Things that make you go hmmm....

middleagednurse · Sep 12, 2014

A jug of antifreeze on the dining room table in a homw where 3 children live.

liberated847 · Sep 12, 2014

A toast that looked like Elvis

TheCommuter, BSN, RN · Sep 12, 2014

Two entitled visitors were laying on an unclean hospital bed that, just a couple of hours earlier, had been the same mattress used by a patient with multiple nonhealing diabetic ulcers and fungating wounds.

The visitors had the nerve to complain that the mattress was stinking. I so very badly wanted to say, "Who asked you to lay there?"

In case you're wondering, the environmental services (a.k.a. housekeeping) staff had already gone home for the day, and these family members had basically taken a room over that did not belong to them or the patient they were visiting.

ICURN3020 · Sep 12, 2014

Not really weird, more along the lines of suspicious :sneaky:

Lighter and metal spoon (the kind from home) in a patient's bed

Hmmmm......

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Sep 12, 2014

Two entitled visitors were laying on an unclean hospital bed that, just a couple of hours earlier, had been the same mattress used by a patient with multiple nonhealing diabetic ulcers and fungating wounds.
The visitors had the nerve to complain that the mattress was stinking. I so very badly wanted to say, "Who asked you to lay there?"
In case you're wondering, the environmental services (a.k.a. housekeeping) staff had already gone home for the day, and these family members had basically taken a room over that did not belong to them or the patient they were visiting.

Karma. LOL!

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 12, 2014

A 400+ pound woman's bottom dentures pressed into the flesh of her left buttock.

A commode bucket with an enormous BM in the shape of an exclamation point.

A plant pot with three dead toes pushed into the dirt. (They belonged to one of my assisted living residents who believed that they would fertilize the plant. I don't even want to talk about how she lost them.)

I'll be back after I've jogged my memory for more.

abbnurse · Sep 12, 2014

Great thread, duskyjewel! Mine is about a patient I cared for who always carried a baby doll in her arms. She "fed" the baby from a small bottle of Tabasco sauce. ALWAYS......Tabasco sauce. When she put the baby doll to" bed", she wrapped it and the Tabasco sauce bottle in a little purple tie-dyed blanket. Very interesting combination of items, I always thought.

(I bought a tiny baby bottle with artificial milk inside and asked her if she would prefer to use that for feedings, and she replied '"No thanks, honey".)

toomuchbaloney · Sep 12, 2014

Most of the very weird things I have seen were not in a health care setting but were in patient homes where health care was being delivered.

There was that guy who had all of his pets "preserved" by taxodermy after they died (that was his hobby). They were mostly small dogs with a few cats and birds thrown in the mix. It was a creepy cramped and dark little house. Smelled funny too.

ceebeejay · Sep 12, 2014

Toes in the potted plants for the win! *jaw dropped*

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Sep 13, 2014

Toes in the potted plants for the win! *jaw dropped*

Yeah. She had necrotic toes that she refused to have removed, fearing that her entire foot would be amputated. We were treating them with medicated cream and a gauze pad covered with Saran Wrap. (Yep, it was a real doctor's order.) Anyway, one night she ran over her toes in her wheelchair and they just.....fell.....off. My staff was horrified, but she swore it didn't hurt.

So she had this potted ficus, and she put the toes in there to "give it some extra nutrients". Honestly, I think she did it to tease the staff, most of whom were revolted by this and refused to go in her room more often than was absolutely necessary.

motherof3sons · Sep 13, 2014

A set of upper dentures found in lady parts of little old lady with dementia....question of the day is....now what do you do the teeth???