A woman tried to assure her mother that her partner was being seen by doctors, but she received a frantic phone call after her mom mistakenly believed he had died.
Zoey Tout, from Cornwall in the U.K., was recently looking after her boyfriend, James, while he experienced a painful case of what they initially thought was glandular fever or tonsillitis.
When his condition didn’t improve, James went into the minor injuries unit at a hospital to get checked out.
While updating her mother, Kally, about James’ condition, Tout sent a text saying, “He’s gone.” The phrase, which has multiple meanings, prompted a “panic” call from Kally, who thought James had died.
“Tears, panic, pandemonium sets in fast. She’s mentally preparing a funeral,” Tout told Newsweek.
On June 21, under the handle @zlt_x, Tout, 30, posted a screenshot of the exchange with her mother on TikTok, aptly set to James Blunt’s “Goodbye My Lover.”
As seen in the image, her mother writes, “Lets hope he gets seen soon,” adding, “Let me know how you get on.” Twenty minutes later, Tout replies, “He’s gone.”
Seconds later, her mother calls, and the screenshot shows they were on the phone for 52 seconds, enough time for Tout to reassure Kally that James had not died.
Tout told Newsweek that the conversation went a little like this: “‘What do you mean, HE’S GONE?’ ‘To the hospital, mum. He’s gone to the hospital.’ ‘OH WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU JUST SAY!? I THOUGHT HE WAS DEAD ZOEY!’”
Tout added that her mother had previously come to the house with a “full doctor’s briefcase” in tow to check up on James and had been “texting and calling nonstop” to make sure he was OK.
Tout, who is a mother herself, said: “Bear in mind, this woman watched me give birth like she was watching an episode of Coronation Street. Very nonchalant, very demure.”
“But James? Well, he must have the very best, of course,” she said, adding that her partner had leukemia as a teenager, which partially explains her mother’s worry.
While tonsillitis can be painful and may involve surgery, it is rarely life-threatening. Following his trip to the hospital, James discovered that he didn’t have tonsillitis but quinsy, also known as a peritonsillar abscess—which in severe cases can block airways or lead to an infection in the lungs, the Cleveland Clinic said.
Tout shared the exchange to TikTok along with the caption, “When you send your partner to [MIU] with severe tonsillitis and your mum calls in a panic after wrongly assuming that ‘gone’ means ‘gone.’”
TikTok users were left in hysterics over the mix-up, with one writing, “This is EXACTLY my humor.”
“The immediate voice call, bless her,” another added, while a user commented that they were “crying with laughter at this.”
Tout and her mother aren’t the only ones to experience such a mix-up, as one commenter wrote: “My friend messaged last night telling me our other friend was gone, I replied what deceased? Turns out she went off on annual leave.”
Tout said she shared the exchange on TikTok to “make people laugh,” including her mother, who had gone through a “difficult time” while her husband dealt with health issues of his own.
The TikToker added, “He is now thankfully doing great and well on the mend.”
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