Visitors putting your patient at risk?

[nurs2bhopefully]

Have any of you had patients visitors sneak them things that are harmful to their health when they know specifically the patient is not supposed to have it? For instance- sneaking an influzema(sp)

patient a cigarette?

[biscuit_007]

We had a patient in ICU when i was working as a tech in college. This old lady really loved popeye's fried chicken. For some reason every time she ate this chicken she would code. Now this may have been a really weird coincidence but you would think that her family would have quit bringing it in to her behind her back, but the didn't. We coded this lady probably five or six times in a month and would always get her back. She would stay several days in ICU and then go out to the tele floor where a family mamber would try to be nice to grandma and bring her the chicken she would ask for. Within hours she would be coding again and we would get her back into ICU. Finally after eating chicken and coding for the sixth or seventh time she didn't make it. The MD on her case joked that he should put fried chicken as her cause of death on the death certificate.

[shootemrn]

Do you think after the fourth or fifth code the pt or the family would have figured out that bringing grandma popeye's fried chicken is friggin bad!

[AIS52]

How about a big shaggy dog in to see a patient with an open sternal wound inftected with mrsa?

Question 1- Who just brings a dog into the hospital without checking first??? I fully believe in animal therapy where appropriate- and this was definately NOT an appropriate case!

Question 2- How did this dog get past security??? Actually, I already know the answer so nevermind.

[kids]

Lovely...I just read a posting from ProMED in the last couple of months documenting the spread of MRSA by pets.