Made an assumption at work today?

Mr Badger

Mr Badger

Mr Badger

Soldato
Joined
27 Dec 2009
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Let's face it, everyone makes assumptions at work rather than checking everything every time and will get caught out once in a while. Now, you might be assume I'm posting about Trump or Boris Johnson, but actually what caught my attention was this report:

Wrong Chicago family takes 'brother' off life support amid mistaken identity

"He died after they agreed to switch off the life support, but the real Mr Bennett later showed up at a barbecue.

His family were arranging his funeral when Mr Bennett reappeared, having been away."
 
That is all kinds of crazy ... An unidentifiable John doe identified by mug shot despite presumably having swollen /bruised/messed up face.

But when the 'family' come and aren't convinced,
The hospital staff told the sisters they could not recognise him because of his facial injuries an
Click to expand...

Just wot?
 
Gotta admit, the image of him calmly strolling into a family BBQ as they discussed his funeral really tickled my funny bone. Would love to have been a fly on the food for that.
 
Dis86 said:
Why didn't they fingerprint him in the first instance?
Click to expand...

That's the point. Despite all the glories of forensic science that are available (particularly fingerprinting and DNA testing) they just made a massive assumption about the identity of a person that was unconscious and had facial injuries. And then let some strangers give the OK to turn off his life support.
 
But surely when there's no positive ID, that's when you look at finger prints, dental records, blood tests etc..

With a smashed up face, neither hospital staff or family are in a position to confirm ID..
 
To be fair the nurses/medics didn’t ID him. Presumably the police were fairly confident in their mug shot ID, I mean I guess in most cases there isn’t any need to check finger prints etc... obviously a clear need does arrise after they know they’ve made a big **** up.
 
Relevant to topic on assumptions: Acer (laptop manufacturer) got me into hot water about 15 years ago. I was a 1st-line tech and sometimes had to talk customers through running Acer recovery over the phone. So I talked the customer through inserting the Acer recovery CD and use selective boot to CD-ROM that appears after the POST checks. For years, it always displayed 3 options:

1. Destructive restore (formats drive C and installs Windows + Acer drivers from fresh)
2. Non-destructive restore (removes Windows + programs but keeps customer data intact and reinstall Windows)
3. Replace Windows files only (attempts to repair Windows and keep the programs and customer's data)

I've always known to use option 2, but still advise the customer to backup their data first. Some of the customers will ignore that advice and ask me to walk option 2 with them over the phone anyway. This was fine on a weekly basis both over the phone and me seeing the menu in the flesh in our workshop. However, about 2 years in, the menu got changed without me knowing because option 2 ran a destructive restore instead for a customer over the phone. I had a rollocking from the IT manager because I made the assumption (in his own words) that option 2 was still a safe option.

Given that Acer was the only laptop brand we sold and the menu stayed the same for 2 years, was it an assumption that I made or did I just get unlucky? It's not a biggie now as it happened in the mid-2000s but this thread did make me think of it.
 
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