‘Turned Into a Nightmare’: Starbucks Faces Backlash After Employee Allegedly Tells Virginia Woman to ‘Get In Line’ to Get Ice Water for Husband Visibly Suffering Medical Emergency

Posted by Christian Boone | Published on: June 6, 2025

Reprinted by Sunny Imanche on June 7, 2025

Kevin Key and his wife were heading to a comedy show in Richmond’s Short Pump Town Center on March 30 when Key, 38, started exhibiting frightening symptoms from his Stage 4 kidney failure.

“He just started sweating. He’s like, ‘I don’t feel well,’ ” his wife, Nelisa Key, told WWBT-TV in Richmond. “He started leaning over, and then he started vomiting.”

She had seen it before and knew her husband needed ice water. Nelsia Key noticed a Starbucks only a short distance away and took off running, her husband trailing behind.

“I was frantic. I think I was crying at that point,” Nelisa Key said. She explained to a long line of customers that her husband was having a medical emergency and needed water.

They were all sympathetic, said Nelisa Key, allowing her to cut to the front of the line. But that didn’t carry over to the barista, she said.

“I pointed back, because you could see Kevin, and I was like, ‘That’s my husband right there. He’s in Stage 4 kidney failure. I just need water fast for him,’ ” she recounted. “And the employee looked at me and was like, ‘You need to get in line.’ And then I repeated what I said, I’m like, ‘but my husband, he’s in kidney failure, we just need ice water quickly.’ And he looked at me again and was like, ‘You need to get in line.’”

At this point, Kevin Key was struggling.

“I could have possibly blacked out. It could have had a more dramatic impact on my body. My kidneys could have possibly just shut down,” he said. “A situation that should have taken, like, less than probably 10 seconds to get water, turned into a nightmare instantly.”

Nelisa Key knew time was short. She ran across the street in the outdoor mall to the Capital One Cafe, where she said an employee acted promptly to get her husband a cup of ice water.

“She was like, no problem at all. I hope he feels better,” she said. “And when I got to Kevin and gave him the water, he almost instantly felt better.”

Kevin Key recently got to meet the Capital One Cafe employee, named Emma, and thanked her for “being a caring human being.”

“Capital One Café stepped in, and they were able to help out in a situation when I needed help the most,” he said.

In a statement to WWBT, Starbucks spokesman Sam Jefferies said the company contacted the Keys to apologize, “and we hope to welcome them back to a store of their choice to give them the Starbucks experience they should expect.”

But Nelisa Key said the Seattle-based company refused to take accountability, offering the couple a gift card to try and make amends.

“Starbucks had a decision that day, like I said before, to pick policy or humanity, and they chose policy,” she said.

That policy, announced in January, reversed the store’s open-door policy. People who enter Starbucks are now required to order something from the menu if they want to hang out or use the bathroom, according to the new rules, posted online.

Jeffries said the company continues to train its employees on the new code of conduct, adding “we are working to ensure that everyone who visits our store has a great experience and training partners to communicate openly and from a place of kindness, compassion, and consideration for other patrons when determining how to proceed when a guest makes a request outside of our policies.

“If a customer communicates a request related to restroom access or water due to a medical, health or accessibility issue, we are committed to providing appropriate accommodations,” he continued.

But Jeffries said part of the problem was where Nelisa Key asked for the water — in the pick-up area. That disrupts the workflow, the spokesman said.

“We’re simply asking that water is handled like other orders — at the point of sale,” Jefferies said.