I had just been to one ward drawing blood from a multihandicapped patient and had had to almost tie a knot of myself in order to reach in. It was a challenging pose but I made it successfully, and went on to the next ward.
Here was a male patient about my own age, fairly good looking. I presented myself and the patient lay on his back, placed his arm on his side and asked me if that was ok. Having the previous patient in mind, I answered without thinking that “Oh, we take people in all positions!”.
Now this might be lost in translation, but in my native language that sentence have a double meaning and I heard it the moment the words left my mouth. I desided to keep a straight mask and hoped the patient didn’t catch the double meaning.
He looked straight at me and with a tiny smile said: “You didn’t think about what you said there, did you?”
Submitted by:
Nina Schjelderup
Laboratory Scientist/Technologist
