Fainting... so dramatic

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Many of us have probably had patient pass out on us at one time or another. Most of the time, patient is in bed and sits or stands, feels lightheaded, we quickly steady them and get them to the floor, chair or bed before they collapse rather gently.

On TV, it seems like every time someone passes out, it's always a big dramatic production involving the person falling over at an odd angle, and toppling over several expensive and breakable objects in the process.

But, have any of you had an experience (patient, friend, family member) where someone passed out in such dramatic fashion? This is meant to be a light-hearted thread where we can share our "As Seen On TV" stories. :)

Specializes in LTC/Skilled Care/Rehab.

I passed out (several times) at a concert. It was really hot and standing room only. We were standing close to the stage and I started to feel a little funny. I was trying to make my way to the bathroom and woke up on the floor several times. Lucikly people helped me up each time. Also, during nursing school, I almost passed out in the OR. I just can't wear a mask for that long.

The most dramatic fainting I have ever witnessed was my own fainting. I was assisting with a routine blood draw when I suddenly didn't feel so good. I remember turning to my coworker and telling her I had to step out...I didn't make it. The next thing I remember is laying on the floor with about ten people surrounding me and the code bell going off! Apparently, I made it just past the door before I passed out, hit my head on the doorknob, and then hit my head on the floor. I was unconscious for 10 minutes and unresponsive to smelling salts. It was quite embarrassing to be wheeled out of there on a stretcher. I had to deal with people thinking I was either pregnant or couldn't stand the sight of blood (despite having been a nurse for 5 years at the time). Turns out I had an SVT that has been since ablated!

Working in Psych, I have seen some pretty amazing histrionics, that include falling out of such epic proportions, that it would make Benny Hinn blush.

Specializes in Cath lab, acute, community.

Happened as a student! A fellow student and myself were watching a surgery, standing back as we were not allowed to touch anything. Our facilitator was very strict, naturally, and said DO NOT TOUCH A THING WHEN YOU ARE IN THERE. DO NOT GET CLOSE. DO NOT INTERFERE etc. We were just to absorb into the wall and watch. Anyway, the surgeon had just started making an incision into the patients abdomen, the cut was perhaps 2 inches where my student friend made a "squeak" kind of noise. The facilitator and I both looked at the student where he promptly VOMITED into his mask and fainted.

First lesson for that clinical practicum: no vomiting in the OR!

Second lesson for that clinical practicum: surgeons can have a sense of humour and find that funny! Thank God!

I am a fainter. My first faint was in first grade, we just came in from playing at recess and we were waiting in line at the water fountain. It was my turn and I took a step and fainted hitting my head on the water fountain. The next faint was when I was ten and walking down the cake isle at the store with my mom. My stomach had been upset and looking at all the cake boxes started making me whoozie. I started falling and mom caught my sweater, and I came out of my sweater and I hit the floor. Then, every time I get the darn stomach virus I end up fainting. I wonder if it is inherited, a propensity for fainting. My dad is a fainter too and so is my daughter.

Specializes in Emergency, Haematology/Oncology.

The triage doors that lead inside, the gates to heaven, the doors I must get through and then, yes then, I will see a doctor. How will I get through those doors quickly, I am prepared to do anything?. Hmmm, I know, I will pretend to collapse. I recently triaged a patient who frequently presents to our department after a seizure, usually "witnessed" by his enabling partner. The intention is to obtain sedatives/hypnotics from the paramedics, or (hopefully) from a clinician who hasn't met him previously and he has quite the elaborate strategy for this purpose. Pt. suffered a few seizures post an MVA and subsequent aquired brain injury 8 yrs ago however 99% of the time he is faking and he will often wet himself just to be super convincing (pig). Usually the triage nurse sends him to acute, assuming that he can't mobilise as he comes with a wheelchair, and he spends his day in ED, wasting resources, being scanned, bled, assessed and once in a while getting what he's after. I am sure I've seen this guy stand before so, instead of positive re-enforcement, I ask the paramedics to put him in one of our wheelchairs and into the waiting room. Advised by paramedics that he might "seize" in the waiting room, and I tell them I'm happy to take my chances.

So, approximately 15 minutes of waiting was enough for him so he slumps himself forward out of the chair, dramatically hits the WR floor and lays there pretending to be unresponsive. The fifty odd people people in the WR gasp, and I can hear the "oh no's" and whispers. So I walk casually out to where he is laying. I flick his eyelashes and he flinches (gotcha), "open your eyes mate", does not open eyes, flick eyelashes again, "open your eyes mate or I'll have to get a bucket of ice cold water". Patients and their family members in WR salivating as this unfolds. Slowly the pt. miraculously whimpers "don't you know that I have to be strapped in if I'm in a wheelchair?". My response: "So, you can articulate all of that but you can't open your eyes?". He then promptly stands up, screams "You ___ ___, strides out the front of the department, kicks the front doors and gets in a taxi. I got chocolates from the acute nurses for that one.

Specializes in ER, TRAUMA, MED-SURG.
The triage doors that lead inside, the gates to heaven, the doors I must get through and then, yes then, I will see a doctor. How will I get through those doors quickly, I am prepared to do anything?. Hmmm, I know, I will pretend to collapse. I recently triaged a patient who frequently presents to our department after a seizure, usually "witnessed" by his enabling partner. The intention is to obtain sedatives/hypnotics from the paramedics, or (hopefully) from a clinician who hasn't met him previously and he has quite the elaborate strategy for this purpose. Pt. suffered a few seizures post an MVA and subsequent aquired brain injury 8 yrs ago however 99% of the time he is faking and he will often wet himself just to be super convincing (pig). Usually the triage nurse sends him to acute, assuming that he can't mobilise as he comes with a wheelchair, and he spends his day in ED, wasting resources, being scanned, bled, assessed and once in a while getting what he's after. I am sure I've seen this guy stand before so, instead of positive re-enforcement, I ask the paramedics to put him in one of our wheelchairs and into the waiting room. Advised by paramedics that he might "seize" in the waiting room, and I tell them I'm happy to take my chances.

So, approximately 15 minutes of waiting was enough for him so he slumps himself forward out of the chair, dramatically hits the WR floor and lays there pretending to be unresponsive. The fifty odd people people in the WR gasp, and I can hear the "oh no's" and whispers. So I walk casually out to where he is laying. I flick his eyelashes and he flinches (gotcha), "open your eyes mate", does not open eyes, flick eyelashes again, "open your eyes mate or I'll have to get a bucket of ice cold water". Patients and their family members in WR salivating as this unfolds. Slowly the pt. miraculously whimpers "don't you know that I have to be strapped in if I'm in a wheelchair?". My response: "So, you can articulate all of that but you can't open your eyes?". He then promptly stands up, screams "You ___ ___, strides out the front of the department, kicks the front doors and gets in a taxi. I got chocolates from the acute nurses for that one.

Bahahahahahaha!! That is hilarious!! I can just imagine another pt or two in the waiting room plotting the same type of thing, and look at each other like "Do u think he/she will be my nurse too?"

Now to wipe the coke off my laptop screen. I needed that laugh today - thank u!!

Anne, RNC

I have fainted twice. Once was basic training and I was stupid. It was negative temps outside, so I didn't think I had to drink. WRONG. I knew I was gonna go, so I turned to the gal behind me, said "Move G, I'm gonna pass out, you can't catch me." the guy behind her said "What did you say" and BAM I was down. I remember waking up in the back of an ambulance with the 1SGT telling me "Its ok tiger, you are gonna be ok"...and all I could think was, "Is this man serious? I have to qualify tomorrow, get me OUT of here".

Second time I was 5mo pregnant and my daughter was terribly sick (turned out to be Rota Virus) vomiting all day, she wasn't eating or drinking, so being mom, I didn't eat or drink either. Once we finally got her to the hospital (a long story) she had the worst smelling diarrhea and I knew I was gone...I remember slamming my head into the ground and waking up in the L&D section hooked to machines freaking out about my daughter. When I finally got back to her, the poor nurse was still shaking and told me that the doctors didn't know what to do, deal with my daughter or fix me, LOL.

Specializes in Emergency.

I have passed out one time - in nursing school in the OR...and I knew it was coming, so I got to a wall and just slid down into a sitting position! The worst fainting episode I've ever heard was a patient who'd just been discharged and was at the discharge window. I was around the corner at the nurses' station and heard this sickening thud...the cashier said the patient's eyes had kind of rolled back, and then she just fell! Poor woman!

Specializes in High-risk OB.

Always been the type to 'nearly faint' when having blood drawn. As soon as they pop the tourniquet, I'm close to going down; get hot and weak. Ugh.

As to a time I actually passed out....I was in high school, and taking part in a program that ran with the local ambulance company. We did ride-alongs, and could do simple things like vitals on the patients. Picked up a guy once that had OD'd on something or another; went to the ER, and I got an offer to watch them put an NG tube down. I walked in with one of the medics on the truck, and watched as they got the tube ready and then started to put it in. Guy started gagging on the tube (of which I can't stand the sound of to this day) and I started to get hot, weak, felt the room starting to spin, and felt my knees slowly bending.

I went down. Thankfully, the medic realized what was happening and caught me before my head hit the floor. I was only out for a few seconds, but when I woke, the doctor, nurses, and patient were staring at me. Of course, the story went around the station and before I knew it, I had 'supposedly' passed out on top of the patient. Yeah...it was a while before I could laugh about it when telling someone else the story.

Specializes in Correctional, QA, Geriatrics.

Fainted a total of 4 times in my life and all but one was semi dramatic. The first time was 11th grade and I had absolutely horrible menstrual cramps. My mother had tried to get me to stay home but I had several tests that day so I figured I would get thru until the final test then get my dad to come get me. First class of the day was geometry. I sucked at this subject on my best days and having cramps made it nearly impossible to concentrate. Suddenly I felt hot, sweaty, then cold and everything got blurry. I vaguely remember saying I had to leave and tried to stand up when I tipped my chair back into the lap of the gorgeous guy sitting behind me and whacked his head with mine as I went out. I woke up a few seconds later with what appeared to be the entire school standing around me and my poor landing cushion crying because he thought I was dead! Is there any person on the planet that can feel more embarassed than a teenager? Especially a cramping girl who just gave a black eye to a teen hottie when she smacked him straight in the kisser with her skull?

Second time was during graduation from basic training. Then DIs got us up at 4 AM and marched us for almost 4 hours without water, food or rest in Alabama in August. We're finally in formation waiting our turn to parade in front of the fort commanders station when I locked my knees. I go down and take another 5 gals with me in a human style domino collapse. I woke up being dragged by my arms off the parade field get my ass chewed for "making a scene" and staining my uniform with grass smears. I spent my graduation time cleaning my uniform and ironing it. I had to wobble over to the fort commander and salute, apologize and get another asschewing for making a scene. No mollycoddling from the US Army lol.

When I was about 5 months pregnant, I worked 1st shift at the nursing home. I must have forgotten to hydrate coz I was leaning on my medcart infront of a resident's room getting ready to pull their meds.

All of a sudden, I start seeing stars, try to lean back on the wall but ended up going forward into the cart, which the wheels were unlocked. I ended up head/face first on the cart then the floor and my medcart ended up on the other side of the hall.

The poor resident who had witnessed the whole thing started yelling for help and I woke up with my coworkers and several residents looking down at me.

Lesson learned::::Always keep hydrated.

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