The Guinea Pig

by Walter Futyma

Ours was a small class at HRP, totalling maybe 43 or 44 people. Out of that entire class, there were only four guys. And when it came to senior rotation, I was the only guy with the 21 or 22 women who were part of that program. I found it unique!

I have to say that medical technology, at that time, was a women's program, much like nursing school.

One thing I remember working on with my classmates was the phlebotomy practice that we did to each other, drawing the blood. People got kind of squeamish. You had to put a needle into someone's veins.

We put the blood to good use. We obtained the samples to use for doing blood typing, cell counts, etcetera. The purpose was primarily to become accustomed to the equipment. For example, we tried out the vacuutainer, which is a test tube that you draw the blood into by a vaccuum, using a syringe.

I was the guinea pig. Really. Because I was the only male in that class, and because I've got huge veins. So I was it. I was getting it in both arms!

It wasn't a royal bloodletting; they weren't taking a pint of blood out of me every day. Still, it was memorable. We needed to understand how to get into the hollow of the veins to draw the blood without going through the entire vein and then causing a big hematoma.