i got the idea for this thread from another thread, and rather than hijack the thread about "financial damage at work" i thought i'd start a new one. i suspect we all have funny stories about destroying some piece of equipment.
i accidently raised a bed until the attached iv pole went through the flourescent light, which exploded, shattering glass everywhere. the manager peed her pants laughing.
while i was at lunch, a surgical resident (r-1) decided to suction out my patient's chest tubes, and the nurse who was covering was new enough that she didn't understand me when i mentioned that she needed to "supervise the resident" any time he was in the room. the resident didn't realize that he needed a suction cannister -- sucked bloody yuk up into the wall where it clogged up the system. the entire room was closed down for weeks while they took apart the suction system and cleaned it out then repaired it!
years ago, we had a confused patient in a geri-chair (anyone remember those?) who used to wander. the brakes on those chairs weren't the best, and john had perfected the art of getting his tippy toes through the crack between the chair and the foot board and propelling himself down the hallway. usually, we were able to catch him before he went too far (circular unit -- he'd just go around the circle over and over) but one time a medical student held the door to the stair way open for him -- with predictable results. when john came back to our floor in a full body cast (once again tied into his geri chair) i determined that he wasn't going down the stairs again on my shift. i tied the geri chair to the handrail in the hall.
i was sneaking into a patient's room doing my hourly "sheet checks" (where you make sure the sheet is rising and falling appropriately) when i heard a horrible crash and a yell. then the wall of the room i was in collapsed!
seems that john had pulled so hard on the geri chair that he pulled the hand rail down. the handrail was attached only to dry wall, not to a stud, so the dry wall came down!
