Conroe DWI Lawyer - Blood Testing and the Blood Vial

When you are arrested for a DWI in Conroe, The Woodlands, or any other place in Montgomery County the officer will read what is called the DIC-24. The DIC-24 is a document that requests a sample of your breath or blood. More and more these days officers are only requesting a sample of your blood and if you refuse to provide a sample they will seek a search warrant and ask a judge to force you to give them a sample.

If a person resists the collecting of a sample after a search warrant has been signed they could be charged with resisting search which is a Class A misdemeanor or if bodily injury occurs to the persons attempting to take their blood the person could be charged with a felony as high as assault of a public servant or Assault of Emergency Personnel.

Here are some things you should know about the blood vial itself that is going to be used to take and store your blood.

1. Officers generally collect two samples using two separate vacuum sealed blood vials with a grey top.

2. A nurse or phlebotomist will typically use a butterfly style needle and stick one end in your arm and the other end through the top of the vacuum sealed blood vial called the "septum." This portion of the the tube is sealed tight and the vacuum that exists inside the blood vial literally sucks your blood out of your arm and into the tube. When the tube is nearly full (about 2/3) the suction decreases and the phlebotomist is trained to remove the needle.

3. If there is a problem with the seal it could mean that a smaller amount of blood is extracted from your arm and other issues could result from a problem with the integrity of the seal.

4. There is a white powder at the bottom of the blood vial. The white powder is Sodium Fluoride and Potassium Oxalate. These chemicals serve as a preservative and anticoagulant for the blood. This means that if it is properly mixed it ensures that the blood doesn't clot over time and it ensures that bacteria or microbes don't proliferate in the sample.

5. A Phlebotomist is supposed to mix the blood and the Sodium Fluoride and Potassium Oxalate by gently moving the vial in a figure 8 pattern. If the blood is mixed too vigorously it could damage parts of the cells and cause clumping or clotting which can in turn have an affect on Gas Chromatography.