Category: LOL Moments

One day I was drawing blood on a patient. I noticed how anxious he was and had sweaty hands. I asked him if he is okay and he just nodded and looked away. And so, I proceeded. I put the tourniquet on, and told the patient to make a fist, and he did. While in… Continue reading Possible Miscommunication

My most embarrassing patient care moment ever. Another phlebotomist, young and innocent, asked for my help with a difficult stick. My very pregnant self came in, did all the normal introductions, identification, etc. Things are going great. Then I asked "please make a fist in me". Swear I turned red as a tomato. I look… Continue reading Fist Please

Lazy Saturday morning in the lab. Morning labs all done and sitting in the lounge when I get called to the front desk by the clerk due to an irate dad. I calmly sat down with him in a draw room and asked him what could I do for him. He proceeds to tell me… Continue reading Smell the Sex

An elderly couple came into our clinic lab with a specimen. They were upset. The gentleman said he found shrimp in his stool and he had never eaten shrimp. Had someone snuck it in his food? His wife agreed she had not feed him any so it must have been secretly put in his food.… Continue reading The Shrimp Mystery

We’ve all heard of patients passing out while drawing blood. But you probably haven’t heard of other people passing out, other than the patient, during the blood draw. I was drawing blood on an outpatient. The other techs went on a break, and I was by myself. The patient was a young male, well built,… Continue reading Last Survivor

I have to draw blood on an ER patient. She is a 15 year old who is deathly scared of needles. She started crying and told her mom to sing her a song. Mom: "What do you want me to sing?" Daughter: "You know, that song that we sing at camp." Mom: "Which song is… Continue reading Sing For Me Mom!

We’ve always received stool specimens from patients in a lab-provided container. Well, one day, a patient handed me a rather unique stool container...the stool was in a big ziplock bag! OMG! It was a see-through bag and the bag was about 3/4 full of the patient’s semi-formed and soft stool. I just could not believe… Continue reading Unique Sample Container

I work at a small town hospital in Central Florida. 25 beds to be exact. Part of the charm of working with a smaller team is that you get the chance to know everyone from every single department throughout the hospital. The nurses at the inpatient wing normally do their bedside reporting at around 7am,… Continue reading The Whore is Coming!

I have been working in the laboratory profession for over 45 years. But back when I first started, my RN friend brought me a urine sample and it was not labeled. I stopped him and said that his sample was no good. No patient name or any other identifier whatsoever. He asked, "What you want… Continue reading Oh No You Didn’t

Normally when a patient were to ask what container can be used to put a stool sample in, we would just say any clean container will do as long as it can be closed shut. An older lady called and asked what she can collect her stool in. We told her that it doesn't have… Continue reading Jar of Poop