Agony is holding your one-year-old child for the “routine” blood tests (venipuncture is the term), and watching the technicians (a label I wanted to turn into a curse) stick your infant three times while they dig for a vein. First the left arm, at the elbow. Then the right arm, same place… same lack of success. Finally, in the veins on the top of the right hand, blood spurts into the tube, and all three of us (by now, the first technician has asked for help) breathe a sigh of relief. Of course, we still have two of us holding the child tightly, and she’s crying and squirming. I was furious, but biting my tongue since I didn’t think it would help to make these folks angry. It’s clearly a difficult task, but it’s hard to be sympathetic when these are the experts! My wife went through the same experience with our son a few years ago… which is why she sent me this time.
Dean Kamen made his (first?) fortune with medical devices, including a much-improved stent. Babies — and parents — everywhere would welcome similar advances in the tools and techniques of drawing blood from an infant. Clearly, some folks are working on related problems for newborns. I don’t know enough of the right terms to find anything conclusive, but clearly phlebotomy (blood-letting) is the scientific term. CPMC could improve their infant phlebotomy, to be sure… even if it was a great place to have our children born.
Note: Clearly this is more of an issue for parents than children, in the long-term, but I do wonder if this kind of experience is what instills fear of needles.