We had a donor give us a urine specimen that was temperature out of range. We get these a lot – I guess unseasoned cheaters don’t realize that temperature is one of the many ways collectors determine if a specimen is legitimate. This was not a DOT test, so we explained we could not accept the sample, gave her some water, and asked her to wait in the waiting room and let us know when she’s ready to try again.

In the waiting room, she began to complain that her chest was hurting. She began gagging and spitting up water. We immediately offered to call an ambulance, but she refused. She said she had gallbladder and pancreas issues causing her to vomit and her chest pains.

She called her grandmother to come get her and take her to the ER.

Granny came all right and passed her off more urine in a bottle. What a wonderful grandmother she was!

On her second attempt, she dropped the bottle of urine, and it spilled all over the bathroom.

Again, she was given an opportunity to void a third time, which she did. This time the sample was acceptable. We performed an instant test, and, of course, it was non-negative. We packaged her sample and sent it to the lab for confirmation. She promptly left the office unassisted and looked perfectly healthy.

Cheaters who get caught many times do not know what to do so they invent scenarios that might allow them to leave the clinic without producing a specimen out of their body. We tell them all the same thing: “If you leave the clinic (no matter what the reason) without producing a specimen the collector will accept, we will report it to the employer as a refusal to test.”

It’s up to the employer to determine if they want to follow best practices and consider the refusal as positive or if they want to allow the donor to re-test, it is uncanny that some employers do.