Category: LOL Moments

I used to worked at this hospital where the nurses draw blood from their ICU patients. One day, we received a blood sample collected in a blue top tube. The test was for a PT/INR. I promptly spun down the sample and ran it. It took a while to run and finally an error came… Continue reading Excess Tap Water

I was working in a specialized lab dealing with coagulation disorders for a decade. Once someone from another lab or doctor's office called me wanting the fiks analysis (Norwegian spelling). "Fiks?", I answered hesitantly, "We don't have any analysis called that." Took me quite a little while to understand it was coagulation factor 9 (F… Continue reading Fixed It!

Draw station was really noisy and a patient grabbed my coworker and pulled her into the restroom so she could hear him. She came out carrying a semen sample.  We commended her on her customer service skills.  Lol. Submitted by:Fran SUSA

I was working UPMC SHY night shift and went into the breakroom, I had a Mt Dew that had been sitting awhile and the ice was melted looked a bit like urine. It was April Fool's Day, so I got a urine cup and label it poured it in and bagged it up. When the… Continue reading Smells Sweet Tastes Sweet

The patient who was requested to bring a stool specimen for fat analysis. He was told to keep it all refrigerated during the 72 hours of collection.  He returned with 72 days of collection. In a wheelbarrow.  He was asked to repeat the collection. Submitted by:Carol WatkinsUSA

I was doing my morning draws when I came upon a very confused elderly grandma. She started talking about all sorts of things. Her family, pets, past life, etc. Then, she started asking questions, one after the other. My draw list was pretty long that time, so I kept nodding my head with the occasionally… Continue reading That’s Stupid

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