METHUEN, MASS. (WHDH) - With Christmas just days away, it was fair of the Melum family to assume that a package arriving at their home in Hawaii was just another gift for under the tree.
But the box they received had something no one would put on their wish list.
“We immediately picked up the box and threw it outside. We saw biohazard and thought, ‘Oh my God. What could this be,” said Thomas Melum.
It was filled with dozens of COVID testing samples from more than 5,000 miles away in Methuen, Massachusetts. Every vial inside the biohazard bags contained patients’ names and dates of birth.
It was meant to go to a lab in Chicago but somehow made its way to the Melum’s home. The father of three young kids then called FedEx — that company that made the delivery on Saturday.
“I told them I don’t have a heart in a refrigerated box right now, but whatever is one step below that in terms of severity, I think I have. And whatever your FedEx person is currently doing they should probably stop and come get this,” he said. “They didn’t share that level of severity.”
FedEx eventually came to pick the box up on Monday. The company said they are investigating the incident and released a statement that reads in part: “This shipment was mistakenly mislabeled. We worked directly with the customers involved to correct the situation, and the shipment has now been delivered to its intended recipient.”
Ahmad Hussain manages the COVID-19 testing site in Methuen and said the samples most likely tested negative on a rapid test but were shipped out to be PCR tested.
“I spoke to FedEx this morning and they went ahead and released that package to our lab, and I communicated to our lab that these were people who were already waiting, to make sure that their samples get run as soon as possible,” the LabElite manager said.
The Melum family said they hope something like this never happens again.
“The one thing I’m flabbergasted by is there’s got to be protocols for this sort of thing,” Melum said. “How many protocols were not in place for something like this to happen?”
The tests are currently being processed in Chicago.
As for how they got so mixed up, that remains under investigation.
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