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| 1 | 2007
Klinisk Biokemi i Norden
IFCC News
Päivi Laitinen
E-post: paivi.h.laitinen@ppshp.fi
I wrote my previous column in October 2006, when
we had just got the first snow here in Northern
Finland. The snow lasted for almost a month, the
magic white world, but then it was raining for two
months till Christmas. The darkness was depressing.
Today the world looks white again and the sun
is shining beautifully. The temperature is -20 °C.
Spring is coming!
I have had the privilege of serving as the
Secretary of IFCC for one year now. It has been a
year full of a lot of extra, but very interesting work.
I have also had a chance to meet inspiring people
and even see some interesting places.
IFCC Executive Board (EB) has usually three
meetings a year. The first meeting in 2006, where
I was the Secretary, was in connection with
the COLABIOCLI Congress in April in Asuncion,
Paraguay. I have never been in Paraguay before,
nor in South America. So this was an adventure to
me. It turned out to be more of an adventure than
I expected.
For some reason I have often problems with
my luggage. Also this time I did not get my suit-
case when I arrived in Asuncion. I made the usual
reclaim at the airport and was quite confident that
I will get my luggage in a couple of days. I took a
taxi to the hotel.
I was getting a bit worried after two days, when
I was told that nobody knew where the suitcase
was. Today with all the bar-coded systems airlines
should have been able to tell me if my suitcase
had left Helsinki and arrived in Frankfurt etc.. My
husband was bombing the airlines from Finland
and the hotel reception was calling the airline in
Asuncion. This is because in Paraguay very few
people speak English.
I had only a few things which I carried in my
handbag, blue jeans and a couple of T-shirts and
a skirt. There was no time, nor possibility to go
shopping because of the EB meeting. Days passed
and still nobody knew where my suitcase was. EB
meeting lasted three days and the Congress was
beginning.
On the day of the opening ceremonies of the
Congress the hotel receptionist suggested as a last
possibility that we try to call the manager of the
airline in Asuncion. During a coffee break of the
EB meeting we finally reached the manager. We
had a very long and tough discussion during which
I told the manager that the airline should be able
to tell me the location of my suitcase. Previously
the President of the Congress had told me that the
President of Paraguay has been invited and that he
might come to the opening ceremonies. Knowing
this I told the manager of the possibility of the
Paraguayan President’s coming to the opening
ceremonies. I continued that I will tell the President
how the airline has been handling the case of my
luggage. The conversation ended quite soon after
this threat.
The phone conversation took place at noon. By
4 o’clock I received a message from the airline that
my luggage has been found and by 6 o’clock I was
happily reunited with my suitcase. Who says that
miracles do not happen!
The airlines use bar-codes in luggage as iden-
tification of the luggage and as address of the
destination. The bar-codes should be read into the
systems whenever the luggage arrives at the airport
and is transferred to an airplane. This way the air-
line should be always able to tell the location of
suitcases.
Laboratories use bar-coded sample tubes as iden-
tification and also as addresses of the sample, which
tests have to be analyzed. In today’s laboratories
we always have to be able to tell where the sample
is, when the sample has been drawn, who has done
sampling, when the sample has arrived in the labo-
