During a recent Emergency Department case involving a patient presenting with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, general malaise and hypotension, Vanessa Hurtado, lead hematology technologist, Core Lab, noted a concerning drop in the patient’s platelet count. The digital tool used to review the sample did not clearly reveal any abnormalities, but Hurtado prepared a manual sample and examined it directly under the microscope. She noted a possible illness and asked the pathologist on call to review the slide manually. The pathologist confirmed the likelihood of an illness that can have serious complications, which led to further testing that confirmed the diagnosis and prompted timely treatment.
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