Feed me, Seymour! When patients want forbidden food...

Specialties Emergency

Published

I love people that ask for food that are in no condition to eat! Anyone have stories to share about patients begging for food, sneaking food, etc.

Examples:

Last week, when someone going out from the propofol so we could stick his dislocated shoulder back in, his last words were "Can you guys bring me some chips and soda..."

And the day before that, a guy that had smoked a bunch of K-2 and showed up unconscious, covered in disturbingly recognizable taco-bell barf. He demanded popsicles and jello after he regained consciousness because he "didn't have anything to eat all day" and "this is a hospital so I KNOW you have jello and popsicles!"

Or the patient with a blood glucose of 1620 wanting a coca-cola because he's thirsty.

Do share anything food and nursing related. Cute, foul, funny, anything...

I had to call security last week to take a bag full of food from my diabetic patients room His blood sugar was Critical (not even a number) and he pulls a liter of sweet tea and asks for a cup of ice. I was like are you serious? That's when I realized he had M&Ms Oreos Chips Mike and Ikes and more sweet tea in his drawers Once I took them he flipped For being blind in one eye from diabetes he was just ridiculous

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Specializes in ER.
I had to call security last week to take a bag full of food from my diabetic patients room His blood sugar was Critical (not even a number) and he pulls a liter of sweet tea and asks for a cup of ice. I was like are you serious? That's when I realized he had M&Ms Oreos Chips Mike and Ikes and more sweet tea in his drawers Once I took them he flipped For being blind in one eye from diabetes he was just ridiculous

Did you have security shake him down... Could of had something like this... LoL ...

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Specializes in ER.
Of course he is thirsty, you would be too.

Oh I knew it would be legit thirst! Maybe how that's how he gets into these messes... it's like the runaway Venus effect!

Blood Sugar up... "Gee I'm thirsty"... *Guzzles coke*... "Gee I'm still thirsty!" ... *Guzzles Dr Pepper*... "Super thirsty now!" ... *Guzzles slurpee 44 oz*... "Maybe I should check my sugar... but I'm just so damn thirsty! I'll check it, but not before I have a few shirley temples..."

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My fav was today. Could not get a bg to budge. Insulin, fluids. Throwing all the polys then, of course, the pt just HAD to have an antibiotic of 750ml mixed with d5... Uhh

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Specializes in ER.

Vancomycin 1 gram in 750 cc of Mountain Dew to be infused over 1 hour STAT

that would help your pt - LoL

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Specializes in ER.
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Specializes in Float Pool-Med-Surg, Telemetry, IMCU.

Not an ED nurse but I have to chime in on this one. I was doing a bed bath on an elderly woman with dementia who was on a strict cardiac diet and while washing her off I discovered a salt shaker that she was hiding under her "girls"! She pouted like a little kid when I took it away and I felt kind of bad because I secretly feel as though once you reach a certain age you should be able to eat whatever you darn well please.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.
Years ago when I worked in CCU, we had a patient being transferred to our facility from a smaller one in another state. We heard the helicopter land on the roof, but when the team arrived in our unit, there was no patient. "He got up and ran off as soon as we unloaded him from the helicopter," they told me. "Apparently he knows he's NPO for a heart cath, and he wanted to make sure he got something to eat before he got to CCU. Security is looking for him. We have another call, so if they find him, he's yours." And then they proceded to give me report. Crushing chest pain and shortness of breath relieved with NTG and morphine, long history of cardiac issues and (who would have guessed?) noncompliance.

Security located the patient in the hospital cafeteria, consuming a cheeseburger and fries he'd ordered from the grille there. Before they could get him up to our unit, he developed more chest pain. They took him straight to ER, and from there to cath lab where he coded and died -- after barfing and aspirating his cheeseburger.

The good news is he got to experience the ultimate "CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE"- I'm betting fried food was a high priority for this patient, and he died after partaking in his favorite treat. I'm frustrated with non-compliance from time to time, but sometimes you have to look on the bright side.

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Specializes in Post Anesthesia.

I've known more than my share of patients who commit suicide by bullheadedness. The problem is sometimes out restrictions are appropriate, and othertimes they are just mean spirited torture. Ther is no reason a patient with normal GI function needs to be NPO off clears more than 2-3 hrs pre-op. Solids yes- but not clears. I've seen patients die because they had 200cc of gingerale and the surgeon wouldn't go to OR.

My brother was in endstage cardiogenic renal failure after several MIs. Our instructions to the ECF were clear- we had no illusions about long term recovery, but keep him as healthy as you can and let him get as much quality of life as was possible in his remaining mos. After several weeks I got a frantic but confused phone call from my brother. Since he didn't make much sense, but sounded in acute distress I called the desk. After no clearer information from the charge nurse I headed for the ECF. Unfortunately my brother died in agony before I got there. The staff somehow decided since my brother was almost in renal failure, but his heart would not tolerate dialysis, the best solution was to put him on a fluid restriction so severe he spent the last 3 days of his life begging for a sip off water witha tounge that looked like beef jerkey and lips that gave him more fluid by splitting and bleeding than the angels of mercy provided for him. Yes- he most likely would have died a day sooner if they had given him fluids, but he would have had a day or two without the torture of thirst that his caregivers refused to relieve. He died in agony because they forced him to comply with thier rule.

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Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
Not an ED nurse but I have to chime in on this one. I was doing a bed bath on an elderly woman with dementia who was on a strict cardiac diet and while washing her off I discovered a salt shaker that she was hiding under her "girls"! She pouted like a little kid when I took it away and I felt kind of bad because I secretly feel as though once you reach a certain age you should be able to eat whatever you darn well please.
I agree with you. Although the medical community is trained to prolong life, what's the sense in doing that if there's no quality in it?
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Specializes in ER.
The good news is he got to experience the ultimate "CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE"- I'm betting fried food was a high priority for this patient, and he died after partaking in his favorite treat. I'm frustrated with non-compliance from time to time, but sometimes you have to look on the bright side.

Cheeseburger in Paradise Lost...

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Not an ED nurse but I have to chime in on this one. I was doing a bed bath on an elderly woman with dementia who was on a strict cardiac diet and while washing her off I discovered a salt shaker that she was hiding under her "girls"! She pouted like a little kid when I took it away and I felt kind of bad because I secretly feel as though once you reach a certain age you should be able to eat whatever you darn well please.

Absolutely-

But, then no trips to the ER for exacerbation CHF.

In fact, all efforts should be in her living out her days in comfort, rather than prolong the inevitable.

But, that's not how it works. In all likelihood, her family will insist on a course of "care" characterized by discomfort and indignity.

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