Most shocking thing you've seen a physician do?

[SuzieVN]

Skin graft unit, military hospital. The director made rounds daily with nurse, students, etc. No gloves. Pulled off dressings, and bare handed would poke the grafts, and say "This one looks green- reschedule", "This one's puffy- it's going to fall off", and etc. Room after room, no gloves, no kidding. Nobody ever said a word to him. The graft failure rate was like 90%? This was before nursing school, and even then, I knew a thing or two about infection control. Denver, CO, BTW.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I was a new grad. There was a code called in our adjoining unit. I got over there, the patient was in a V-tach. He was awake and talking. Meds were tried, and not working. The decision was made to cardiovert, and the resident begged the senior resident to give versed or something before, and he refused. They shocked him with nothing, zip, zero, zilch, nada, nothing at all. I will never forget his screams of "My chest bones are breaking". Poor man. He went to ICU. I don't remember the outcome.

[SuzieVN]

That scares me even more than the postings...

[SaoirseRN]

90+something y/o, double amputee, legally blind, on dialysis for the last 5 years, pleasantly demented and sent 20 years ago to LTC by her loving family was found to have new heart murmur. Turned out, it was critical aortic stenosis plus CAD with LVEF below 20%. The loving family of 20+ inner sity inhabitants (not a single high school grad or full-time worker between them all) asked if "grandma coulda' be just fix'ed", on what the chief of cardiothoracic surgery of a large teaching hospital enthusiastically responded "yes, sure we can CURE her!"

He somehow managed to take her alive from the table. Minimal access valve repair (new procedure at that time in the place) turned into open heart with triple bypass and full repair. When there was a call from OR that she's ready to arrive in ICU, the two very experienced NPs practically dissolved into the thin air. Residents remained - they had no choice, having their lives and careers hanged onto opinion of the said Big Boss Doctor. Thereafter, the NPs carefully avoided the issue claiming that the case was well above their competence.

Long and sad story short, it took the lady a bit over a month to depart this world. Residents "had a lot of learning opportunities" (the way they put it) in doing whatever procedures they could think of with her - there were even talks about extracorporal oxigenation. Meanwhile, the family was permanently camping in waiting lounge, day and night, sleeping, eating and going into labor there, seriously believing that every moment brings their beloved granny closer to full recovery and many years of life right ahead of her. At last, the lady was pronounced brain dead and family was called for saying goodbye and pulling plugs. But, unfortunately for the lady, that happened at 6 AM. Right after that, morning labs arrived and there was that potassium of 6+something. The said Big Boss who happened to doing business rounds right then, was suddenly met by chief of nephrology of the same institution, with latter doctor fuming and boiling hot that the patient with critically high potassium was not put for stat nephro consult. As the result, the family was told that there is the truly last miraculous chance and asked to wait and pray hard while the body of their beloved granny was emergently dialysed yet another time. Only after her potassium was documented as being 5+low-something the lady was mercifully allowed to expire.

I still wonder how much Medicaid had to pay for that macabre show.

That sounds like something one of our docs would do. Also a good candidate for a meeting with the ethics committee. My god. What a horrendous thing to do to a human being.