[lauralassie]

Had a pt in ICU that had pica, only she ate everything she could get her hands on, including bed sheets, which caused a major bowel obstruction. She came to us on the vent. She recovered , went to step down , had her first clear liqued diet, choked , aspirated , coded and died. We all were talking about how she could take sheet, spoon etc..but that broth is wicked.

[jnrsmommy]

OMG!!!! I'm sitting here, about to code myself from laughing so hard!!!

I was getting report on a pt that was due for discharge the next day. He had been w/ us for about two weeks, and we were ready to see him go. The nurse was telling me how he had an uneventful day, when the secretary came in and called that nurse out of the room. A few min later, the secretary comes in and tells us that room 224 is coding. Wait, that's my pt. We all run out of there into the room, and sure enough, the other nurse is doing chest compressions. Other people are running around trying to clear the room, get the crash cart, etc. I run to the chart, because I do remember seeing DNR papers on this guy. Sure enough, I find them, tell the doc, he stops the code. I'm standing next to the off-going nurse, look at him and say "So, you have any changes you want to tell me about?" Definitely not appropriate, I know, but it just came out.

[Ruby Vee]

So what's the best way to clean coffee off a laptop screen? You guys had me laughing so hard I couldn't control it! I spewed! This thread should have come with a beverage alert!

So here is one of my stories: This was about 30 years ago and I had JUST recieved notification that I had passed my boards and was in charge for the first time. We had a patient admitted to our telemetry floor for "work-up". Not "Syncope work-up" which was common for us or even "thyroid work-up" -- she weighed more than the capacity of our scale. Just "work-up." And the first line on her order sheet (in fact the ONLY line) read "Bath before seen by MD."

It was a sign of the times (and my youth and inexperience) that instead of laughing my head off, I actually TRIED to bathe the person before the MD saw her. More accurately, I delegated to the two student nurses who were assigned that patient as their first admit under the guidance of the experienced LPN. They were diploma students and had been bathing patients all semester and were sure that we were maligning their skills when we told them to call us if they needed ANY help at all.

It wasn't long before one of the student nurses came to me sheepishly and said "she won't fit into the shower." (Each room on that floor had a lovely little bathroom with a rather large, tile shower stall.) "What do we do?" Bed bath was pretty far down the list of options as the woman, a farmer who clearly didn't get into town very often, was absolutely ENCRUSTED with dirt and filth. A soaking was in order.

We had a large tub room that was rarely used -- we stored all of our extra equipment in there, so it's likely that the students didn't even know there was a tub in the back. The students enlisted two classmates who were already done with their admit, and cleaned out the tub room, cleaned the tub, and led the patient to the tub room accompanied by a pile of supplies including two of the "big boy gowns," since one didn't adequately cover the territory. With the LPN supervising, they got the tub filled, the patient undressed and the floor mopped afterward because most of the water slopped out when the patient got in. By now, most of the staff was aware of what was going on and stopping by to check it out and offer help. The students, far from being insulted by now, were grateful for the help -- especially when it came time to get the now-clean patient OUT of the tub. She was stuck.

SOMEONE got the bright idea to grease the patient to get her out of the tub, and dumped a whole 16 ounce bottle of Keri oil into the mix. It might have worked, except that by now the stress of the bath and being the center of attention was starting to get to the patient, and she began complaining of chest pain and gasping for air. I got called to the scene when she turned blue and STOPPED gasping for air.

It took every staff member we had, including some cardiologists and a pulmonologist making rounds in their expensive suits to drag that woman out of the tub. She was greased, remember? Ever seen a "greased pig catching contest"? It's impossible to hold onto a greased pig or an enormous, greased patient. Keri oil is a SUPERIOR lubricant! By the time we'd maneuvered two bath blankets underneath her and hauled her, dripping from the tub it was probably too late, but we dragged her out into the hall where there was room to work and started CPR. Chest compressions on an enourmous, oiled patient were somewhat problematic. The first person who tried -- one of the cardiologists in an expensive suit -- had his hands slide out from underneath him and found himself sprawled across her chest.

By then we had the crash cart and the paddles were suitably greased up with the appropriate jelly, and applied to the closest approximation of the correct position that one person could achieve. (Thank GOD it wasn't me with the paddles!) At the shouted "clear", everyone save the hapless resident with the paddles jumped back and Jennifer hit the button.

Soaking wet patient lying in a puddle of water and keri oil, resident kneeling in the puddle -- not a pretty picture. The electricity arced in a blue flash above the patient, but those who saw both assured me that the light show was even more spectacular below, and Jennifer, the resident came flying backward on her a$$.

Jennifer was fine, the patient didn't make it. When it was all over, I noticed for the first time the ring of ambulatory patients and visitors watching the entire show. It was talked about for YEARS! Years later, I worked with a nurse who graduated from that hospital's last diploma class. The story had made it to legend status -- and the nurse who told the story during a boring night shift story marathon prefaced it by saying "I doubt if this is true, but . . ." She didn't believe me when I told her it WAS true and I knew because I was there!

[muffie]

now ruby, that story takes the cake

that thar bath done kilt her

[eltrip]

And I was just telling my daughter yesterday that back in Medieval times, it was thought that bathing would kill you...didn't realize that it could actually hold true!

[weesyanne]

This isn't really a code story, but it was funny to me and my coworker at the time, so here goes:

We had these two older debilitated ladies in a semi-private room and the lady in "B" bed died one night. She was a DNR, so that wasn't an issue. We called the funeral home to retrieve the body after doing all the appropriate paperwork, making all the necessary calls, etc. When the funeral home workers arrived in the middle of the night, one of them was a fairly young man and the other an older man, probably one of the owners. They were asking the location of the body and my coworker Mary told them, "Be sure to get the one that's dead, not the one that just looks dead". We all burst out laughing EXCEPT for the older funeral home director, who had this really horrified expression on his face!

I know this may sound really awful, but I am remembering this today because that coworker, Mary, passed away last year. I will never forget her or that warped sense of humor that she had and what a joy she was to work with.

[ritarunningfeet]

Ruby that story is GREAT!!! I almost pee'd myself laughing so hard

[Dorito]

Originally Posted by weesyanne

This isn't really a code story, but it was funny to me and my coworker at the time, so here goes:

We had these two older debilitated ladies in a semi-private room and the lady in "B" bed died one night. She was a DNR, so that wasn't an issue. We called the funeral home to retrieve the body after doing all the appropriate paperwork, making all the necessary calls, etc. When the funeral home workers arrived in the middle of the night, one of them was a fairly young man and the other an older man, probably one of the owners. They were asking the location of the body and my coworker Mary told them, "Be sure to get the one that's dead, not the one that just looks dead". We all burst out laughing EXCEPT for the older funeral home director, who had this really horrified expression on his face!

I know this may sound really awful, but I am remembering this today because that coworker, Mary, passed away last year. I will never forget her or that warped sense of humor that she had and what a joy she was to work with.

We actually had a funeral home worker start to load up the "un-dead" one. You really had to look close to tell the difference. Thank goodness the nurse walked in when she did to correct him! (It's not really awful....we were snickering too)...

[muffie]

2nd hand from my colleagues about 15 years ago...

the married boyfriend visitor of a pt coded in the pt lounge
his face hit the wall and turned purple and his toupee flew off as he hit the floor

he had been in 3rd degree hb all day

supervisor had to phone his wife to pick up his car

how do you splain that one ?????

[lupin]

I've only been through two codes so far and both times I've made a fool of myself....
The first code was on a pt who had a flaming uti and pyloric nephritis who turned septic then coded on us. We had a brand spanking new grad on the floor who came running with an ambu bag and started squeezing it onto this woman's face immediately. Only thing was it was a peds ambu mask and didn't cover her nose and mouth. Then one of the docs said to push a bag of saline, well, there's me next to the IV pump and I switched her d51/2 for ns, tossing the d5 bag behind me. When I got out to the hallway, I realized my whole back was soaking wet from me throwing the bag of d5 over my shoulder. I was wearing yellow and EVERYone could see my underwear.
Same new nurse, different situation. We have a rapid response team that we call for pts who are circling the drain to help stop codes before they happen. Our night supervisor leaves at 4am on Thursdays. She had just left and I heard a rapid responders code called for our adjoining unit with this new nurse there. I was the only RN on that side so I went over to help out. The new grad had called a rapid response on a new admit COPD exacerbation BECAUSE SHE WAS BREATHING HARD!!!!
LAst story. I got a patella fx admit on night shift. Pretty routine admit, got up to our floor at midnight had had MSO4 in the ER about nine, was alert and oriented, HTN was only hx. I had just finished my admit orders and paperwork when his light when on and the night supervisor went to check on him. She comes running up to the station and asks how much pain medicine had I given him to which I replied none. He was diaphoretic, with that 100 yard stare, unable to respond, BS 141, BP 58/38, pulse 70. So we call rapid responders and while I was with him just grabbed him by the shoulders and started saying, HEY stay with us! We ended up sending him to our ICU unit because no one could figure it out what was wrong with him. Halfway down to ICU he starts it again, going diaphoretic, unresponsive, and I started yelling at him again to stay with us. After he was transferred and we got him back to responding to us, everyone started laughing at me saying, stay with us, stay with us. What can I say? I just freaked because the dude wasn't responding right. But he's still around and the doc who transferred him will see me and ask if I'm saving anymore pts' by shear will.