I finally lose it at work

Sometimes everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
Even if you leave home determined to have a good night.

The sickest patient in the ER is assigned to me. No problem.
A frail, elderly gentleman, new onset confusion. A super nice little
wife, so attentive, always apologizing for "being in the way". No probs.
With a fair amount of luck and a tad bit of skill, he gets a peripheral
line and some fluids. Lab is at besided trying to get blood samples.
So, do you think the girl with the bulb nose told me she didn't get
them? No, why would she? Why would I need to know? So 30 more
minutes pass. I call the lab looking for results. Well, of course they
don't have them-and now I know why. I am screaming mad but keep it
under control. Come on up and I'll do a fem stick. So big bulb nose girls
meanders into the dept 20 mins later. I do the fem stick (hard one to get)
and she takes the blood to the lab. Twenty more minutes-it's hemolized!
WHAT THE F? This guy has already spent way too damn long in the er
with a whole lotta nothing helping him and this girl with the bulb nose
has managed to f up a fem stick?
Geez! I go completely 100% over the edge
flipped over/ out/ and off.
My co-workers will tell you that I rarely get
ruffled, much less down right pissed off. But I just couldn't help it.
I can't think of any other time in the last 14 years that I have been that outraged.
I scared the er doc (yes, that's hard to do) and my charge nurse (even harder to do)
and hopefully the bulb nosed lab girl. I've only seen her once since, and she ran the
other way. So eventually, the patient is handed off to the oncoming nurse, with
it still being a mystery as to his real condition-other than a thin pale pasty little
tachypnic, tachycardic, hypotensive patient.
Now, usually our patients aren't sick. I mean aren't sick in what medical people consider
sick. I Know that you have this or that ailement, but when we say someone is sick, we mean impending death. Had this situation occurred with one of our regular shmoz, I would have been annoyed, but no where near going over the edge. I think in retrospect, I like to pride myself on taking good care of sick people and I don't feel this patient received good care. Not so much from me personally but from the institution. The delay in labs delayed cts which delayed diagnosis and dispostition. All the while, the little couple never complain or fuss. They don't have to-I'm making enough noise for all of us....