I am a laboratory scientist myself. Is a habit i found in this laboratory i practiced some years back being orchestrated by senior laboratory technologists, I was a student then, so i carried on with the practice seeing nothing wrong with it. In this laboratory, departments were separated from each other. We had parasitology dep and microbiology where we did the sputum and culture, hematology dep, blood transfusion dep, etc.
I encountered this in the transfusion bench. In this dep, we had two fridges and a deep freezer which doubled up as a reporting and dispatching desk. This was made possible because the chest freezer was always closed. It was used in storing expired blood before discarding. I may not know who started this habit but when i came around this chest freezer was also used in storing of milk. Lab dep was supplied with 4 packets of milk for tea. An electric kettle was available in the laboratory, the one we used to cook tea. So somehow someone saw storing the milk in the deep freeze before is used to make tea was not a wrong practice. After all blood in the blood bag does not leak.
I had just reported t work when a senior staff, a lady ordered me to take the milk from the deep freezer and go make tea. Being a routine, i did not see anything wrong on what i was doing. I picked the kettle from the tea room , went to the transfusion bench, placed it on some cooler box next to the fridge, opened the deep freeze, took a packet of milk, bite it and emptied it into the kettle, took another one and did the same, went to the nearby sink and fetched enough water to my estimated two packets of milk, closed the deep freeze and walked out of the department to go boil the tea in the tea room.
Unknown to me, when i opened the deep freeze, patients in the queue for a random sugar test for that day was a diabetic clinic day, saw what was inside the deep freeze. Unfortunately, i was sandwiched in between two fridges, they could see me pick and bite something from the deep freeze and empty t into the kettle but they couldn’t see what it was however they saw clearly the deep freeze was carrying bags and bags of human blood. After i was done and walked out of the tea room, I left a very serious discussion behind me:D:D. They thought i was biting and emptying blood into the kettle and they were convinced beyond reasonable doubt that that kettle was not used in laboratory procedures. Don’t forget i entered a room called “tea room”
In any gathering, we don’t have scarcity of idiots. On that discussion, one guy who thought was clever than them all ruled out that laboratory scientists who go round collecting blood for patients, don’t only use the blood for transfusion, today they found out blood is also drunk in the laboratory!!:oops::oops:. The guy, whom i came to learn later on was a D.O, went and gathered a crowd, brought them back to the laboratory, stormed the tea room where i was busy making tea and washing cups, switched off the power source to the kettle and carried it out to show to his gathering evidence on how blood is drunk in the laboratory. He was so shocked to see it was milk. I wasn’t making tea with blood but just normal cow milk.
He didn’t stop there, he went straight to the deep freeze and opened it. He wanted his followers to see where i collected the blood from which miraculously has turned into milk. Fortunately, we had 4packets of milk in the deep freeze. I only used two. The remaining two were still in the freezer. They were rudely proven wrong.
As much as i agree it was a very bad practice, I just dont understand how a normal human being can believe that i was drinking and making tea with human blood. This guy was was so embarrassed that he didn’t even go back to check his blood sugar. I too was so embarrassed that i took off to the wards. Honestly, some laboratory practices are so weird!
its weird kiasi but i am not as shocked as the rest of you, wamezoea hawaoni kama damu ni kitu , hata hivyo kuna kirafiki kiangu ni lab tech nikiwai mtembelea job anipe chai sitakunywa