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Some days you see and run into things in the Bio-med field that make you shake your head and laugh. I will relate one such event.
I service hemodialysis machines and we have about a dozen patients who have machines in thier homes and dialyze at home.
I go to thier homes to do service and repairs. On one such occasion I was removing the panels of the dialysis machine and found inside tucked up behind a circuit board cage and small bag of marijuana. First thought(anyone got a light?)(just kidding). I asked the patient about it and he told me he hides it there so his wife will not find it. Can't wait to visit again.
Others please feel free to post any event you found odd and/or ammusing.

Can't compete with that, I only ever find bugs in machines.

Although I once found a remote control inside a TV set...

A technician I know and I think Huw also know's him was a chain smoker. The Fuse kept blowing on a heat sealer so instead of investigating the problem further, he used the foil of inside his cigarette box to wrap around the old blow fuse.

A few day's later the unit blew up in smoke unfortuante for the technician they were able to trace back the foil to the particular brand of cigarette he smoked !

Many years ago (before i became a Medical Engineer / Technician (hate the term CT!), I was on Quick Reaction Alert duty in the RAF. (Live in a building for a week attached to 2 x HAS's ((Hardened Aircraft Shelters))containing 2 x Tornado F3's fully armed, loaded and all safety removed so they can go and escort and deter intruders from our airspace)
Traditionally people would drag the fire hose out and valet their cars to death. Having done that we decided to make paper / card aeroplanes out of blank job cards. Over the next couple of days our designs became more elaborate and we achieved some breathtaking flights. My colleague then decided he would add "jet engines" to his current design by forming tubes out of the aluminium speed tape we had been using for nose weight and attaching them to the wings. These would then be filled with a solvent (MEK) and ignited just prior to launch. Due to windy conditions we decided to try our planes out in one of the HAS's.
My colleague duly lit his "engine" and the aeroplane immediatly burst into flames in his hand, he threw it! A very impressive gliding fireball headed straight for the Tornado parked at the front of the HAS. As it entered the Left hand engine nozzle my heart sank. We were either gonna be blown to smithereens or spend a long time being someones bitch in jail.
My colleague immediatley stuck his head in the exhaust and started to blow at the burning "wrekage". This just blew it further towards the Turbine. I gave him a leg up into the engine and he doused the fire wth his sleeve then gathered all the ash up and got a dust pan and brush to clear up the evidence. He sneaked the shower to get rid of the burning smell about him, i decided to wash my car.
Topper

Beware who you try to help out.

A chap who sharpened and repaired instruments for us had a problem with his van blowing a 5 amp fuse, he had booked the van in for repair but needed to use the van and had no fuses.

I told him that a single strand of 0.2mm tinned copper wire (from a 7 or 16 strand cable)was rated at approximatetly 5 amps.
As a very temporary repair he could put a single strand across the blades of a blown fuse.

He did this and all was well and he decided he need not go to the garage.

However a couple of days later the fuse blow again and he thought as it worked last time I'll do it again.

This time it lasted a day and he replaced it again.

This time it lasted an hour so he then wrapped the wire around the blades 4 times and wondered why smoke started to fill the cab.

Lee

Two stories that come to mind when I was working at Walsgrave Hospital in Coventry back in the 70s:
A dialysis nurse presented me with a Handley heparin pump that was in various pieces. She apologised and said that she had dropped from the window sill!!
As the floor of the dialysis room was rubberised vinyl, it seemed improbable that a drop of 3 feet could have caused so much damage.
This was explained though when she said that it had dropped from the window sill outside and down 3 floors!!
I congratulated her on retrieving all the pieces.

The other story concerned a keen and very eager student who wanted to help repair some Watson Marlow blood pumps. He offered to change the bearings on the drive shaft and asked where the bearing puller was.
I told him that it was kept over at the stores (half a mile away from the central block) and could he ask Charlie (the foreman) for the glass hammer as well (couldn't resist a little practical joke).
Without a single question, he was off only to return half an hour later, dripping wet (it happened to be raining hard and I forgot to tell him about the interconnecting tunnels).
He stood forlornly and announced that Charlie wanted to know if we required the clear or the frosted one!!??

Kawasaki,
Did you work with Fred?

I remember Umish, also see this post.

LOL , that's a Win!

Reminds me of a time I was getting a lot of calls to service a translate-rotate CT scanner and I was getting concerned because I always find the large plastic gears that are supporting the a lower steel chain section had popped out and fallen to the base of the CT.
My rad tech friend would nod solemnly while I explain that I need to check the machine thorougly and it'll take the rest of the day and to please cancel all CT procedures until we give the go-ahead to use the machine.
I would then reinsert the plastic gears (the procedure is the similar to putting a steel bicycle chain on to a bicycle chain ring or gear, only you position / hold the plastic gear and manually translate / rotate until it meshes in) and then check if there are any loose nuts/parts in the gantry. Everything checks out though.
It happened a couple more times and then the incidents stopped. It had been a puzzle for the service team.
About 10 years later, I met my friend (the rad tech) in a bar and he bought me a drink and then he apologized. It turned out he was seriously dating at the time and he would open the gantry and remove the gears so he can come home early to prepare for his date.
nope, I didn't strangle him as he kept the beers coming and he's still my friend. :-)

Chris
Yes I did work with Fred Roberts!! I was his first student in the 70s.