What was the WORST thing a patient has been brought to ER for?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Let's have some stories about those traumas that you talk about for days in you ER's!

i found this post on the "the worst thing a patient has come to the er with" thread. just wondering if anyone would care to share their stories that are similar to these? looking for happy endings to bad situations.

21 yo shot in head on christmas eve while drinking and parents out of town ..last thing he says before he goes unconscious is "tell my folks i love them and it was an accident"... in the or the surgeon literally scoops out a handful of brain and closes him up...3 days later he wakes up, extubated ...gives me a big hug when i visit and says "you did a great job" some movement problems with one arm ...talks to kids about drinking and gun safety.

16 yo drowns at ny eve party at local ymca...resus for an hour...no deficits... going to college this year

20 y o gsw to left ventricle trying to stop a car jacking ...open chest within 6 min of arriving by car at back door...thoracic surgeon between cases drinking coffee at trauma desk when he arrived ..sewed up heart in er and off to icu stable

8 y o drowns at church picnic...resus for 2 hours ...no deficit

13 yo on vacation at beach impaled by glass from coffee table...8 in shard goes in though buttocks, into pelvis and severs gluteal artery...loses liter of blood in the first minute ...bleeding controlled by mother /er nurse at scene...survives 25 min wait for ems. trauma surgeon said would have bled to death in another 2 minutes ...c

on christmas i'm walking back from l & d pushing a w/c ..i see a visitor with a group of family members walking to the icu who looks like he's not feeling well. i say are you ok?? "i'm fine just a little dizzy"...he looks gray...i put him in w/c and say i'm taking you with me ...amid protesting from him and family i whip him into a cardiac room where he arrests before i get him on the bed. resus 45 min...shock 9 times...that was 15 years ago...every year on christmas day he calls the er and tells whoever answers the phone..."15 years ago your staff saved my life and i want them to know i appreciate it, i've had another great year with my family...i believe in miracles and so should you...you can make miracles happen...god bless you and have a merry christmas"

it's hard work. bad things happen to good people. and one person can make a difference.

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i unfortunately do not have any miracle stories, but that last story about the man on X Mas day made me cry! What a blessing!:heartbeat

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THat last one gave me tears also Leeae. What a great story.

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Specializes in ICU.

Student here, so no stories but that last one made me cry too! So very touching!

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I hope we get some replies to this soon!!

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This just happened last week both traumas on the same night. My first trauma was not the coolest but just the mechanism of injury was unforgettable. A guy sleeping in bed with his girlfriend, when the g/f ex broke in stabbed the guy in the eye with a screwdriver. The two guys got into a fight and not only did he get stabbed but then got hit on the head with a frying pan. So this guy comes in as a trauma code was able to bring him back and get him over to CT. So we are all thinking that the screwdriver went all the way thru right? Wrong didn't even come close to the brain. We did an EKG when we got him back the first time and it showed very slight ST elevation so we run a Tropin. Which come back positive. So this poor guy was stabbed in the eye, hit with a frying pan, had a MI, and the CT showed a SAH (which we are thinking was from being hit with the pan, falling and hitting his head). As he waiting for ICU bed my second trauma comes in. Page in to us says 40 f stab wound to abd, 18 f stab wound to chest. I received the 40yr old. She was not stabbed but butchered and still awake AOx3 She was eviscerated from left to right and you could have taught a A&P class with her because you saw everything. The other pt turned out to be her daughter who was worse, her hand had been chopped off hanging by what look to be just skin and her chest was completely sliced open just like mom's abd. Again she was awake also. (This was a scoop job since it was right around the corner). Got both of the to the OR less than 10 min, so I'm finishing charting when the police come in to tell me the whole story, not only was mom and daughter assaulted but dad was decapitated all done by there son (brother) who was 21yrs old. So as im hearing this I go back to look in on my other trauma who decided he was going to code on me as soon as I walked in. he didn't make it, but mom and daughter are still going mom was extubated yesterday, daughter still intubated and they where able to put her hand back on

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This just happened last week both traumas on the same night. My first trauma was not the coolest but just the mechanism of injury was unforgettable. A guy sleeping in bed with his girlfriend, when the g/f ex broke in stabbed the guy in the eye with a screwdriver. The two guys got into a fight and not only did he get stabbed but then got hit on the head with a frying pan. So this guy comes in as a trauma code was able to bring him back and get him over to CT. So we are all thinking that the screwdriver went all the way thru right? Wrong didn't even come close to the brain. We did an EKG when we got him back the first time and it showed very slight ST elevation so we run a Tropin. Which come back positive. So this poor guy was stabbed in the eye, hit with a frying pan, had a MI, and the CT showed a SAH (which we are thinking was from being hit with the pan, falling and hitting his head). As he waiting for ICU bed my second trauma comes in. Page in to us says 40 f stab wound to abd, 18 f stab wound to chest. I received the 40yr old. She was not stabbed but butchered and still awake AOx3 She was eviscerated from left to right and you could have taught a A&P class with her because you saw everything. The other pt turned out to be her daughter who was worse, her hand had been chopped off hanging by what look to be just skin and her chest was completely sliced open just like mom's abd. Again she was awake also. (This was a scoop job since it was right around the corner). Got both of the to the OR less than 10 min, so I'm finishing charting when the police come in to tell me the whole story, not only was mom and daughter assaulted but dad was decapitated all done by there son (brother) who was 21yrs old. So as im hearing this I go back to look in on my other trauma who decided he was going to code on me as soon as I walked in. he didn't make it, but mom and daughter are still going mom was extubated yesterday, daughter still intubated and they where able to put her hand back on

Wow that's aweful.

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A little 2 yr old boy came in accompanied by both worried parents, said he was choking on cheerios and turned blue. There was a 5 inch metal door bracket shoved deep down into his throat.

An 18 month old beautiful girl accompanied by truck loads of family members, stating she drank a whole glass of bleach. Where were they when she was "drinking the bleach???"

A drunk driver came in, small lac to ear ...the victims mom, dad and new baby doa

freshly new mom for about 4 minutes with DIC, bleeding from eyes, ears, nose, everywhere...she died leaving behind her husband of 1 yr and her little baby girl.

12 yr old girl came in for rape, found parts of a beer bottle and some type of wood imbedded into her lady parts and orifice.

I cant get their faces out of my mind.

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Do you know what hapened to the kids? (2yo, 18 mo/o and 12yo)

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Specializes in NICU.

WOW! You nurses are my inspiration! I am in nursing school still, but when I graduate I hope to join the ER team (trauma 1 if I can.) I hope I have the confidence, courage, and ability to provide the excellent care that I have read about in these posts. Sorry if I sound cheezy! I have read some incredible stories here. I read posts day in and day out that make me nervous and scared about being a nurse. This post has made me want to get through school faster and become one of the amazing people I am reading about!

:heartbeat

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the 2 yr old boy went to surgery to repair his esophagus DCFS was informed theres no way he could have swallowed that metal bracket.

18 month old girl went to ICU again I called DCFS I dont know what happened with all that, but theres no way I can even smell bleach let alone imagine a baby drinking a whole cup of it

the 12 yr old was removed from the house per DCFS...found out later from the PD it was her uncle and her older cousins living in the house that did that to her. She had to go to surgery to repair her lady partsl wall. Can you imagine the kind of emotional damage this has done to these kids??

So incredibly sad. There are such sick ppl in this world.

Short of what I hear around from the FD or PD I dont check on them once they leave the ER. My old instructor told me to not check up on them no matter how bad you want to....if the worst comes about you will be left with ...what could i have done sooner, quicker, better, what did I miss, the I shoulda coulda but didnt syndrome.

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Specializes in ER.
i unfortunately do not have any miracle stories, but that last story about the man on X Mas day made me cry! What a blessing!:heartbeat

me too!!

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