Teniesha Balentine was just hours from death when her friend rescued her.
Teniesha and Cassidy Hickerson met in seventh grade at Camdenton Middle School. “We just clicked,” Cassidy said. They have been best friends ever since. So when 22-year-old Teniesha didn’t show up for work on Friday, Jan. 12, her best friend started to worry.
“She never just doesn’t show up,” Cassidy Hickerson said. “She always calls. I knew something had to be wrong.” Teniesha had called in sick the day before but no one had heard from her on Friday.
The two friends work together at Woods Supermarket in Sunrise Beach. “When she didn’t call, or come to work, I asked my manager Mike Reynolds if I could go check on her, and he said yes,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy drove to Teniesha’s apartment in Laurie, where she lives alone.
"When I got to her place, I found the door unlocked,” Cassidy remembered. Teniesha was laying on the floor, unconscious. “At first, I thought she might be sleeping. I called her name. I walked over to her, and I saw foam coming out of her mouth,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy went into panic mode. She called her manager, who told her to call 911. She called 911, and the Lake West Ambulance crew was there in minutes.
“The paramedics checked her blood sugar and it was over 800,” Cassidy said. (LWA Operations Manager Joanne Blackburn points out the normal range for blood sugar is between 60 and 120. Too high of a reading means there is not enough insulin to metabolize the blood sugar.)
“The paramedics started an IV,” Cassidy said. Teniesha was in a diabetic coma, and was immediately transported to Lake Regional Hospital, in Osage Beach.
If Cassidy had not found Teniesha and called 911, her friend could have died in just a few hours. "Multiple organs could shut down,” Blackburn explained.
“It was terrifying,” Cassidy said. “I wanted to go in the ambulance with her... I was supposed to work until 3 p.m. that day. Thank God I found her.”
When Cassidy got to the hospital after work, Teniesha was in the Intensive Care Unit, still in a coma. "I stayed there for a few hours praying for her,” Cassidy said. “I knew God had her in His hands, because He sent me to her apartment. I believe that one of my purposes on this earth was to find her.”
Teniesha was also diagnosed with Type A Influenza. She has since come out of the coma, but diabetes and kidney function problems have made recovery an uphill battle. “It is a waiting game now,” Cassidy said.
“If Teniesha would have been off of work, no one would have thought to check on her," Teniesha's Grandmother Cheryl Harris said. “She told her sister she was coming down with a cold on Wednesday, and she talked to her on Thursday, but she just sounded sleepy.” Teniesha does not remember the call or calling into work sick and she said she usually locks her door.
"I woke up in the hospital, not knowing what had happened," Teniesha said. "Cassidy knows I always work a lot, and I never miss a day. I am glad she knew something was wrong. I will be forever grateful to her for saving my life. I told her I 'forever thank you!'"
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A GoFundMe page named “Teniesha’s Bills and Misc. has been set up to help Teniesha with the expenses she will have due to missing work. So far, more than $500 has been raised. "The good thing is; I work at Woods Supermarket and they said I will still have a job when I get better,” Teniesha said. The owners of the store, Don and Joan Woods, visited her in the hospital, to check on her and see how she was doing.
"Cassidy is a hero for going and finding her, and saving her life,” Harris said. “We are thankful.”
