I had labs to draw on a 10 year old girl and called her name to have her come in the lab. She looked at me nervously and said her mom was in the bathroom and asked if we could wait. Of course. (No way am I drawing blood on a child without a parent present.)
While we are waiting, I’m explaining the process. She’s a little scared so I jokingly say “it’s not as bad as getting your arm chopped off”. She then says with a straight face “my mom had her arm chopped off “. I wanted to crawl in a hole. In walks mom. Yes with one arm. Kid then proceeds to tell mom what I said. Mom looks at her kid and says “you know what, it’s not that bad”.
She apparently got her hand stuck in a washing machine during the spin cycle. We laughed and the girl felt better about getting her blood drawn and happily submitted and said it wasn’t bad.
Submitted by:
Julia Spadafora
Medical Technologist/Scientist
Utah, USA
