A long time ago I worked in a large hospital on the west coast. I was an X-ray tech. My duties included properly positioning the patience, shooting the films and developing them. What my work place did was require one tech each week to work in the dark room. Developer, Stop bath, Fixer, Rinse and Dryer. The Midnight shift had more time so they were responsible for testing the chemicals and replacing the ones as needed.
A couple of years after I started they hired someone to work in the dark room. She was a very pretty young woman. She was not an X-ray tech. So, by hiring her, they freed up an additional tech to shoot films by hiring someone who only developed the films. Thus they got another working tech at a reduced cost.
Becky was the gal that was hired for the dark room job. She was a real cutie, about 5'1" or so and a little chubby, maybe early to mid 20s, really great ass and some very nice boobs. She was always friendly and seemed happy. Due to a childhood traffic accident, she was also blind so working in the dark room suited her very well. When the techs that were sighted worked the dark room we had some very dim red lights in the dark room so we could see to some extent.
The very few times I entered the dark room after Becky was hired there were no red lights. It was as dark as midnight in a coal mine. Once we had Becky most techs never ever entered the dark room, except for the mid night shift.
Becky had been working for a little over a year when the incident happened. Please remember at the time I am writing about there was no digital anything. No Internet, no digital photography, certainly no digital X-rays, no MRIs, and damn few CAT scans (CTs) thus everything was done on physical films.
We shot the films, dropped the cassettes into the dark room and waited for the finished films and took them to the radiologist to be read. Then on to the next patient..
One day I got a call for a "stat" shoot of a spine from Dr. Valdez. He wanted the full series and a "wet reading" meaning get the films read without running through the dryer thus saving some time.
When I finished shooting the spine I took them to the dark room with the
cassettes in hand. In through the rotating light door that kept outside light from contaminating the films in the dark room.
"Becky." I said. "I have a set of films. Dr. Valdez wants a wet reading."
I got no reply. I called again. Still I got no answer. I looked at my radium dial watch and it showed 12 noon. "Damn, she's at lunch." I thought.
Dr. Valdez is a really a nice guy but, there is no doubt in his mind he is the Doctor. While he and I got along well he would rip anyone who he thought was ignoring what he wanted or who he thought was incompetent. I have seen techs reduced to tears after he got through with them. Male techs included.
"
O.K I'll just run them my self".
I thought.
