Category: LOL Moments

A middle aged lady came in to the lab to have her blood drawn for thyroid testing. We were busier than heck that day and it’s my turn to draw the next outpatient. I brought her in and asked for her name and date of birth. She had this confused look on her face so… Continue reading Free Test

I've been in the lab profession for over 35 years. Needless to say, I'm getting up there in age and looking forward to retirement in a few years. I've seen a lot in my years of experience, but this one somehow trumps it all. For HIPAA reasons, I'll be using an alias and call my… Continue reading Grandma’s Got Game

Here’s another one of my funny experiences drawing blood at our nursing home next door. For privacy purposes, I will call my patient Mr. X. Mr. X is probably one of the most talkative resident there. He always have some interesting stories to tell. Always pleasant to the nurses and the lab team. Overall, a… Continue reading Bad Timing

I work in a microbiology lab. Currently we are swamped with covid testing. On the covid requisition, there is an urgent section that the healthcare professional can tick off and needs to provide a reason (e.g. urgent surgery or patient coded) and it has to be approved by a microbiologist. Of course, 98% of the… Continue reading Urgent: Patient Needs to Smoke

We had a nurse who stuck her patient SIX times before calling a phlebotomist. The phlebobomist noticed the patient's veins were HUGE and asked the RN if they rolled. She says.... no I got blood very easily, but the gold top kept clotting so I just had to keep throwing them away..... SIX TIMES PEOPLE!!!  … Continue reading It Kept Clotting

A middle-aged guy came in for blood work one day. He's the chatty type with some pretty good stories to tell. He shared with me an experience the last time he had his flu shot. It was a busy day at the clinic with a bunch of kids waiting in line to get their flu… Continue reading Screaming Prank

One time, I put mustard in a stool specimen container, went upstairs, and sent it down the tube system. It was unlabeled, but marked from pediatrics, and as such was brought to my attention. We tried to work with pediatrics because we know how hard it could be to recollect a new sample. When the… Continue reading The Mustard Prank

When I was a teenager, my first boyfriend dumped me for another girl. Broke my heart! 20 years later, I was running RPRs and guess whose serum came in? It was my ex from 20 years ago, and it was positive! I knew right then I have the best job in the world! This was… Continue reading Karma’s a Bitch

This is an SOS —send help! I work for a hospital—-and they hire nurses here. Called because I had some spotty result for a mint green and a grey no big. Clearly IV contamination—-so I thought. I’m not a nurse so who's to say I could be wrong .  Read back results and the “medical professional”,… Continue reading Bad Sample

Had a patient who was mean and rude, and I had to draw blood on her. She actually threaten to punch me if I hurt her. Tried my best to be professional with this lady. Blood draw went great, no problem. Then the stool collection was next. For some reason, she didn’t want her boyfriend… Continue reading Inseparable