I worked as an assistant in a plastic surgery office for a while as well, and I had to clean lipoaspirate out of the suction tube/syringe and the erlenmyer flask it was emptied into. That was still preferable to the time it got splattered on my scrubs because the surgeon emptied it into a kidney basin the first time. (The flask was my idea to prevent getting splattered again.)
Human body’s just chalk full of gunk. Ok this one ain’t got the squeamish so if your easily grossed out quit readin here.
One time the OR put out a memo stating that in order to save money we would start reprocessing (cleaning/disinfecting /sterilizing) colostomy bags. Now technically this is possible, as if you can scrub something clear of visible debris and biofilm the low level sterilization fluid “should” do its job. But I’ll tell yea, that’s not a task I’d wish on anyone. I spent 45 minutes cleaning the first (and only) one we got, gagging through my N95 till my boss came in and was like “DUDE THROW THAT SHIT AWAY WE AINT DOIN THAT!”. I thanked him, stripped my PPE off, scrubbed the metaphysical crap from my being and chain-smoked till I couldn’t smell anymore. I generated a phobia of human feces that day.
As an ED tech, I had to clean up C diff and chemo diarrhea off patients, beds, floors, and commodes multiple times. ED boarding meant that patients that should have been admitted to hospital rooms that had a bathroom attached were stuck in the ED for hours or even days.
As a former sterile processing tech who had to clean the cholesterol out of reusable suction tubes…gross
as a non healthcare person… I’ve now lost my appetite because of all of the above. thx
I worked as an assistant in a plastic surgery office for a while as well, and I had to clean lipoaspirate out of the suction tube/syringe and the erlenmyer flask it was emptied into. That was still preferable to the time it got splattered on my scrubs because the surgeon emptied it into a kidney basin the first time. (The flask was my idea to prevent getting splattered again.)
Human body’s just chalk full of gunk. Ok this one ain’t got the squeamish so if your easily grossed out quit readin here.
One time the OR put out a memo stating that in order to save money we would start reprocessing (cleaning/disinfecting /sterilizing) colostomy bags. Now technically this is possible, as if you can scrub something clear of visible debris and biofilm the low level sterilization fluid “should” do its job. But I’ll tell yea, that’s not a task I’d wish on anyone. I spent 45 minutes cleaning the first (and only) one we got, gagging through my N95 till my boss came in and was like “DUDE THROW THAT SHIT AWAY WE AINT DOIN THAT!”. I thanked him, stripped my PPE off, scrubbed the metaphysical crap from my being and chain-smoked till I couldn’t smell anymore. I generated a phobia of human feces that day.
As an ED tech, I had to clean up C diff and chemo diarrhea off patients, beds, floors, and commodes multiple times. ED boarding meant that patients that should have been admitted to hospital rooms that had a bathroom attached were stuck in the ED for hours or even days.