Grappling with the Gray #42: Poison Pen?

True story:

A couple went out to dinner together. They ordered a variety of appetizers and shared them. A couple of hours after returning home, the wife became extremely ill, vomiting so violently that the husband felt compelled to call 911.

An ambulance arrived (together with a fire truck), and took them to the emergency room, where they spent six hours as the doctors attempted to treat the wife for what they believed to be food poisoning. In a state of agitation, the husband sent an email to the restaurant informing them that their food had made his wife seriously ill, and he identified the one appetizer his wife had eaten that he hadn’t.

He also informed them that the cost of the ambulance was over $600 and implied that they should offer to pay the expense.

48 hours later, he had received no reply. So he sent the same message to the restaurant’s Instagram account. He never received a reply to the second communication, either.

Subsequently, tests came back confirming that the wife had not been sick from food poisoning but from a virulent stomach flu.

Considering that the doctors initially diagnosed the wife with food poisoning, was the husband wrong to send the initial email? Was the restaurant wrong to ignore the message? Considering that the restaurant did not reply, should the husband follow up with a note apologizing for his false accusation?

Meet this week’s panelists:

Stewart Wiggins is Chief Advisor at Induna Advisors, working to significantly increase company revenue by developing positive client reports and establishing solid business relationships.

Ipek Williamson is an Insight Coach, Meditation Teacher, Speaker, Author, and Change Master who helps people initiate and navigate change in their personal and professional lives.