What Is Your Most Gross, Yucky, Disgusting Nursing Horror Story?

Here is my most gross, yucky, disgusting nursing story! Nurses Humor Article

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I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.

We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.

So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!

I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.

As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...

My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.

Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.

As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)

And of course, now so did I! :D

I've enjoyed reading all these yukky stories so far, but this was the first one to actually make me physically dry heave. I'm still gagging as I write this...

I've got a gross one. I've worked in an ER and I can handle just about any body fluid (and have) except earwax. Earwax grosses me out. Was working in an ER in Puerto Rico while in the Navy and we had homeless dependent uncle or some relation come into ER c/o trouble hearing. On exam, doc found both ears severly packed with thick, green earwax. YUMMMMEY!

Well, yours truly gets to irrigate his ears, not the thrill of my life. I irrigated so much earwax out of that man's ears, it was coming out in big, green nuggets. When I showed pt emesis basin of what I had cleaned out of his scuzzy ears, he proceeds to get a big smile on his face, picked up one of the greasy nuggets and eats it!!! YUCK! I just about pucked on myself with that one. To this day, can barely clean my own ears!

Kudos....this story is in 1st place for me (so far)

Specializes in aged, palliative care, cardiac, agency,.

Havent had a chance to read through all the 125 pages of replies so far.............but this story has always stayed with me. Came to me via a physiotherapist who had attended a patient for some chest physio, you know, to help bring up the phlegm. The patient was able to produce about a cup full of the stuff. Later the physio went to collect the cup only to discover the patient had drunk it.

Havent had a chance to read through all the 125 pages of replies so far.............but this story has always stayed with me. Came to me via a physiotherapist who had attended a patient for some chest physio, you know, to help bring up the phlegm. The patient was able to produce about a cup full of the stuff. Later the physio went to collect the cup only to discover the patient had drunk it.

No way, GAACK:no:

I had just drained a pt.s davol drain into a steril speci cup. I placed the lid tightly on it, and put it on his table so I could help him up to the bathroom. We received a second pt in the room, so I explained I'd remove the speci cup after he was out of the bathroom and I had gotten my new patient comfortable. It was a few minutes, and then I hear "This tomato juice is rotten" coming from the other side of the curtain. Sure enough, he had the lid off, and had drank about 10-15cc of his own fluids.

I am not a nurse (yet!), but I have a rather tasty story I can share.

At the time, I was working as a Unit Clerk on Med-Surg 8P-8A. Day shift had left me in one hell of a mess, and I really was paying too much attention to my screen and not enough attention to what was going on around me. It was probably close to midnight when I noticed the pungent odor of fresh feces. Hey, it WAS Med-Surg, and I just shrugged it off as an occupational hazard.

It starts getting stronger, and my radar kicks in and a realize that it's on the move and coming towards me. I look up and I see this rather unsavory looking man limping towards me carrying a black trash bag. He walks up to my desk and tells me that he needs a nurse, and by this time, I can tell that he's not mentally sound. He absolutely reeks of feces and stagnant urine, and was covered in these open, draining wounds. I somehow manage to keep a smile on my face and I tell the man that I'll have a nurse out to see him as soon as I can. I knew my charge nurse would be back in the room in a short time, so while I'm waiting, I make the mistake of asking the man what he needs to see a nurse about.

This sick grin crosses his face and he puts this trash bag he's been carrying ON MY DESK ON TOP OF A STACK OF CHARTS and proceeds to open it and pull out his foot. No, you did not misread that. He pulled out his foot and starts waving it around. Just then, my CN comes around the corner and I'm outta there! I managed not to yark until I made it to the restroom, somehow.

After that, I think I'll be able to handle nursing school just fine.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

OMG Parade! If you can handle that you can handle anything! ***** Why did his foot come off? :yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn::yawn:

Oh, that's the best part of the story!

"They" were after his foot because it was "touched by the hands of God", and he was worried that this immaculately blessed foot would fall into the wrong hands, so he cut it off himself and kept it "safe" in the trash bag, which he took everywhere.

I don't know how no one had noticed the horrible stench. Ugh, definitely made me re-evaluate whether I wanted to go into nursing or not.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

I think nursing needs you Parade!

They" were after his foot because it was "touched by the hands of God", and he was worried that this immaculately blessed foot would fall into the wrong hands, so he cut it off himself and kept it "safe" in the trash bag, which he took everywhere.

So, did he cut it off while in the hospital? How did he manage to walk? Why didn't he bleed to death?

No, he wasn't ever a patient. He just walked in off the street and wanted to see a nurse...don't know how he made it all the way up to the 3rd floor without raising any eyebrows, but he managed it somehow.

I never saw the actual injury, but from what I was told, it was at least partially healed. By the time I made it back to my desk, he had been moved elsewhere (thank God!)

Specializes in Medical.
"They" were after his foot because it was "touched by the hands of God", and he was worried that this immaculately blessed foot would fall into the wrong hands, so he cut it off himself and kept it "safe" in the trash bag, which he took everywhere.

As you do

Specializes in med-surg, psych, ER, school nurse-CRNP.
In the confused-patient vein, here's one of my favorites: 94 YO Jenny, who had never in her life been in a hospital ("I birthed all 11 of my babies right in my own house, never seen no doctor or nothin', and every one of 'em was as healthy as I am!"). She was on the med-surg floor with CHF, and even though she was more than a little demented, she had a kind of twisted logic. There was another confused pt. in the room across from Jenny's who yelled all night long no matter what we did for him, and to say the least, this did not make Jenny very happy. We were all taking a short coffee break at around 4 AM when we heard this blood-curdling scream from the general direction of the man's room. No sooner had we run around the corner to see what was going on than we spotted Jenny, who was shuffling toward us with a half-full catheter bag........along with the entire catheter, balloon and all. "I yanked this contraption outta that feller down the hall,' she announced, handing over the apparatus before heading back down the hall to her own room. "Guess now he's got something to holler about!!"

I think I may sue....for a new keyboard and monitor, since mine is probably fried since I just snorted Mountain Dew all over it. And also for my impending sinus surgery, since I'm pretty sure there's a limit on how may carbonated beverages you can pass through your sinus cavity before it requires intervention...

Just kidding....honestly, I about choked at this one. That is the funniest thing I have ever read. Ever. Period. Hands down. No contest.