• Question: awsome so you save humans lifes

    Asked by 868xygg26 to Karen on 10 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by niamh.gildea.
    • Photo: Karen

      Karen answered on 10 Nov 2016:


      Yes it is pretty amazing to be involved in saving someone’s life…although I don’t do it single handedly. I’m am part of a team that works together to save lives. Very often the lab is key to a diagnosis such as malaria, sepsis, leukaemia and anaemia and with a single phone call can change the course of action/ treatment for a patient. And during an emergency we are very much on the frontline cross matching blood, issuing blood products, testing blood to see if the patient is recovering, phoning critical results etc. If someone is bleeding the transfusion and haematology labs are crucial for the patients recovery. Without them , the patient would die.
      Hospital lab staff are often portrayed as a bit dim and inconsequential in medical dramas like greys anatomy etc. Often the doctors in these dramas go down to the lab and perforn the tests, get the blood etc themselves. This NEVER happens!!! In truth we work well together with doctors and laboratory staff advising and helping each other.

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