Category: LOL Moments

Ah yes, the urgent blood culture. I shall just speak to the germs and ask if they would mind growing quicker, or that we will use the special incubator that makes bacteria grow faster. I did tell a physician once that was demanding an urgent blood culture that I would put in in the microwave… Continue reading Urgent Blood Culture

I worked at a pediatric cancer center. One night we received a urine sample from one of our patients. We ran the sample on the analyzer and the glucose was greater than 500 mg/dl. We run a Clinitest and there is so much sugar, it caused a "pass through." We immediately began to panic so… Continue reading The Urine That Wasn’t

We have a big class of over 150 students. Imagine 150 interns in this huge laboratory run mostly by student interns under the supervision of a few licensed medical technologists. It was fun and never without a few pranks here and there. It was customary for the previous year's interns to prank the newbies. My… Continue reading Special Ingredient

I just started a my new job in Anatomic Pathology at my current hospital. I was there maybe 2 weeks, new supervisor just learning the way things are done. Evidently, before I arrived, the pathology department was willing to release specimens back to patients once the report was finalized. A HUGE no no since they… Continue reading He Bit What Off???

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!