Diagnoses you never thought you'd see?

Published

What's the most unusual patient you've ever had? I've had a couple--one was a woman whose admit orders included that she was NOT to have any food from home. They suspected that her husband was POISONING her.

The other was a woman who was a former LPN with a textbook case of Munchausen's syndrome. There was really nothing wrong with her but she kept insisting (moaning, actually) that she was SO sick. Very weird.

my mom had an iud when she she became pregnant with me because the dr had advised her not to have children due to her lupas and she had to have the iud removed during gestation and there is a 50 % chance of aborting after that procedure so i may have been a twin i dont know also i do have supernumerary nipples two tiny ones on my right side look a bit like moles so absorbing a twin is not entirely unthinkable

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in NICU.

I saw a baby with only half a face the other day. Very sad, it was basically a cleft that took up the left side of his face. Just... a hole there. He was comfort care; the father wouldn't let the mom see the baby. He lived for a few days on the unit (we were feeding him via NGT) before he just... went.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
my mom had an iud when she she became pregnant with me because the dr had advised her not to have children due to her lupas and she had to have the iud removed during gestation and there is a 50 % chance of aborting after that procedure so i may have been a twin i dont know also i do have supernumerary nipples two tiny ones on my right side look a bit like moles so absorbing a twin is not entirely unthinkable

check out "chimera" very interesting

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Emergency Dept. Trauma. Pediatrics.

This is a old post but I am bumping it because I am finding these sad and fascinating and I am curious to see more.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

I had a patient that they were trying to rule this out. I don't know if they ever figured out if he had it or not.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.
Dissecting aortic aneurysm. I so strongly suspected it that I mentioned it to the doc when I called him. Found out later that I was right.

We had this guy that was admitted with a descending dissecting aortic aneurysm. It is so large that it extends to his iliac arteries. Vascular wont touch him. He was also admitted with a SAH,ICH,SDH,IVH. He was still vented and sedated. He was admitted March 19. Having this guy scares the heck out of me since I know that aneurysm could blow at any time and there would be nothing we could do.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Telemetry.

I'm a LPN in the middle of RN clinicals, surgical rotation, GYN/OB cases....

Pt comes in with a mass in the uterus, turns out to be dermal cyst -- yup, hair, teeth, basically the ova tried to perform parthenogenesis...

My mouth was hanging open behind my mask....

Up Vote Up Vote ×

A patient suffering from depression and loss. Was diagnosed with HIV nearly 20 years ago, lived 20 years believing he was going to die and therefore not caring about his life (lots of drugs, prison time). Never had treatment, never had a detectable viral load, CD4 never went below 1000. Two recent tests show that he is NOT in fact HIV positive. Very traumatic for him, very confusing--a patient who lost his life to a false positive.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
A patient suffering from depression and loss. Was diagnosed with HIV nearly 20 years ago, lived 20 years believing he was going to die and therefore not caring about his life (lots of drugs, prison time). Never had treatment, never had a detectable viral load, CD4 never went below 1000. Two recent tests show that he is NOT in fact HIV positive. Very traumatic for him, very confusing--a patient who lost his life to a false positive.

This is probably the most unbearably sad post in this thread. Unbelievable. :crying2:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Med/Surg.

This is a bit of an old post, but I found it interesting....and I haven't been here in quite some time, so it's new to me...

I've seen a few of the things mentioned here, wasn't sure at the time if they were "rare" or not, KWIM?

Had a pt when I worked in LTC with Steven's-Johnson's syndrome. Forgot what med she reacted to, but she did eventually recover. She was a sweet lady.

We have a frequent flyer on the floor with Manchausen's. Gets the requisite psych consults each times, but you can only *prove* so much....

Have seen Fournier's gangrene of the scrotum several times, but the last one was a doozy...they actually removed all the skin from the man's scrotum, so we were doing wet-to-dry dressings to his actual testicles while he did HBOT tx's in prep for skin grafting. Have never seen anything like it.

Also have had a guy that got shot in the groin by a vengeful ex. Poor thing had an open incision from front to back, and an ostomy to boot.

I know foreign body stories aren't unusual, they just fall in the "never thought you'd see" category because I was naive until I saw my first few of them.

Took care of a pt on a float assignment with Pick's disease. His parents had both passed from it, his siblings had all had it as well. He was in his early 30's, very sad case.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Pain mgmt, PCU.
Saw a pretty severe case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome. During his bath his fingernails just peeled off. He had it from head to toe. Poor guy was miserable.

Awful thing, this one.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg.

This is such an incredible post... I am really interested in strange diagnoses, I watch Discovery Health (Dx Unknown and shows like that) all the time. I am not a nurse yet, but am in NS and I work with seniors at an agency where I have to do assessments and learn a lot of diagnoses... I had a 70 YO with a Hx of ED and THEN a Penile Implant... and recently a Catholic Priest with HIV... Kinda strange.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion