I don't have too much sympathy for this person and I'll tell you why. I've driven stick shift all of my life, and I've been living in Los Angeles for ten years. I don't know if you've ever driven stick shift in bumper to bumper traffic, but it is not fun. Do that day after day and you start to get murderous thoughts. I'd kill for a broken automatic shifter knob. It's not like you have to shift several times while driving. You just have to put it down to drive and then... drive. It's that simple.
I get it though. It sucks for anything to break, and for those people who are easily shaken, this would be quite scary. The thing is, that button on the side just presses that button that's on top there. There's no magic to it. Everything will be fine.