Never Again

It makes me so angry when something that was really good is turned into something really bad in the name of business.  It also makes me very angry when people do things, negative, hurtful things, to my children.  Both of those things happened yesterday, and I am still fuming.

Ashley is a very difficult person to draw blood from.  She has had so many medical procedures in her life, and as a result, many of her veins are collapsed or damaged.  But because of her medical needs, drawing blood is at least a quarterly event.  Having accompanied Ashley through her many medical interventions, I know what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to drawing blood.  I know where her best veins can be found.  I know the best time of day to attempt a draw, and I know how to make sure she is well-hydrated to help the process.  However, when she was younger, I found that a lot of phlebotomists felt they knew best – even though they didn’t know my daughter.

As a result of that, we would usually end up at our local children’s hospital for blood draws.  Unfortunately both the hours of operation and location of the hospital often made it difficult.  But one day, Ashley’s neurologist suggested a new lab, a small lab at the time that was new to our area.  We tried it, and he was correct, it was great!  So great, in fact, that I did a blog post about our visit and sent the link to the company.  Take a moment and read that original blog post so you will be able to put the rest of this story in perspective.

Things remained good at the new lab for several years, and then….a new company bought them.  Now take a moment to go read this blog post that I wrote after the new company was in place.  Yesterday, we went back to the lab, again for a blood draw for Ashley, and the experience was very similar to that of last year.

The same tech was working.  She said she had no one to assist.  She said I would have to provide someone.  She refused to touch Ashley, and told me to restrain her.  She was rough when holding Ashley’s arm while looking for a vein.  She got angry when Ashley wouldn’t hold a squeeze ball.  And the whole time, she wouldn’t speak or even look directly at Ashley, opting to shout orders at me instead.  She kept saying she didn’t want to hurt ‘the patient’, but I don’t believe that was really what was meant.  I don’t think she even wanted to try.  When I finally got Ashley’s hand restrained and in the correct position, the tech immediately went for her needle.  I let go of Ashley’s hand and asked why the tech had not wiped the hand with an alcohol wipe.  She finally did, then stuck Ashley, and even to my untrained eye, I could tell it wasn’t anywhere near a vein.  I told her to remove it.  And of course, Ashley was sobbing throughout the whole debacle.

I was angry and loud and the tech never, ever got the point.

So, Solstas Lab Partners, we are done with you.  I plan to share my opinions as to why with anyone and everyone I can, including the management of your company.  Your company probably won’t care, but I care too much to ever let any family member of mine be disrespected and hurt by your staff ever again.  Things were wonderful with Carilion – things are worse than horrible with Solstas.