So last week, we received a pleural body fluid with a cell count ordered. In our lab the processor usually sets these up including filtering the sample before it is ran on the DxH.
After running it once, I got a cellular interference error. I figured it probably just needed another round of filtering but there wasn’t much left in the tube so I grabbed the original conical tube to get more. After I stuck the pipette in to get some I realized it was thicker than pleural fluid normally is.
I poked around and found a huge nasty goober in it. At the exact moment I was pulling the huge nasty gummy gook out, the processor walked up to ask a question. This thing was so huge it wouldn’t fit in the under hood waste container so I was trying to carefully maneuver it out of the hood into the big biohazard trash can. And thus I got to, for the first time since my employment here, watch the processor turn a lovely shade of green and gag violently. 3 weeks on and she still hasn’t forgiven me for laughing so hard at her. 😀
Submitted by:
Robin Swartzell
Medical Technologist/Scientist
Indiana, USA
