Kind of amusing and interesting true story, if you're bored....
It was 1986 and a virus had invaded the US. At the time we knew it only as AIDS. We were all afraid, republicans and democrats. I was at that time a Resperatory Therapist. We had a patient in the ICU whom we (amongst ourselves) referred to as Johnny Aids. In 1987 some advances had been made and patients like Johnny were living longer.
Back then, as now in the age of Ebola, we dressed up in hazmat suits, full face masks, double gloves taped at the cuffs, the whole shebang.
One day I had drawn blood from Johnny's arterial line. Now isolation procedure dictated that I had to remove my protective gear upon leaving the patients isolation room. But I also wasn't going to handle the syringe with my bare hands. I removed my stuff, all but the two double gloves.
So I'm standing there with a syringe of blood from a patient in full blown AIDS, and I need to insert it into the analyzer. I reach up with my other gloved hand to remove the cap and needle from the syringe and (I'll remember this next sequence of event to my dying day) when I twist it off, the action causes one single drop of blood to be ejected in an arc up into the air over my gloved hand and land on the bare skin of my unprotected fore arm.
I calmly finished inserting the blood into the analyzer, put the syringe in the sharps box, and went to the scrub sink. All the time in my head I'm saying OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!
I wash and scrub the area of my skin vigorously and go back to work.
Now at this point I'm in shock and denial. I probably should have reported it to my supervisor, but I was too embarrassed. Also, I didn't want to hear that I'm totally fucked! Remember, this was 1987, the height of the AIDS scare.
I convinced myself that it was fine, that I was fine and I said nothing. For days I was like this, but each night I worried and my mind made up every horror scenario it could think of. I began to secretly read up and study the virus. Eventually I called the AIDS Hotline that I heard the number for on the radio. The nurse assured me that the skin was an affective barrier for viruses. As I continued my education in medicine I came to learn the truth of that. And if course the AIDS hysteria died down quite a bit.
It is said that the HIV virus, as it is now known, can stay dormant for 10-15 years. It's been almost 30. I look back at this and laugh a bit, I tell this story to students and new employees when we're going over isolation protocol. I just remember how scared I was, and how it was because I knew so little at the time.
Thanks for reading.
It was 1986 and a virus had invaded the US. At the time we knew it only as AIDS. We were all afraid, republicans and democrats. I was at that time a Resperatory Therapist. We had a patient in the ICU whom we (amongst ourselves) referred to as Johnny Aids. In 1987 some advances had been made and patients like Johnny were living longer.
Back then, as now in the age of Ebola, we dressed up in hazmat suits, full face masks, double gloves taped at the cuffs, the whole shebang.
One day I had drawn blood from Johnny's arterial line. Now isolation procedure dictated that I had to remove my protective gear upon leaving the patients isolation room. But I also wasn't going to handle the syringe with my bare hands. I removed my stuff, all but the two double gloves.
So I'm standing there with a syringe of blood from a patient in full blown AIDS, and I need to insert it into the analyzer. I reach up with my other gloved hand to remove the cap and needle from the syringe and (I'll remember this next sequence of event to my dying day) when I twist it off, the action causes one single drop of blood to be ejected in an arc up into the air over my gloved hand and land on the bare skin of my unprotected fore arm.
I calmly finished inserting the blood into the analyzer, put the syringe in the sharps box, and went to the scrub sink. All the time in my head I'm saying OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!
I wash and scrub the area of my skin vigorously and go back to work.
Now at this point I'm in shock and denial. I probably should have reported it to my supervisor, but I was too embarrassed. Also, I didn't want to hear that I'm totally fucked! Remember, this was 1987, the height of the AIDS scare.
I convinced myself that it was fine, that I was fine and I said nothing. For days I was like this, but each night I worried and my mind made up every horror scenario it could think of. I began to secretly read up and study the virus. Eventually I called the AIDS Hotline that I heard the number for on the radio. The nurse assured me that the skin was an affective barrier for viruses. As I continued my education in medicine I came to learn the truth of that. And if course the AIDS hysteria died down quite a bit.
It is said that the HIV virus, as it is now known, can stay dormant for 10-15 years. It's been almost 30. I look back at this and laugh a bit, I tell this story to students and new employees when we're going over isolation protocol. I just remember how scared I was, and how it was because I knew so little at the time.
Thanks for reading.
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