Take Your Own Pulse

In our hospital, the isolation rooms have antechambers, rather like airlocks, that have sinks with gloves, masks, gowns, and other personal protective equipment that one may don prior to entering the isolated room. The other day, I left the room of a patient with severe immunodeficiency and stepped into the airlock to wash my hands. I lathered up and was on my second round of "Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me"* when I noticed that there was standing water in the bottom of the sink, and that something was moving in the water. A small, thin, black, 1 cm long something that was clearly swimming.

OH MY GOD WTF IS THIS ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?????

I mean, I calmly eyeballed the thing, rinsed off my hands, and went to find a witness. The nurse looked at me like I was totally nuts (and to be honest, I was post-call, and was probably looking and acting a little nuts), but she came to see and was like "Oh my God! That is disgusting!"

I used a tongue depressor to gently move him out of the water and put him into a specimen cup, sealed the lid TIGHT and put it in a biohazard bag, then walked the thing down to the path lab. I may have brandished it in front of me, hoping someone would look in and go "EW!", or I may not, depending on which version of the story you heard. The lab tech was singularly unimpressed but promised they'd get back to me.

I got a call today from the lab: likely moth larva, not likely human parasite, but has been sent to the CDC for further testing. Apparently this is not uncommon, though I had no idea.

And still I think,

EW OH MY GOD IT WAS IN THE SINK IN THE HOSPITAL!

I only thought the cockroach in the ceiling light in the call room was bad...