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This is one of the collections of stories where "Final Destination" meets "Monkey Paw" (WW Jacobs, 1902). Therefore, they are not only mysterious or terrifying tragedies, but also the most appealing readers who like the ruthless attraction of the story arc that leads to doom. In every story, the protagonist will fulfill a wish, but it will have fatal consequences for someone (usually the wisher). There is nothing supernatural, but how things work. (Or is it?) The technical details about fatal (or near fatal) incidents come from real cases in the US OSHA Incident Reporting Database, so even if it seems weird, it is completely in line with reality. These plots borrow slightly from cultural beliefs surrounding behavior, such as pointing a stick or knife at someone, making a wish in front of a mirror, or stepping on a crack.
Sam (Samantha) and Sam (Samuel) are both laboratory managers in a large teaching hospital. They are conscientious, helpful, and very good managers for their team. However, this story has nothing to do with any of Sam's, because they were released before this story began. This story is mainly about their boss John.
John is not as good as Sam or Sam. As the head of the entire department, he believes that his mission is to cut costs as much as possible and squeeze as much work as possible from employees with the least amount of money. John used a lot of words, such as "mission", "vision", and even "innovation intention". Unlike his employees or Sam, John went to a business school and obtained an MBA degree. John is the kind of fledgling executive who looks good to the directors, but is a tyrant to the employees. The only unkind remark on Samuel's mouth was to think that one day John would cut corners and choke at his own indicators.
John made the performance indicators look good by extending the maintenance schedule for all laboratory equipment, cutting allowances, and declining overtime or expense claims as much as possible. He is good at getting employees the most jobs at the least cost and achieving key performance indicators that companies like to talk about. Senior management mistaken his "kiss and kicks" attitude as a symbol of leadership, and John has planned a good career for himself.
At 7:30 on a sultry Tuesday night, Mike finished the day's work and opened the gas hood of his experiment to exhaust the excess carbon dioxide. He packed a few things, made the last few notes in the diary, and prepared to spend the night. He said a tired good night to Cordelia, Cordelia was still working hard and staring at her microscope.
Cordelia had to work late, because in addition to her own research work, she now has to do part of Samantha's old work. John has added a lot of additional administrators to Cordelia, but since she is now an exempt employee, she no longer receives overtime pay. John likes that. As a cost-cutting measure, John abolished two manager positions and promoted Mike and Cordelia to "team leaders." This moved them from being paid by the hour to being paid, and added an additional $7,000 per year for each team leader, but by eliminating the role of highly paid manager, they saved $80,000 in the annual department budget. Then John just assigns manager tasks between the team leader and the researchers. From an executive's point of view, John has "leveled the scope of control", saved the budget, and increased the productivity of the unit's employees.
Opening the hood is something that team members have to do dozens of times a day, but this time, several seemingly unrelated things happened at the same time. Because of the high humidity in the laboratory, someone used dry ice to cool the collection tank and turned on a range hood. The air conditioner and scrubber on the roof began to operate together to increase the extraction rate. In addition to extending the maintenance cycle, John also made another important change. He turned to a cheaper third-party repair company, which tends to hire cheaper technicians and cut corners on materials; technicians who failed to replace certain parts as planned because they “still look good” and Replace some belts by rolling the belt onto the pulley, instead of going through a long process of loosening the bolts and relaxing the tension of the pulley. The latest news and update email ID is invalid. After registering, you will receive an email about Physician's Weekly products, and you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy.
The worn belt on the roof unit has been shaking for a while, but now that the scrubber and air conditioner are running together, it runs faster and has more tension. Due to misalignment and internal damage caused by incorrect installation techniques, the belt began to weave and twist, and a thin steel wire peeled off the belt. The wire eventually begins to rub on the metal shield, producing tiny sparks every time it turns.
At 8:46, a luminous wire fell off the belt and fell into the carbon bed of the scrubber, where the lack of maintenance and improperly installed cheap pre-filters allowed the carpet of dust, lint and dander to scatter and accumulate.
At about 9:20, Cordelia realized an unfamiliar smell, and raised her head from the microscope installed on her workbench. She thought she saw a trace of mist in the laboratory. Cordelia rubbed her eyes, attributed it to simple eye fatigue caused by staring at the microscope slide for a long time, and then continued to work. At 9:43, Cordelia passed out and fell down in front of her microscope. Her arm hung down, one cuff hooked to the knob on the side of the microscope body, and the other arm knocked down three 2000 ml stainless steel wide-mouth flasks. The flask rolled off the 29-inch high workbench and fell to the ground with a bang. Another measure John took to cut costs was that the flask was a cheap counterfeit. The impact caused the two lids to fall off. The lid ran a few times in a small circle, and then stopped on the floor between the benches.
At 9:46, the laboratory smoke detector issued an alarm, but because the fire sensor did not detect a fire in the laboratory, the security guard was not sure what to do and began to call the list in his accident book. John is angry at being called, but since Sam and Sam no longer work there, he is the only upgrade point. He dialed the number of the laboratory where Cordelia worked, but no one answered. John was furious at her, stomped into his car, and drove back to work.
When John arrived at the laboratory at 10:16, he was greeted by a surreal scene-to him, the laboratory was like smoke or mist deep in his knees, and Cordelia was clearly asleep , The alarm sounded. John strode towards Cordelia, yelling because she was sleeping at work, and stepped on a flask lid with his left foot. His foot slipped, trying to restore his balance, John made a swinging spin and almost corrected himself, but then his right foot entered the mouth of a stainless steel bottle and slid out behind him. John yelled in frustration and dived forward, landing hard, and a loud noise blew the wind away from him. Unfortunately, what he breathed into his lungs was an air mixture well below OSHA's 19.5% oxygen limit. In fact, John took a deep breath, mainly nitrogen and carbon monoxide, and described in the NIOSH manual on Sam's bookshelf as "immediate danger to life or health."
Picture from Creative Med Doses
At 10:24, the fire rescue team arrived in response to the guard's frantic call and found Cordelia unconscious but alive. Thanks to fainting on the laboratory table, it was high enough to accept a small amount of carbon monoxide. However, John has completed his last corner and still wears a cheap flask on one of his feet, which proves an unwise cost reduction.
Picture from Creative Med Doses
More than 60 three-time immigrants live in Africa, Australia and the United States, work in industrial and medical quality and safety, and are obsessed with mortality data and accidents. The result is a pathological short story.
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