One night, a container came in. You could hear the rattling inside the container. Almost immediately, the processor tried to open it. One of my colleagues stopped her on the spot and took it under the biosafety cabinet. You would think people have learned to never open any patient specimens in the open air by now.
Anyways, it appeared someone had some intense surgery.
With a specimen that large, it presented some challenges for culturing. We wanted to get the best representation of the entire piece. My coworker tried his best to process the sample. He took a sterile swab and started swabbing the specimen. Afterward, he dipped the swab in the thioglycolate broth. Finally, he proceeded to inoculate the agars.
That concluded the most exciting patient sample I've seen all week. Until, of course, I saw this gem in the shared walk-in freezer with the Rapid Response Department.
Okay, it's not a patient, and I wasn't about to peek inside. I guess they were going to screen for rabies or something. My other colleagues had a good chuckle. Our clinical labs do handle specimens from vets and whatnot from time to time.
Until next time.