I had no idea there was so much conflict regarding how to draw blood from patients, but I guess you learn something new every day!

And this med student sure learned a whole lot after a simple task of drawing blood went haywire.

So all they could do was maliciously comply!

Check out their story below.

Hospital lab wants the blood sample overfilled.

“I am a medicine student working in a surgical department in a big hospital. My job is to support the doctors by doing examinations and drawing blood samples.

It was business as usual.

We had a patient that was scheduled for surgery the next day, so I draw our standard preop blood samples, including a test tube for checking the blood clotting. These test tube have to be filled to the correct line, otherwise the included chemical cannot stabilize the blood. I normally check, if the tubes are filled correctly, but sometimes I forget about it.

I drawed the sample and send it to the lab. An hour later I get a call from the doctor on duty, saying that the clotting tube wasn’t filled enough and if I can draw another sample. I said sure, drawed the sample, double checked if it was filled to the line and send it to the lab.

They said they’d done it the right way.

Another hour later I get another call from the doctor, asking me if filled the clotting tube correctly, because the lab said again that it wasn’t filled enough. I assured that I double checked. She decided to draw the third sample herself. We went together to the patient and we both checked several times that tube was filled right to the line. We send it to the lab and we’re sure that we got it right this time.

And another call…

Another later the lab calls again stating that the tube wasn’t filled enough. The doctor was so mad because the tube was definitely filled correctly. She asked the lab tech was she has to do.

He replied: “Fill it to the top.”

“To the top?”

“Yes, to the top. The tube has to be completely full.”

If you say so!

So she maliciously complied, knowing that you only have to fill the tube to line and not to the top.

We drawed the fourth blood sample on the same day and filled it to the top.

The patient was not amused.

Well, what did you expect…?

An hour later the lab called and said that the test tube was too full, rendering the results invalid.

The doctor was so upset and demanded to speak to the lab director. She demanded that the lab sends someone over to draw the sample, since we seem to be incompetent.

So someone came over, drew the fifth sample, exactly to the line and send it to the lab.

It was also underfilled.

Turns out the calibration of the analysing machine was off.

The lab director was quite embarrassed and apologized several times.”

Check out how people responded.

One person talked about how this process is actually supposed to work.

Another reader shared their own story.

This Reddit user said the lab tech was incompetent in this story.

Another individual disagreed with the previous commenter.

I don’t want to be anywhere near that stuff…

As a patient or a medical professional!

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