Roommate "found someone better" and moved out. What can we do?

apprenticeprof
Fri, 19 Sep 2014 16:50:35 +0000

I also don’t entirely understand the reactions rebeccar is getting. I live alone, and have considered the fact that if G-d forbid anything happened to me, no one would know. I have a close friend who is only alive right now because she happened to be visiting home the day she passed out from complications from a brain tumor she didn’t yet know she had. She needed emergency surgery. If she hadn’t been found ASAP, she would have died.

No one is expecting a roommate to be a medical attendant. But if someone else is living with you, they are more likely to notice if something is wrong - if you don’t come home one night, or if you suddenly faint, or if you don’t wake up with your alarm. This is highly unlikely to ever be necessary, but somewhat less unlikely in the case of someone with diabetes.

That being said, rebeccar, it is still highly unlikely that your adult brother, who knows how to manage his illness, will ever be in such a situation, and as other people have said, there is not even close to a guarantee that the presence of a roommate would make a difference in an emergency. So, the actual difference in safety is marginal, although I completely understand your anxiety, and can see why the idea of your brother having a roommate was at least a small comfort to your family. The suggestion upthread of having him check in with a quick text in the morning sounds like a good one, though.