I just got home from one of the most humiliating days of my life. I am sharing this story in the hopes that you all will share yours and cheer me up!!!
Some of the work I do in the lab must be done in a Biosafety Level Three lab. Because I work with some pretty nasty stuff, I am required to dress out into scrubs, wear a Tyvek jumpsuit with booties, double glove, and wear a PAPR (basically a battery powered air filter system you wear on your back) with a hood.
Anyway, it was business as normal dressing out. When I tested the air flow of my respirator, everything was a-OK. Once I got totally suited up, I realized the air flow over my face felt a little funny and the suit wasn't as puffy as normal, but I ignored it. When I got into my lab within the BSL3, I noticed there was a small hole in my Tyvek ...I covered it with tape, and the suit puffed up like a giant marshmallow as it should.
I was standing there watching two post-docs finish some stuff up before my mentor and I could get started when I started feeling a little funny. I have the most spastic tummy on the planet, so I just tried to breathe deep and make the weirdness go away. My mentor left to get the virus out of the freezer and I stayed in the lab. A few minutes later, I started to feel REALLY hot. Then I thought I was going to throw up. While contemplating how to throw up in a spacesuit, I decided it would be best if I headed towards the bathroom (yes, there is a bathroom in this BSL3 ...why, I will never understand).
By the time I got to the door, everything was getting fuzzy. I tried to steady myself against the counter, and everything went black. I remember my mentor trying to come in the door that I had fallen into. I remember him and a lab tech starting to carry me to the exit.
When I woke up, I was lying in the decontamination area with my mentor, the lab tech, and a post-doc standing over me while two safety officers stared at me through the window.
It was about this time when I realized I had been sick while I was unconscious ...ewewew ...I think the world of my mentor and have been really trying to fit in where I work (private company associated with the university). Passing out and getting sick in the process really probably wasn't the best way to go about being liked/fitting in.
I managed to wake up enough to keep them from calling an ambulance. My mentor helped me out of the rest of my suit and to the locker room where I could ditch the scrubs and shower off the sick. Then Health and Safety insisted on taking me to their office in a wheelchair for an interview. Then my mentor insisted on giving me a ride home.
Because I am in good health/condition, I am pretty sure something was wrong with my PAPR, reducing my air flow to the point where I was essentially breathing the same air for 10 minutes.
I know the whole situation was not my fault, but I am still mortified.
So spill!!! Make me feel better :-)
Some of the work I do in the lab must be done in a Biosafety Level Three lab. Because I work with some pretty nasty stuff, I am required to dress out into scrubs, wear a Tyvek jumpsuit with booties, double glove, and wear a PAPR (basically a battery powered air filter system you wear on your back) with a hood.
Anyway, it was business as normal dressing out. When I tested the air flow of my respirator, everything was a-OK. Once I got totally suited up, I realized the air flow over my face felt a little funny and the suit wasn't as puffy as normal, but I ignored it. When I got into my lab within the BSL3, I noticed there was a small hole in my Tyvek ...I covered it with tape, and the suit puffed up like a giant marshmallow as it should.
I was standing there watching two post-docs finish some stuff up before my mentor and I could get started when I started feeling a little funny. I have the most spastic tummy on the planet, so I just tried to breathe deep and make the weirdness go away. My mentor left to get the virus out of the freezer and I stayed in the lab. A few minutes later, I started to feel REALLY hot. Then I thought I was going to throw up. While contemplating how to throw up in a spacesuit, I decided it would be best if I headed towards the bathroom (yes, there is a bathroom in this BSL3 ...why, I will never understand).
By the time I got to the door, everything was getting fuzzy. I tried to steady myself against the counter, and everything went black. I remember my mentor trying to come in the door that I had fallen into. I remember him and a lab tech starting to carry me to the exit.
When I woke up, I was lying in the decontamination area with my mentor, the lab tech, and a post-doc standing over me while two safety officers stared at me through the window.
It was about this time when I realized I had been sick while I was unconscious ...ewewew ...I think the world of my mentor and have been really trying to fit in where I work (private company associated with the university). Passing out and getting sick in the process really probably wasn't the best way to go about being liked/fitting in.
I managed to wake up enough to keep them from calling an ambulance. My mentor helped me out of the rest of my suit and to the locker room where I could ditch the scrubs and shower off the sick. Then Health and Safety insisted on taking me to their office in a wheelchair for an interview. Then my mentor insisted on giving me a ride home.
Because I am in good health/condition, I am pretty sure something was wrong with my PAPR, reducing my air flow to the point where I was essentially breathing the same air for 10 minutes.
I know the whole situation was not my fault, but I am still mortified.
So spill!!! Make me feel better :-)