Today was one of those days when things that can go wrong, will. In microbiology lab, our assignment was inoculating a wide assortment of bacteria to different types of selective and differential media. This involved several different types of bacteria, including S. aureus, S. typhimucium, E. coli, E. faecalis, and S. sonnei. It also involved several different types of media, mostly plates like MacConkey's agar.
I had done good time on the inoculation of plates and was on the last organism of the last plate when, holding the tube of cultured bacteria in my left hand, the inoculation loop in my right, and using my left hand to open the lid of the plate that was to be inoculated, the culture spilled EVERYWHERE...all over my hand, all over the lid of the plate, and all over the lab bench.
As annoyed and alarmed as I was, I knew the procedure for handling such a spill - I also knew that the bacteria could not get into my skin and infect me unless I had a cut or touched my face or another body opening with that contaminated hand. I proceded with my non-contaminated hand to remove everything that I could that was uncontaminated from the area so that clean up would be easier. All I asked of my lab partner was that she get a paper towel wet with Wescadyne (an iodine colored disinfectant we use for lab) to grab the culture out of my hand, as some of the culture had spilled on the tube and I didn't want to contaminate my right hand. She did that, but she also freaked out and ran to the T.A in extreme alarm, as I calmly sprayed Wescadyne on the spill and then washed my hands with soap and ethanol (strong decontaminant...obviously). My T.A then told us to do exactly what I was already in the middle of doing, and my partner decided that things were ok and it was no longer worth freaking out about.
I washed my hands thoroughly three times, then continued with the lab extrememly carefully. I was not going to make THAT mistake again.
Then, alas, another lab on the same day - general chemistry 1, without a doubt the most tedious lab I have ever had the misfortune of taking. The procedure was simple. Heat up magnesium in a crucible (i.e, a porcelain pot) until it combusted, and reacting with oxygen produced MgO (magnesium oxide). Weigh it both before and after heating. Then heat two hydrate salts (hydrate = contain water) until the water evaporates and record the changes in mass, color, etc. Very very simple.
Unfortunately, simple things get complicated fast when the wrong tools are used. Our crucible was a tiny little thumbpot, and our tongs (to hold it hot) were large and grasped poorly. My lab partner broke our crucible within the first fifteen minutes of our beginning that experiment, and we got a new one. This new one, amazingly, was actually smaller than the old, and even harder to carry with tongs (if not impossible). My partner asked me to use the tongs to remove the crucible after heating this time, and I obliged.
I grabbed the hot crucible with the tongs, and then it lost its grip and slipped up to the lid. The lid, being far too large for the crucible, rested on it loosely and thus was easily disturbed by the tongs. It fell off the crucible and I caught it with the tongs, but it was still in an unstable position.
It fell, and instinctively I reached out my left hand to catch it. Burning my hand, a reflex arc worthy of physiology went on and caused me to drop the extremely hot lid, which proceeded to land on the lab bench and break in at least three pieces.
I didn't realize how badly burned I was at first; I saw two white markings where I had contacted the lid, but I figured those were powder precipitates from the heat and would easily come off, and I waited a few minutes before washing my hands under cool water.
The precipitate was actually the upper layer of my skin seperating from the lower layer in severe second degree burn, and after the adrenaline wore off the pain began.
So, the moral of the story is, if one day you are reincarnated or otherwise somehow given the option to inhabit or be someone's body part, do not choose the left hand of a right handed person. It's a rather tough existence.
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