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Judgment & ambiguity · When to act

A freezer holding irreplaceable patient-derived samples logs a temperature excursion to minus 65°C for an unknown duration overnight before the alarm cleared. The samples feed a study enrolling this week. Do you use them, hold them, or discard — and when do you decide?

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I decide today, because enrollment is this week and irreplaceable samples don't get the luxury of a long deliberation — but 'decide' doesn't mean discard reflexively.

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