# Very Strange ER Story! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 7, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929 "2004-02-07T00:50:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/1 "2004-02-07T00:50:14Z")
It was my weekend to work, and I got a STAT (immediate) call to ER Saturday night. As I went running through the halls, I heard one of the paramedics tell one of the nurses that the patient’s name was _Jason Craig_, and that he’d been in an auto accident. **My** son’s name is _Jason_ and our last name is **Craig** , and my legs turned to rubber when I heard that! I have often had a phobia of having to work on my own son, and this just brought me up short. It turned out that it was _another_ Jason Craig, and although it put my mind at ease about my _own_ son, I thought about how this _could_ have happened to _Jason Christopher_, and now it has brought me closer tp _Jason Elliot_ and some Craigs I never thought I’d meet. Jason Elliot is going to be just fine. He had a perforated duodenum, but he’s a strong young’un and he’s gonna recover. Never been so afraid, y’all! Q ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/2 "2004-02-07T01:50:14Z")
Damn, I’d have probably fainted upon hearing the name! Yay for your Jason, and especially for you, that it wasn’t him, and a hearty Get Well Soon for the unfortunate Jason it was. Are you going to feel semi-obligated to go back and check up on the kid now? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/3 "2004-02-07T13:19:06Z")
I know a number of ER docs who have been called to work on their own kid. Scary stuff. I know one who was working when his kid came in DOA. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/4 "2004-02-07T18:22:19Z")
Back when I was a lab tech, I got to take blood from my own mother. That was extremely strange - I can’t imagine how it would be to work on your own flesh and blood. (On the plus side, because it was me taking her blood, I knew that she got a very good stick. :D) ---
**Author:** ![Jaade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dfb087/32.png) [@Jaade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaade)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2004, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/5 "2004-02-07T18:39:37Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > Back when I was a lab tech, I got to take blood from my own mother. That was extremely strange - I can’t imagine how it would be to work on your own flesh and blood. (On the plus side, because it was me taking her blood, I knew that she got a very good stick. :D) Hmmm, funny that. My mom is a nurse and she used to take my blood all the time. I think she got extra joy from sticking me. She was never gentle about it. 🙂 ~J ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2004, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/6 "2004-02-08T09:07:16Z")
Closest I ever got was plating my Aunt’s sputum culture when she was in the hospital. Not something you really want to talk about much. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![leechbabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@leechbabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leechbabe)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/7 "2004-02-09T00:13:00Z")
Whoa! Scary stuff indeed **Quasi**. Very glad it wasn’t your son. Did you tell him about it? If yes, how did he react. If that happened to me I would be giving Annie the biggest hug of her life as soon as I saw her again. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/8 "2004-02-09T21:14:58Z")
I worked my way through undergrad and one of the jobs was at a funeral home for two years. I’d put on a suit and show families back to the room and then stay overnight to answer the phone in call anyone passed away. One night I got a call and started taking down the information: White male, 21 years old… hmmm, same as me. Exact same first name, middle name, and last name just a letter off… woah. Exact same birthday… I mean the very same day. Almost identical, weight, height, etc. I went down to the room where they were getting him ready for embalming. He’d been drinking at the lake just a few hours earlier and then dove off a dock and never came up. To stand there and picture the parallels and imagine myself lying there was strange indeed. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2004, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/9 "2004-02-09T21:19:42Z")
(Grrrrr… hit submit instead of preview) Still, strange as the experience was, I’m sure it pales in comparison to the prospect of hearing a relative’s name mentioned, especially that of your child. My guess would be, **Quasi** , that your boy got a big hug that night when you got home. ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2004, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/10 "2004-02-10T02:12:37Z")
I hope a little humor is okay. During college I worked as a night call Lab Tech at a small hospital. Also had to days on the weekends. So one Saturday afternoon, in comes a couple wanting their blood drawn for a premarital Hinton (syphilis screener). I could have told them to come back during the week, but what the hell, it was slow. So, I sat 'em down in those student chairs we had in that part of the lab. You know those things. They have a little built-in table on your right, to write upon, prop a book on, etc. The chairs were about a yard or so apart, facing each other. Okay. So I draw the blood from the guy, and then start with the woman. Got about half of a redcap tube-ful when out of the corner of my eye, I see the guy, still seated in the chair, but now starting to keel over. (No shame here. Some people pass out over things like this.) I whipped the needleout of the woman, tossed everything in the lab basket and caught the guy just before he fell to the floor. Just as I got him propped up, there goes his fiancee into a faint. I rush to her, prop her up, the guy starts keeling over again. I run back to him, and by now I’m laughing my ass off, wishing there was someone else who could see this uproariously funny farce playing out. I had to run back and forth a couple of times more and finally got 'em both into our blood donor room - which was very close by - and managed to get each of them lying down on separate cots until they recovered. Made my day. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/11 "2004-02-10T18:35:34Z")
You should have just shoved one of the chairs to the other so your syncoptic duo would be self-supporting. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/12 "2004-02-10T19:38:54Z")
That’s probably what I did do - before getting them into the donor room. 😛 It’s been a long time - late 50’s, early 60’s - so I don’t remember all the details. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2004, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/very-strange-er-story/227929/13 "2004-02-10T20:19:47Z")
Aw, geez, Quasi, what a scary thing! I’m SO glad it wasn’t your son.