Category: LOL Moments

Nurse called looking for sensitivities on a urine culture. I told her that the culture was no growth. She said that they still needed the sensitivities. She continued to insist that the doctor needed to have them even after I had explained numerous times that there was no organism recovered for sensitivities. She hung up… Continue reading No Growth, No Sensitivity

I was stationed at Fort Ben Harrison from 1987-1991. For my last 3 years, I was the NCOIC(Non-Commissioned Officer-in-charge) of the laboratory. I met and worked with many outstanding people during my tenure there.  There is this one occasion that I recall was extremely amusing. On this particular day, we were VERY BUSY in the… Continue reading Rastafarian Set Up

Working in a private lab near a fertility specialist office, we would often get semen analysis specimens dropped off early in the morning. Labeling seemed to be an often overlooked item for the collectors. So, our front office would always have the tech come to accept the specimen and verify specimen identification. Oftentimes, guys would… Continue reading Spread a Little Sunshine

One of the techs was also a nun as well as a licensed CLS. I was in Micro and had to call someone at county public health, something unusual and I wasn't sure who I needed to talk to. After about 15 minutes on the phone, and being transferred the 6th time, the call dropped.… Continue reading Divine Intervention

The transport tech was told to get the urine specimens to the lab while they were still warm. The microbiology lab couldn't understand why urine samples with >1+ bacteria were growing <100,000 colonies. Turns out that the transport tech was microwaving the samples on the way to the lab because he was afraid they might… Continue reading Warm Urine

Working in a small town is great! You become familiar with patients, and eventually start calling each other on a first name basis. The drawback? They become over familiar with you and start making peculiar requests. It's usually busier on a Monday morning than any other mornings during the week. I'll call my next patient… Continue reading Peculiar Request

Chika came in for Pregnancy test with her boyfriend and her female friend, Juliet. Juliet requested to see me privately, to which I obliged. "Please Sir, my friend Chika is not pregnant, but make the test result POSITIVE. We want to use it to get Chika's boyfriend into marrying her", she said. I told her… Continue reading True Positive Result

An elderly gentleman came in to have his blood drawn. No problem. However, doctor also ordered some urine tests and he said he just went before coming in to the lab. He asked where the water station is so he can have a couple glasses of water which might help him pee sooner. I guided… Continue reading You’re Out Of Water

I went to the hospital's emergency room to extract blood, as usual. Suddenly, a voice said, "You're so cute, Ma'am". Now I was short in stature and already knew she meant my height, so I proceeded to tie the tourniquet. Unfortunately, she spoke up again to emphasize, "Ah. I mean your height okay, not your… Continue reading Sharp Revenge

A 60+ year old lady smilingly came into the laboratory and submitted her urine sample. I was assigned at Clinical Microscopy that day but happened to be at the reception area to pick up samples, so I got her well-labelled sample too, and brought it back to my section. As I was reading under the… Continue reading No Age Limit