Category: LOL Moments

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

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

When calling a positive blood culture to the floor, I told the nurse the blood culture was growing gram positive cocci in chains. He very seriously said - “oh I’ve never heard of that!” I just paused because I wasn’t sure how to respond and then he said “what do you mean - like behind… Continue reading Cocci In Chains

We had an elderly gentlemen come in for pre-op labs. Our receptionist handed him a urine tube and showed him where the bathroom was and told him we needed a sample.  He came out with stool packed in the urine tube.  She politely thanked him and sent him on his way. We died laughing! Submitted… Continue reading Wrong Specimen

Back in the day when we had slips with the patient names and requisitions for lab draws, detox unit in big hospital sent me up to the floor to draw a whole gang of patients. Two of them were  in the same room.  Jack Daniels and John Walker.  I thought I was being set up. Nope, genuine… Continue reading Name 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

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

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