Sucky phlebotomist

[TawnyMyst]

I had to take my husband to the hospital last week as he had started having chest pains and has a cardiac history with an irregular heartbeat and severe sleep apnea. We got there and went straight back, they hooked him up to all sorts of leads and a blood pressure cuff. The doctor sees him and orders a chest X-ray and blood work. The lady comes to draw his blood and insists that it has to come from his left arm, despite both of us telling her that wouldn't work thanks to some severe scarring left from a car accident in his youth that nearly took his arm off. She tells him to sit up and when we point out that he can't due to the leads, she just starts disconnecting them without so much as a by your leave. Doesn't check with anyone, just pulls them off. She sticks him and gets no blood, so tries again in that arm with no better success. Tries a third time before deciding maybe she should try the other arm. So she takes off the blood pressure cuff and succeeds in getting blood this time. Seals it up, tells him " thanks for nothing and next time you should cooperate better" and leaves, leaving him all disconnected from the monitors. I had to go find a nurse to get him reconnected. The nurse was not happy to find everything pulled off and tangled up.

The next round of tests had the same lady start to come in until the nurse saw her headed our way and intercepted her, a different lady ultimately ended up drawing the blood this time and was much better, actually went to ask the nurse if the blood pressure cuff could be taken off for the blood draw and left him laying down instead of making him sit up. Thankfully, it was just a false alarm but I sooo wasn't impressed with the first lady to draw blood.

[Seshat]

Sounds like the first lady is going to get a chewing out from the nursing staff. And well deserved, too.

[MaggieTheCat]

The "Thanks for nothing" comment was completely inappropriate and rude, too. I'd be reporting her to the director of the hospital.

[Sapphire Silk]

<snip> tells him " thanks for nothing and next time you should cooperate better" and leaves, leaving him all disconnected from the monitors. I had to go find a nurse to get him reconnected. The nurse was not happy to find everything pulled off and tangled up.

Argh! That woman would have gotten a sharp rebuke from me. You do NOT take a patient off telemetry during an ER visit until the doctor discontinues it!

But I have to wonder: why the heck didn't the alarms at the nurses station alert the staff to this fact?

[DeltaSierra]

The "Thanks for nothing" comment was completely inappropriate and rude, too. I'd be reporting her to the director of the hospital.

As a phlebotomist myself - I agree!!!

[fma_fanatic]

This is why I hate going to the lab next to my doctor's office because the phlebotomist there can't draw blood. Seriously.

She has tried on several occasions and only succeeded in giving me nasty bruises on either arm. After the 4th try, she goes across the way to the PT department that shares the same space and they've always managed to get it done right the first time. Also, she apparently tells them I'm being difficult because the super cute guy who did it one time told her "I don't see how she's being difficult."

I need to find out if there's a lab elsewhere so I can get it done there without dealing with this BS everytime.