A fatal dumb mistake
#98
It’s 1 a.m., and I’m completely exhausted. My eyes can barely stay open, so I’m just recording my voice and converting it into text, then copying and pasting it here. That’s how tired I am. I have absolutely no energy left to type.
But I’m posting this because today I made one of the worst mistakes of my career. I still don’t know whether it was exhaustion or if I mentally zoned out for a second, but somehow it happened.
I recently started working with a new lab, and we handle patient blood samples that are extremely rare because of the type of treatment the patients receive. On top of that, these samples require an exceptionally high level of sterile handling due to infection control protocols.
To process them, I have to remove the sample using one of several methods. Two of those methods use devices that look somewhat similar. One functions like a suction tool, similar to the suction device dentists use, except it has a handheld control. The other device is completely different and is designed for extremely sensitive sterile procedures.
Both devices use sterilized headpieces that are shaped differently, but they still fit the same standard connector. Imagine a USB-C cable that can connect to completely different devices. The same compatibility issue applies here.
Without realizing it, I attached the suction device headpiece to the highly sensitive sterile device and started extracting the blood sample. Halfway through, one of my colleagues suddenly said, “Mahdis!!!” and immediately snapped me out of whatever mental mess I was in.
I looked down at the device in my hand, which we call a “gun,” and saw blood inside the headpiece. Like I just woke up and someone else handed me that!! Lol. I was horrified. I genuinely felt sick thinking about how badly things could have gone if nobody had noticed in time.
It was probably the stupidest mistake I’ve ever made, and I still don’t understand how it happened. I’m normally an extremely careful person. That’s why it shook me so much.
Maybe it was exhaustion. Maybe burnout. Maybe something else entirely. I honestly don’t know.
It was a strange day overall. So many weird things happened that I can’t even fully process yet. Right now, all I know is that I’m mentally and physically drained.
But I’ll adapt. I always do.