[TazziRN]

Guy in his 30's came in with CPR in progress. Shirt off, no boobs to speak of....but the body shape looked female. Face looked female. We were glancing at each other, mouthing "Male or female?" No one could tell. Someone cut the pants off to get a foley in. Doc glanced down and casually said, "It's a boy, folks!"

Ran a call with a new fire medic on a CPR in progress. The medic said he wasn't able to intubate because the pt had a bull neck. No IV either, because of his size. MICN asked him "Is there any lividity?" (sounded dead to us).

Medic: "No."

Pt gets there, he's huge. We managed to wrestle him onto the ER gurney. I took one arm to try for an IV, other nurse took the other arm, doc took the tube. He glanced up to see other nurse and me both lifting the arms and looking underneath.

"What are you ladies looking at?"

We glanced at each other and in unison said "The lividity."

Pt was stone cold dead. Medic couldn't intubate because there was rigor. No IV because blood had long since congealed.

Medic slunk out of the room and left.

[gr8rnpjt]

I had a very weird code when I worked nights on tele. My pt was complaining of moving chest pain and his doctor ordered "tylenol and maalox". I was going to pour the meds and the tech shouted, "Patti, go see your pt he is in V-tach". I told her call a code and ran in to find him in the middle of some kind of struggle with his body. He was purple in color, and was sitting up and laying down, with agonal respirations. He would not stop sitting up and laying down over and over. the code team hardly knew what to do because he was really in the throws of some kind of struggle. all muscles tense and color was completely purple. Someone removed his gown and all of a sudden I grabbed the hand of the ICU nurse next to me and said, "what is that?" When he sat up it seemed his whole stomach pushed out like a fist was inside pushing out. It stuck out about a foot. When he went down, it went away and when he sat up out came this big thing. It kinda looked like the thing in alien right before it breaks out of the host body. The seasoned ICU nurse laughed and said, Oh, he must have a large hernia. I heard she and her friends had a good laugh at my expense, but I really had never seen anything like it. It was very scary, and I thought something was going to pop out of him at any second. He ceased, by the way.

[fultzymom]

"When he sat up it seemed his whole stomach pushed out like a fist was inside pushing out. It stuck out about a foot. When he went down, it went away and when he sat up out came this big thing. It kinda looked like the thing in alien right before it breaks out of the host body."


I am sitting here picturing this in my mind and trying not to fall off of my chair laughing!! Good story! Thanks for sharing!!

[EDValerieRN]

I only hope that when I die I can give my code team a great story like these!

[NREMT-P/RN]

Oh my - I'm just not sure ...

I had to get my Fire Chief to "approve" the purchase of a new commode and send the city pubic utility workers to install it at a "patient's" house.

The patient had coded on the toilet and had his head firmly wedged between the toilet and the tub! I could not get him free (tried EVERYTHING). Could not even get the bolts loose - since time was important, I ELECTED to bust the toilet out to free the patient!

The code was not successful.

But, I felt bad for the patient's wife - for so many reasons! But since the patient had only had the ONE bathroom and the toilet was now in pieces, well - I had to do SOMETHING!

After all, there was going to be a funeral and the widow (elderly) was without a toilet - so I felt that we had to fix that! I couldn't save her husband, but I could save the plumbing!

The Chief approved it, but you can bet that I was the butt of many a joke!

[medsurgnurse]

I heard paged overhead "Code Blue at the Morgue. Code Blue at the Morgue." I said "oh sh*t somebody brought a live one down to the morgue." Turns out a hospital employee fell unconscious in the morgue hallway. The employee did ok.

[muffie]

oh wow, that's good

[Christie RN2006]

Originally Posted by Rabid Badger

On the other hand, I have had a DNR death once, and while we were discussing it at the desk, phlebotomy came in and tried to draw bood from the patient, couldnt figure out why they couldnt get a good stick. We had a god laugh about that one.

Oh, I completely forgot about something like that happening to me until you said that... I had a patient die one night and we were waiting on the funeral home to come pick them up. Well at my hospital we have a special picture that we hang on the door when a person has died, and it being my first patient death, I completely forgot to put the sign up. Well lab goes into the room and comes right back out and was like "um did you guys still want us to draw her blood??" In the midst of me being stressed over my first patient dying, my other patient was not doing well, and I was buried under paperwork, that at least gave me a smile.

[dazey71]

" It was also very pleasing to tell the intern...no pulse means no pedal pulses no matter what doppler you use..and metal probe to shock BAD!"...LOL!!!!!!!"



we recently had a code and the intern kept using the doppler to find a pedal pulse. finally another doctor said "just stop it, its not there!"

[txspadequeen921]

Oh My Gosh one time during dinner at a LTC center a patient began choking on her food... She was in a gerry chair and we took the tray off got her stood up and I began the Heimlich on her. I could not get the blasted food out of her throat and let the (male) Med Aid take over...lol .. He got behind her and every time he did the upward thrust the patient let out a big ole fart....
I was laughing so hard that it was almost impossible for me to tell him his hands were in the wrong place....anyway we got her airway and her colon clear.......