17-year-old Parker Miller reported his abusive mother to the police for his mother neglecting her responsibility of providing food for their home. Mrs. Miller openly admitted to banning all junk food from their household in regard to improving the family’s habits and health. Parker has recently lost weight due to his mother feeling the need to starve him and his other siblings. Mrs. Miller told the police department that she had removed all fried foods, sweets, greasy food, and sugary drinks. She was unaware that banning junk food was equivalent to starving a child, let alone wrecking his whole life. 

The following day, Parker was asked to catch the bus to school as his mother had to go into work early. He sluggishly crawled out of bed and dragged his body down the stairs. With no energy, he could barely move at a decent pace. The clock read 7:30 a.m. which meant school was starting in 30 minutes, which also meant that Parker had missed the bus. He called his mom and mentioned that due to not being able to move fast enough from lack of a sugar high, he missed the bus and will not be attending school today.  

Later that night he was convinced he had a condition called hypoglycemia which is when your blood level falls below 70 mg/dL, he found out it can harm his health. Symptoms included feelings such as making one feeling their body tremble, feebleness, starving, or weak at the knees. With a gut feeling of thinking he was dangerously low, 

Parker demanded treatment as soon as possible. He raced to his mother’s in-home office and told her that he’s at serious risk of dying if she doesn’t take him to the emergency room to solve his health condition. At the very moment, Parker began to feel weak and shaky. The first few known symptoms of this common but death defining condition. 

With 200,000 cases of individuals in the United States with this condition, Parker knew he was one out of those few that were facing such adversity. Clearly unaware of how truly devastating the condition is, Mrs. Miller drove him to the hospital to get examined. They checked into a room where they sat waiting for the nurse to get the doctor. Once the doctor entered the room, the atmosphere filled with tension, no one knew how much longer Parker had left to live; a poor 17-year-old boy, on his deathbed. 

Results showed a fever of 99.9°F. The nurse asked if there was anything else she could do for Parker and of course he had one thought in mind, food. “Can I please have a pepperoni pizza with a vanilla shake?” His mother looked at him with disappointment in her eyes, but Parker had high hopes this could turn his life around. 

After the nurse returned with his request, he chomped on his greasy pizza and slurped away at his extra thick vanilla shake and instantly felt so much better where he was ready to leave the hospital. He thanked the nurses and doctor for saving his life and providing him something that his own mother felt the need to take away.  “Oh honey, parents CLEARLY don’t understand that teenage bodies are still growing and need the energy to get through difficult tasks such as school, drama, athletics, etc.”