Lab Rats and a Forgetful Memory
Life Lessons
09.11.2008
I was a pre-med intern helping on a large hypertension study. My specific job was to tend to the lab rats. They were being injected with saline concentrations and then studied (effects of salt on the heart).
Each afternoon after class, I would clock in, take 140 rats from their stainless steel cages on the east wall, weigh them, extract (squeeze) them for urinalysis and then put them into their corresponding cages (their summer homes) on the west wall. I would then wash the droppings from their east wall cages in preparation for the next day.
I also prepped the rats for surgery. At the end of the line for each rat was brain surgery, execution, brain removal, cryogenics and then, ultimately, disposal.
The PhDs in the lab loved me because I couldn’t remember anything and thus re-invented everything differently each day. One day I was tasked with shaving the “perimeter crown” of each rat so the surgeons could do the brain surgery. They had shown me how to shave a rat’s head a few times prior, but I could not remember. So I duct-taped the razor, up-side-down on the table, grabbed a rat with each hand and ran their heads over the razor. I was able to prep 140 rats in record time. The PhDs were entertained by my poor short-term memory and inventiveness, and also impressed with an approach that got them through surgery an hour earlier than they expected.
