Tales of the Biomed

06/22/2021

I hope everyone is watching the YouTube channel on Better Biomed. It's a great way to get information on biomed equipment. I use it to teach my students on several topics. It's a great YouTube channel to subscribe to.
Justin and I recently exchanged polo shirts and other items with each other and he was kind enough to post a video on the goodies I sent to him.

https://talesofthebiomed.com/---------------------------------------------------------Want your video posted to this channel? Would you like to share somethi...

04/30/2021

Tales of the Biomed Part Deux has just been published!
New stories, new photos, and new chapters on funny acronyms and work orders.
Thanks to all of your that helped contribute to this new 2nd Edition.
Available from Amazon at

Tales of the Biomed Part Deux: An updated collection of funny anecdotes and photos from the biomedical equipment technicians and clinical engineers across the world as told to the author.

11/24/2020

Tales of the Biomed Part Deux is the second book in a series of books of the Tales o the Biomed series.
This book has the following chapters:
1. Newbies
2. Funny work orders
3. Adventures of the Road Warrior
4. Strange happenings in the hospital or clinic
5. Technology and the biomed
6. Unusual service calls
7. Sticky notes and nurse's tape
8. Biomeds are a resourceful bunch
9. Acronyms and slang for biomed
10. Inspections and audits
11. School and training stories
12. Conferences

If you have funny stories to share with us on those topics please send them my way. You can post your stores on my website:

11/19/2020

The goal of the Tales of the Biomed was to share all the funny stories I had heard as a biomed over the years. When I was working on my first book, Tales of the Biomed, I ran across this picture on LinkedIn about a funny note placed on a piece of medical equipment. Since then I have collected many of these types of notes and they are a BIG part of the Tales of the Biomed series. Thanks to everyone who has agreed to have their funny note in my Tales of the Biomed books.
Here is a tribute to the first one I decided to use. Thanks to Travis Recksiek for posting this photo and allowing me to use it in my book.

10/04/2020

I am getting close to publishing the next book in the Tales of the Biomed series – Tales of the Biomed Part Deux!
You can help by choosing one or more of the categories below and send me a story. You get credit in the book for the submission of the story. Hospital names will not be included! Thanks to everyone that has already submitted stories and pictures.
Here are the book chapters
1. Newbies – funny things new BMETs do
2. Funny work orders – we have all seen misspelled work orders or just very funny work orders submitted to us
3. Adventures of the Road Warrior – many of use have performed service on the road, and I know you have many hilarious things that have happened to you!
4. Strange happenings in the hospital or clinic – share your strange stories with us. I have one where a Clinical Engineer was performing laser surgery on his friend!!
5. Technology and the Biomed – have you ever used technology to prank a fellow biomed? Let’s share your story with everyone.
6. Unusual Service Calls – I have several stories already about an autoclave with the door ripped off, another one with a researcher gave a biomed a box of parts because he could not put it back together, and another one with a bug in the patient monitor ( a real bug)! Send your unusual service calls to me so we can share it.
7. Sticky Notes and Nurse’s Tape – I probably have enough of these for this edition, but I know there will be a Tales of the Biomed Part Tres!
8. Biomeds are a Resourceful Bunch – We are very resourceful about finding parts and fixing medical equipment but occasionally, something funny happens. Share your story!
9. Acronyms and Slang for Biomed - I probably have enough of these for this edition, but I know there will be a Tales of the Biomed Part Tres!
10. Inspections and audits – If you are like me, you’ve had some exciting things happen during a Joint Commission inspection – let’s share your story
11. School and Training Stories – I have several funny stories from the Army school at Fitz, but I know there are LOTS of stories that have not been shared. What about the funny stories at the civilian biomed schools – let’s share those.
12. Conferences – I’ve heard several funny stories that happened at AAMI’s annual conference or at MDExpo. Share those with everyone!

You can visit my website to see some of the funny stories, pictures, and reviews of my first book at

07/25/2020

I have received several 5-star reviews on the 1st Edition of Tales of the Biomed on Amazon. Thanks to everyone who has read or purchased the book.

I am about 75% finished with the 2nd Edition of the book - Tales of the Biomed Part Deux. I am still looking for the following topics for the book:
* Funny work orders - work orders with funny typos or just funny comments. We've all seen them!
* Adventures of the Road Warrior - for those that hit the road to service medical equipment we know you have funny stories to share. I've received several hilarious ones so send me your story to add to the collection.
* Strange happenings in the hospital or clinic - funny stories about working in the hospital or at a clinic. Do you have a funny story about your biomed shop? Send it to me to be put in the new book.
* Technology and the Biomed - biomeds are great with technology but sometimes funny things happen. Share those stories with everyone.
* Unusual service calls - we've all had the strange service call so sends your story to me to put in the new book.
* Biomeds are a resourceful bunch - I think biomeds are some of the most resourceful people I know. They can always find a way to get the job done, find a part, make a part, and just get the job done. Share your story with everyone.
* Inspections and audits - I've got several funny stories about hospital inspections so why don't you send your story to me to be put in the new book.
* Schools and Training Stories - We've all had funny things happen while in school or while at a training class. Share those with me so we can all laugh with you.

You can submit your stories to [email protected] or visit my website:

01/26/2020

In my new book, Tales of the Biomed Part Deux, I will have a chapter on biomeds being resourceful at finding parts.
Here is one of the stories:
Biomeds have always been very resourceful when looking for parts. I remember one just after the internet came about that I needed to find a hard drive. I didn’t want to buy one from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), so I just went on the internet and typed in http://www.hardrive.com and thought I could find a resource of hard drives. It made sense to me. Little did I know it ended up being a p**n site!
I was very concerned that I was going to get fired! I quickly got off the web page and found other resources to find a replacement hard drive.
I have not visited that web site since that day, and I am not sure I would recommend going there.
Does anyone have a story they would like to share in the new book?
https://TalesOfTheBiomed.com

12/04/2019

The perfect Christmas gift for the Biomed in your life!

Tales of the Biomed covers stories, anecdotes and photos collected over the past 40+ years by David W. Braeutigam and his friends. Years of sharing these ‘war stories’ with other biomed techs prompted David to finally share those great stories with others in the biomed field.David was trained as...

11/01/2019

I'm looking for new stories for my upcoming book Tales of the Biomed Part Duex. Here's a great one from the first book Tales of the Biomed.

The morgue and the newbie
Joe McClain shared this story with me. As you may know most maintenance shops are normally in the basement and of course so is the morgue. I will not tell you the base that we did this because even though it was years ago we don't want anyone to get in trouble. We had a buddy who was the morgue tech and he would let us know when they had a cadaver on the table and call in a repair on the Surgical Light over the table. We would disconnect the power lead in the light under the control panel. We would make sure lights were out and then send in the newest, youngest tech we had with the work order to repair it. We had a hidden camera in the room so we could record the entire repair. We also had a remote CRT so we could see and hear what was going on in real time. You can imagine the reaction of the kid when he first turned on the light to the room. During his repair we would transmit low sounds into the room like soft blowing wind that might come out of a body. The kid was scared and nervous during the entire repair and when we played the video back for the shop afterwards, the laughter was loud and boisterous.

10/27/2019

I'm still looking for funny stories at school or during your biomed career to add to the new book Tales of the Biomed Part Deux. I will continue to add funny work orders (like the funny sticky notes we always get) but also add funny TYPED work orders that are entered (I have several of those already.) I've already gotten a lot of funny acronyms to use in the books so I mostly need new sticky note work orders and stories.
The original book is available on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Biomed-Collection-stories-author/dp/1977719759

If you need so ideas you can go to my website for some ideas:
https://TalesOfTheBiomed.com

Tales of the Biomed covers stories, anecdotes and photos collected over the past 40+ years by David W. Braeutigam and his friends. Years of sharing these ‘war stories’ with other biomed techs prompted David to finally share those great stories with others in the biomed field.David was trained as...

10/05/2019

So far I am about 40 pages into the new book, Tales of the Biomed Part Duex. I still need to following to make the book complete:
* Your funny stories of biomed
* Your funny pictures of work orders taped to equipment
* Funny acronyms we use in biomed (like FM)

Examples of the chapters in the new book
1. Newbies
2. Funny work orders
3, Adventures of the Road Warrior
4. Strange happenings in the hospital
5. Technology and the Biomed
6. Unusual service calls
7. Sticky notes and nurse's tape
8. Biomeds are a resourceful bunch
9. Acronyms and Slang for Biomed
10. Inspections and audits
11. School and training stories

Do forget about my website

07/25/2019

Bigamy
When I was a newbie BMET and still learning about all the different names of ECG arrhythmias, I decided to ‘show off’ at a staff meeting and talk about my troubleshooting skills.
I announced that I had worked on a monitor in the ICU recently and noticed it was recording Bigamy. I got a loud laugh from the rest of the BMETs and CEs in the room. I was then told his was Bigeminy and not Bigamy!!