Recently I was in the hospital having a bit of surgery done.
On admission they did a number of tests, neccessary for us senior citizens so they said. Presumably to avoid the inconvenience of having elderly patients kicking the bucket on the theatre table.
Included in the tests was an ECG. As an ex ambo I have done a lot of ECG's so completely relaxed about having one myself and also confident that the only abnormality they might find would be a slightly elongated P-R interval - not unusual in a person of my age.
Its important that you keep completely still during an ECG and as the test concluded the nurse behind the monitor said 'uh-oh!', followed by 'Oh...oh dear..' a few seconds later. Now I can absolutely assure you that 'uh-oh' is the last exclamation you ever want to hear during an ECG. And then, 'excuse me, I need to call my colleague' which provided a further boost to my fright level and probably soaring blood pressure.
She soon returned with a man in a white coat and there was a problem alright. The paper rhythm strip had jammed in the machine and she couldn't print out a hard copy. This they quickly resolved.
'Ok,' she said with a chirpy smile. 'All done', totally oblivious of the fact that she'd darned near killed me.