Jimmy John's Answers Wrong Number And Delivers Man To Hospital

October 26, 2018

Sometimes a wrong number turns out to be exactly the right one.

Last week, Lisa Nagengast flew to Omaha to be with her brother while he underwent spinal surgery. After the successful surgery and homecare was set up for him, Lisa flew back home to Florida in good spirits.

Before her plane touched down in Tampa, she already had a voicemail from her brother.

Lisa had to get him help and quickly, from thousands of miles away, so she started making phone calls and accidentally dialed a local fast food joint. As it turned out, that Jimmy Johns in Columbus, NE was the call she needed to make.

Lisa / Jason Credit: Facebook / Omaha.com

Lisa shared the story on her Facebook page. This is what she wrote.

"This last week has been super stressful. I flew to Omaha, NE to be with my brother while he underwent spinal fusion surgery. It was a risky surgery because he also has congestive heart failure. He had the surgery at Nebraska Medical on Wednesday and 2 days later was discharged on Friday. The entire surgery was taken care of under the VA and we had homecare workers setup to come to his house to help him with his recovery because my flight was leaving Saturday afternoon. I took him home, made sure he was settled in and then I left. I thought everything was working out great and he was doing really well.

Yeah, so….I landed in Tampa at 7:20 pm this evening and had a voice mail from my brother. He was in pain, there was a lot of blood and puss type fluid oozing from his incision. He said it was really bad and his left leg had gone numb. He was understandably upset and could not drive and was having issues getting a ride to the hospital. He lives on disability and cannot afford a cab. And in Columbus, NE (where he lives) they don't have Uber. He could not call 911 for an ambulance ride because there was no VA authorization. So I asked him to give me the phone number for the social worker so I could call and see if we could figure something out.

So I called the number a young woman answered, I assumed it was the social worker Pam. I told her who I was, why I was calling, gave her the whole story, and asked what can we do to get him to the hospital. I then got passed to the manager, Jason Voss. I reiterated my story and he said "We have drivers, let me see what I can do. I will call you back in 15 minutes." My response, "Perfect and thank you!"

A few minutes pass and a young man called named Zack Hillmer. Zack asked "How did you get this number?", my response, "My brother gave it to me. He said "Oh, okay. I will go get your brother but I need some information." At this point I was confused because this was a social worker, they should already have his information. I asked him if Pam had failed to give him the file or whatever had his information and he said "Umm, this is Jimmy Johns." I said "You mean Jimmy John's like the food place?"

Yeah, I had called Jimmy John's restaurant. Most places would have probably said something like "Gee I'm really sorry about your brother, but we can't help you." But Zack, the delivery driver at Jimmy John's picked up my brother and took him to the emergency room to get the medical attention he needed.

I cannot say thank you enough to Jason Voss and Zack Hillmer….there are not enough words to express my gratitude. If you are ever in Columbus, NE please stop at Jimmy John's, have a sandwich, and tell Jason and Zack thank you for me!

UPDATE: My brother is okay. He was able to go back home last night."