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

Specialties Emergency Nursing Q/A

Updated:  

You are reading page 176 of What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

gospa said:
Here's a good one. Few months back, someone comes in by EMS for dizzyness. When did it start? "Someone rang my doorbell at 10 p.m. and when I opened the door there was a brownie on the ground. I ate it and I've felt really weird since." Who the heck eats food randomly found food at their doorstep.

Imagine their luck, it was the special brownie.

This is amazing haha. We got a lady in her 70s whose family made her some bacon in marijuana oil (who knew that was a thing) and she arrived feeling dizzy and hallucinating. Hahaha.

Specializes in ER.
Momma1RN said:
This is amazing haha. We got a lady in her 70s whose family made her some bacon in marijuana oil (who knew that was a thing) and she arrived feeling dizzy and hallucinating. Hahaha.

Reminds me of another of my favorite senior patients.

84 year old guy from an assisted living, likes to smoke weed and on one occasion it wasn't right, he thought it was cocaine instead and that his family had brought it by mistake.

His solution? Visit his neighbor and shoot up heroin to take away the nausea he had from the coke.

I think I need to move to another city, this one is just too weird for me : )

Jmarty31

102 Posts

This was supposed to be a reply to someone... Anyway... Once someone hadn't eaten all day and had a headache. (Not homeless)

Specializes in EMT since 92, Paramedic since 97, RN and PHRN 2021.
Jmarty31 said:
This was supposed to be a reply to someone... Anyway... Once someone hadn't eaten all day and had a headache. (Not homeless)

Stupidity keeps us in business!

Jmarty31

102 Posts

emtpbill said:
Stupidity keeps us in business!

Agreed! There's more I could go on and on and on in every situation... Strangers ... Sorry sorry didn't mean to sing. Anyway yes

Editorial Team / Moderator

Lunah, MSN, RN

14 Articles; 13,766 Posts

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

Blue hands ... new jeans. By EMS. lol

FineAgain

372 Posts

Specializes in ED; Med Surg.

21 years old, called an ambulance because she "s*%t herself". Didn't take a shower, didn't change her clothes. Glad she wasn't mine although we all enjoyed the ambiance.

Editorial Team / Moderator

Lunah, MSN, RN

14 Articles; 13,766 Posts

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.

"Belly rubin." Hahaha.

Specializes in ER.

Completely off topic but thought I would share anyway.

We all know that feeling, at the end of a run of night shifts, when you have the attention span of a flea, and everything is inappropriately funny?

Our manager decided that this was the perfect time to do our BLS/CPR update, straight after the 5th night.

Our hospital does not believe is spending money, so all the mannekins are broken, and the defibs are actually cardboard fakes.

The ER group dutifully sat through the video and then got to work resuscitating the mannekins, pretty much on auto-pilot, until the infant mannekin showed up.

This was even more beat up than the adults, and once we realized the head was loose, that ER sense of humor kicked in, and we went into schoolyard mode, trying to devise maximum entertainment from the up-until-now tedious class.

Imagine our joy when we discovered that if you thump it hard enough, not only does the head shoot off, but the battery pack is violently dispatched from the diaper area, with similar velocity.

And so we spent the next ten minutes happily administering good old precordial thumps, to see who could shoot the head and the battery pack the furthest. I guess you had to be there, but for a group of ER nurses who were way beyond tired, it was hysterically funny. Launching the battery pack outta the diaper was a blast, especially when it shot across the room and hit the wall.

Disclaimer - just for anyone who does not get frazzled ER humor - do not try this at home. Its reserved for those of us who have been awake more than 24 hours, and have been doing this job way too long.

And just to end the "day", on the train home from the class i saw a guy sitting opposite me brushing his eyebrows with a toothbrush.

I really think I need to get out of Dodge and find me a beach vacation before I end up with an enforced vacation that involves 4 points.

Specializes in ER - trauma/cardiac/burns. IV start spec.

Skylark, I burst out laughing at this.....reminds me of some of my nights. Too funny!!

Specializes in CEN.
DutchgirlRN said:
A stupid, stupid mother. She brought her young daughter in because she had eaten several ants. The nurse told her ants are not dangerous to eat. Thank God she did bring the child in though as she was turning pale and getting sicker by the minute. The mother said "I gave her some ant killer to drink to kill them, I hope that was OK"?

And the winner of this year's Darwin award is...

JonathanClouse

27 Posts

I often have to wonder about the "wedmd syndrome". I started having nausea, a headache, and chest pains earlier this week, and you know, when you go and enter those things into the Webmd website, it always gives you the worst possible determination of what it could be. So I took local public transportation to a downtown street corner, then walked about a half mile to the ED.... I didn't want to bother the squad if it wasn't an emergency.

Well, cardiac enzymes all normal, chest x-ray normal, ekg was normal, and ccta was practically perfect. Then today, I was looking through info on GERD, and OMG, everything I have been dealing with was listed on the page. Guess I'll have to ask family doctor to increase my Omeprezol. Still, sort of embarrassing for me to have freaked like I did.

+ Add a Comment