typically spun down in a centrifuge before it’s tested to separate its
plasma from the patient’s blood cells. The phlebotomists hadn’t been
trained to use the centrifuge they’d been given and didn’t know how
long or at what speed to spin down patients’ blood. When they arrived
in Palo Alto, the plasma samples were often polluted with particulate
matter. She also discovered that many of the blood-drawing tubes
Theranos was using were expired, making the anticoagulant in them
ineffective and compromising the integrity of the specimens.
Shortly after making one of her complaints, Dupuy was sent to
Delaware to train on a new Siemens analyzer Theranos had purchased.
When she returned from her trip a week later, she noticed that the lab
was spotless. Sunny, who appeared to have been waiting for her,
summoned her into a meeting room. In an intimidating tone, he
informed her that he had taken a tour of the lab in her absence and
found not a single one of her complaints to be justified. He then
brought up the fact that she had allowed her boyfriend into the
building to help her carry out her luggage on the day she’d flown to
Delaware. It was a serious breach of the company’s security policy and
he had decided to fire her for it, he said. After letting that sink in for a
moment, he called Gelb in and asked him whether he valued Dupuy as
a member of the lab and wanted to keep her on. Gelb said he did, at
which point Sunny grudgingly reversed himself. Dupuy was still
employed after all.
Shaken, she went back to her desk in a daze. The next thing she
knew, an employee from the IT department tapped her on the
shoulder and asked her to step out into the hallway with him. He was
trying to reestablish her company cell-phone connection and needed
some information from her. Before changing his mind, Sunny had
ordered it disconnected along with her company email and her access
to the corporate network.
Someone as outspoken as Dupuy was bound not to last long at
Theranos. Three weeks later, on a Friday morning, Sunny returned to
the East Meadow Circle building and fired her again, this time for
good. She was immediately escorted out of the building without being
given the chance to gather her personal belongings. The reason for her