[Pat_Pat RN]

Originally Posted by muffie

that thar bath done kilt her

Water allergy?

[NurseCherlove]

Originally Posted by lupin

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.

I can honestly say, Lupin, that this one had me laughing out loud all by myself - HILARIOUS!

The one and only code I have ever initiated, when I was still a very new nurse (I'm just beyond amateur now actually), I froze up and forgot how to quickly put the bed in CPR mode....so the wife comes to me and says, "we need some help in here - he's turnin' blue". And he surely was (and so suddenly - turned out to be a problem with his new trach canula), this obese man who was sitting with the bed completely upright. I just panicked (sp) and started screaming, "I need some help in here" like 2 times and then remembered to turn around and pull the code button. Pt made it. I just kept thinking over and over how stupid I felt, wasting those 5-6 seconds saying "I need some help in here", thinking that the wife was thinking, "well, hell, I could've done that".

[NurseCherlove]

Originally Posted by 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.......

I AM CRYING WITH LAUGHTER OVER HERE - THAT PICTURE IS PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST ONE YET!

[NurseCherlove]

Man, this is like "The Best of the Code Bloopers". Keep 'em coming!

[Pat_Pat RN]

The one "nearest-to-a-code" I ever initiated was a patient with V-Fib. I was the clerk behind the desk in the ER. I could see the cardiac monitor, but from where the nurse was (I think she was in the same room as the patient actually) she couldn't see it, we were the only ones there but the doctor. I haven't had a rhythm "class", but I pay attention and ask questions; I know enough to look at most things and say, "That don't look right, hey nurse, you better look at this NOW".
So anyway, the patient goes into V-fib for about 15 beats or so, I happened to be looking at the monitor and yelled for the nurse just as the "beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep" started. She in turn yelled for the doctor, the patient resolved on his own and we transferred him out, since we don't have an ICU.
BTW: We have GE monitors in the ER, and with some help of the sales rep we made up sayings for the allerts. The first tone is low and maybe a second long: "booop", we say, in a low voice "nurse". The second is a higher pitched "beep-beep" = "help me". The third is the highest level, it is the three "beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep" = "911, 911, I-am-dead"
Hmm...it is much funnier in person...
Pat

[MS._Jen_RN]

My first code (on a unit that doesn't see many) - Pt going down the tubes. Obviously crashes (grabs chest and begins agonal resp) I put my arms out to my sides and yell, "OH S#!+, NOBODY PANIC!" and hit the button. Went on to begin a successful code. Pt's son was in the room when I yelled my "first instructions". I think I was talking more to myself than anyone else.
~Jen

[NurseCherlove]

Originally Posted by GregRN

A couple weeks ago we got a code announcement over the intercom: "Code 1, COR zero, first floor atrium near the vending machines. Code 1, COR zero, first floor atrium near the vending machines." I run downstairs near the vending machines to find a large man supine on the floor, major head lac and blood all over the floor. We run through a series of assessmnets, I find his wallet and get his name and also find a small glucometer and insulin supplies in a fanny pack he was carrying. When I do his blood sugar it's obvious why he's on the floor: it was in the 40's. I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. There he was, on the floor bleeding like crazy, with a blood sugar in the 40's, right next to the vending machines. I had this vision of him feeling sluggish, walking to the vending machines...gotta...get...some...sugar. Dollar...bill...too...crinkled...fading now...fading...fading...

I couldn't help it. For whatever reason it just cracked me up. We got the guy settled, got him to the E.D. and he was fine. After all this was done I was walking back to the unit. I was still smirking to myself at the absurdity of laughing about a situation in which a person took a header due to low blood sugar. As I'm thinking about this, another announcement comes over the intercom that ties up the whole thing: "Environmental services to the first floor atrium near the vending machines. Environmental services to the first floor atrium near the vending machines."

Started laughing again. Man, I have some sort of illness of inapprporiateness...

I think I have the same illness! GREAT story!!

A bit off the subject here, but reading this just made me think of recent things that came over our intercom that made me laugh out loud....
1) Would the Adams Family please come to the ICU waiting room
2) Mr. Right to the main lobby....Mr. Right

Ok, sorry...back to the warped code stories

[Rabid Badger]

Oh yes, I forgot. Not a code story, but I always get a kick out of when I'm standing over a deceased patient with a med student or a resident and I ask them if they would like to officially pronounce or shall I? Often I get the "Oh sh*t, I don't know how to pronounce" response with a look of panic. So cute.

[km5v6r]

I was working in CCU and it was our turn to have the code pager. We had just finished report when it went off for the PCU and I took off. Arrived in PCU to find both shifts still giving report asking "Where's the code?" They knew the call was for their unit but not which room had called the code and since all the staff were at the desk didn't know who called the code. We all arrived at the room to find the pt standing at the bedside screaming "I'm DEAD. You have to do something. See I'm DEAD. Help me!" The man in his 30's had been napping. When he woke to use the bathroom he pulled off a telemetry lead. When he looked at the bedside monitor he saw a flat line, knew from TV that meant he was dead so he called his own code. I backed out of the room trying very hard not to laugh while the pt became more irrate that we weren't doing anything about him being dead. Others were muttering "well if he really wants us to we could go ahead and treat him".

[Tiwi]

Oh ppl, I'm nearly crying with laughter here. You wouldnt read about them! About the only code I went to that was a bit weird was when I was an EN student. We came rushing to the bedside with the crash cart, I was very self important with my little folder to record all the details, only to have the doctor call for an antiemetic....