community and not a sales clerk working in the mall. We frequently loaned glasses to funeral homes with no problems. We used to take little Johnnies lenses out of his frames or loan him a less dorky frame for school pictures. But, that was another day and time.

Today you would probably send a bill to Igor. Today you would not have put a pair of lenses in Granny Johnsons frame without a new Rx. And, you would live in perpetual fear of the eyeglass police busting you for not heat treating and drop ball testing the glass lenses. Your boss would have asked for an explanation of why you did not replace the lenses with the latest progressive lenses with a really good AR coating. I can also think of a lot of nasty billing issues.