What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for? - Page 170

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  1. Nov 22, '11 by
    Both of these in the past week or so...

    1. "Hangnail" Of course it was causing 10/10 throbbing pain. However, it ended up being a paronychia (albeit a fairly minor one). To top it off, the pt asked for bus passes for both her and her granddaughter that came with her.

    2. "Mark on arm" Pt stated that she remembers itching her wrist in the middle of the night. Now there is a raised mark there with a small scab in the middle. Per the pt, it was draining "clear pus." She wanted it checked out because "It does not look like ringworm, but I just wanted to make sure." Now I know that as a nurse I can't diagnose, but as an ex-boy scout I diagnosed it the moment I saw it as a....mosquito bite! What ticks me off most about it is that we sent her home with a prescription.
    opossum, BellasMommyOBRN, and DeLanaHarvickWannabe like this.
  2. Nov 23, '11 by
    My favorite USED To BE . . .

    A 57 year old man at the ED via EMS after drinking with his buddies for about 7 hrs. When he arrives on the streatcher I ask what is the problem? He gets up and walks to the ED bed where he lays down and states "my knee is broken." "well sir that is very serious, can you tell me what happened?" I asked. "Well" he replies "I hurt it really bad." "OK sir, and when did this happen?" "When I was 26." hahaha so basically this guy was sitting there getting drunk, not doing anything remotly physical and decided his knee was broken. So he called an ambulance and went to the ER for a check up. Bless the IHS. Millions of Americans with no health care i love knowing that my tax dollars pay for this.

    BUT . . . my now favorite #1 storey . . .

    Man comes into ER and fills out intake slip. Chief complaint reads "I am really hungover." "I need a note for work." hahahahah
    BellasMommyOBRN, canoehead, DeLanaHarvickWannabe, and 1 other like this.
  3. Nov 24, '11 by
    Had a funny one last night... "I'm cold, crazy, and need some love" HAHA
    Crux1024, opossum, Franemtnurse, and 1 other like this.
  4. Nov 24, '11 by
    Quote from Christy1019
    Had a funny one last night... "I'm cold, crazy, and need some love" HAHA
    Thank you for being my nurse!
    BSNRose, JustaGypsy, and canoehead like this.
  5. Nov 25, '11 by
    I went into the ER for a ingrown toenail, it was 3 weeks old, it was infected, I couldn't walk on it, and I didn't have health insurance nor $400 that the free clinic wanted in order to take care of it and no one would bill, and all the other specialist needed money and even if I could come up with the money they wouldn't be able to see me for 5 more days from the day that I needed it done and couldn't wait anymore. This was about 2 weeks ago haha, I am not a nurse but I would like to be one, I didn't think it was a stupid reason to go to the ER though, in fact, a lot of people recomended it. oh and I will have health insurance in a couple of days, yay!
  6. Asst. Admin
    Nov 25, '11 by
    Quote from Reminisce
    I went into the ER for a ingrown toenail, it was 3 weeks old, it was infected, I couldn't walk on it, and I didn't have health insurance nor $400 that the free clinic wanted in order to take care of it and no one would bill, and all the other specialist needed money and even if I could come up with the money they wouldn't be able to see me for 5 more days from the day that I needed it done and couldn't wait anymore. This was about 2 weeks ago haha, I am not a nurse but I would like to be one, I didn't think it was a stupid reason to go to the ER though, in fact, a lot of people recomended it. oh and I will have health insurance in a couple of days, yay!
    Not necessarily stupid from your standpoint, but non-emergent from an ER's standpoint. However, your reasoning -- not having the money up front -- is the reason a lot of people come to the ER, and that's the reality. Just pay your ER bill, mkay? Unfortunately I fear it'll be more than $400 ... but what else were you supposed to do? I have no answers for that. The ER is often the court of last resort, but also people's first resort at times....

    My husband, before we were married, had an ingrown toenail and no health insurance. We withdrew $600 from savings and went to hunt down a local podiatrist -- I worked in an ER as a tech at the time, I knew it would be super-expensive to go to the ER for it and we'd spend less in the long run by seeing a podiatrist, though we had no clue what it would cost. We found a podiatrist and got in that day. After the podiatrist fixed the ingrown toe issue, he asked my husband if he had insurance. We said no, and the podiatrist considered for a moment, then said, "How does $100 sound?" I could have kissed that guy! And we went back to him again later, after my husband had insurance and another foot issue, because he was so awesome the first time. It all worked out.

    I hope you heal well.
    Crux1024, opossum, BSNRose, and 1 other like this.
  7. Nov 26, '11 by
    This isn't silly but stupid! At least once a year, I have to go to the ER to get a new g-button. We can only have 2 a year because of insurance but my son goes through them every 3-4 months. Last time we had to go at 9:00 pm and it was super busy. Lucky, the triage nurses were nice. As soon as the g-button came up from supplies, they called us into a triage room. While I changed it, the doctor did her notes. In and out in 5 minutes, not counting waiting for it to come from supplies.
  8. Nov 26, '11 by
    Quote from LunahRN
    Not necessarily stupid from your standpoint, but non-emergent from an ER's standpoint. However, your reasoning -- not having the money up front -- is the reason a lot of people come to the ER, and that's the reality. Just pay your ER bill, mkay? Unfortunately I fear it'll be more than $400 ... but what else were you supposed to do? I have no answers for that. The ER is often the court of last resort, but also people's first resort at times....

    My husband, before we were married, had an ingrown toenail and no health insurance. We withdrew $600 from savings and went to hunt down a local podiatrist -- I worked in an ER as a tech at the time, I knew it would be super-expensive to go to the ER for it and we'd spend less in the long run by seeing a podiatrist, though we had no clue what it would cost. We found a podiatrist and got in that day. After the podiatrist fixed the ingrown toe issue, he asked my husband if he had insurance. We said no, and the podiatrist considered for a moment, then said, "How does $100 sound?" I could have kissed that guy! And we went back to him again later, after my husband had insurance and another foot issue, because he was so awesome the first time. It all worked out.

    I hope you heal well.


    I wish this had happend for me as it played out for your husband, I waited for the er as a last resort though, I called every podiatrist in town, I called every urgent care and clinic, and all of the family doctors that I could find, sadly it just didn't work out well for me, I was also begining to get very scared because as I would seek peoples opinions they would say it looked so bad thatI really needed to get it taken care of and it was begining to puse as well and I heard that is a very bad sign which is why I was begining to fear the idea of geting gangreen, I believe it was the right call though, the doctor removed my toe nail and gave me a lot of meds for the infections and a lot of pain meds, it did heal quite well. I think if I had to do it over again, I would given the same circumstances
  9. Nov 26, '11 by
    I have no problem with people coming in to the ER for what ever the heck they want to, I do have a problem when they don't pay thier bill!
    Crux1024 and LalaJJB like this.
  10. Dec 2, '11 by
    A few I've collected from my ED buddies recently:

    "Evil has my soul." (What, do you perform an MRI to see if the soul is still there?)

    "I fell in the shower on Monday and now my head hurts." (It was Thursday night).

    "Human bite to penis." (Yee-OUCH and I don't have one of those!)

    "Today is my last day." (Yet he waited until night time to come to the hospital...)

    And an entire family came in s/p body lice infestation....glad I'm a few floors up!
    opossum likes this.