What was the WORST thing a patient has been brought to ER for?

Specialties Emergency

Published

Let's have some stories about those traumas that you talk about for days in you ER's!

Specializes in ER/SICU/Med-Surg/Ortho/Trauma/Flight.

Oh did I mention my guy with the hole in the head was still alert and talking when we loaded him on the chopper!!!!!! Poor Guy!! He knew he was going to die!!!!! Even if we had 100 neurosurgeons in the trauma room upon arrival theres just no way he could have survived!!!!!!!

Specializes in Post Anesthesia.
That is the first and only time I have ever seen a traumatic arrest survive after having the chest cracked.

I've seen two- one was a 19y/o kid with a pneumatic nail gun injury to the R ventricle-(al la Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon) big framing nail triggered VF in the field-pulled it out in OR and patched it up with a simple stitch closure. The odd part was on full assessment the kid had an 12-16 inch inch healing incision on his calf closed with mattress sutures-It turns out he nearly cut his leg off 3 weeks prior to the nailing with a chain saw. I don't think construction is the best trade for this kid- maybe if he went Amish- no power tools!

The other wasn't really an arrest but it was cool. 80+y/o lady with the biggest steak knife I've ever seen impailed through the back and piercing the sternum from behind! The knife missed everything- simple pull out in OR and watch for the tamponade that never happened.- It was a teenage family member that favored granny with the impailment. I bet Christmas will be a little tense the next year.

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I stopped at an MVA (2 days into my vacation), guy was ejected. One leg was degloved: I pulled off the blanket someone had laid over him, from med thigh down there was clean white bones, femur, knee, tib/fib, but no foot. The rest of the boneless leg was off to the side, still attached at midthigh, the bones had literally just been popped out. I tournequetted, although most of the vessals had already clamped off. He was still conscious, but decreased, answered questions appropriately. Poor guy kept asking about his wife who was still half in/out of the car, charred corpse, 100 feet up the road. Noone would tell him. :cry:

Since it was not even in my state, I never found out what happened.

The was working rescue in a national park. A guy fell about 500 feet to the ground. I've never seen anything like it. His face was lying on a rock with the skull completely removed. It looked like one of those rubber halloween masks. The poor guys spine had been similarly seperated from his body and was lying on a rock nearby. The blood spatter was a good 30ft in diameter.

Sitting on another rock was the top of his skull...looking for all the world like a clean white offering bowl to some god of carnage. I had nightmares after that.

Another sad story...a young woman was hopping across the river on boulders, slipped and fell into the rushing water and was pinned by her hips under the water. During the body recovery a 3:1 pulley system was built and her arm was lassoed and pulled....right off. It shot about 50 feet into the air and landed on the other side of the river. Her family had INSISTED on being there for the recovery, despite being told that it could be very gruesome. Even young children were there, aunts, uncles, etc, etc. Very bad scene. They tried to sue the park service after that. Didn't get anywhere w/ the suit. Her other arm was pulled off later as well. Eventually just had to wait until the water level decreased to retrieve her. The diver said he could "taste" her in the water.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

my friend swears this one is true, and since he doesn't have much imagination, i believe him!

he was working er one night -- his very first er shift as a brand new md. it was late october, and halloween was everywhere -- even decorations in the er. and did i mention there was a thunderstorm that night?

wayne was sitting at the front admissions desk with a couple of the nursing staff, shooting the breeze and snacking on halloween candies when he sees an apparition appear from the parking lot, presumably headed toward the er. "kids," he remembers thinking to himself. "trick or treat." he wasn't really sure what he was seeing until a stroke of lightning lit up the parking lot for just a moment.

there, coming in from the parking lot was a man dressed in farmer's overalls, carrying an unconscious woman toward the er. and it looked like he had one of those "trick arrows" on his head. or maybe a trick ax. the guy had been practicing throwing the ax -- just like the indians do on tv. only the ax had hit a wall, bounced off and hit him in the head. the blade went right between the two hemispheres. when he went into the kitchen to ask his wife to drive him to the er, she took one look at him and fainted. so he picked her up and carried her out to the pick-up and drove them both to the er.

the guy got better and went home, and it's my understanding that he didn't mentate any worse than before the accident -- according to his multitude of relatives.

Specializes in ER.
I had a great one about a month ago. Guy walks in shot thru both radial arteries. Hes holding his arms straight out, both pumping like gysers. Dont know why he didnt push against his chest with them. Its a sight i wont ever forget.

what a great pic I have in my mind!

Specializes in ER.
Middle of the night, we got a frantic call from the medics that they were bringing in a scoop and run, a teenaged boy who had been stabbed in the chest about a block from the ER. He was a traumatic arrest; although none of us expected him to survive, we went through the motions. Someone called the thoracic surgeon and he got there right after we cracked the boy's chest. The blade had penetrated the heart and sliced it up pretty good. The surgeon grabbed some gloves and started repairing the heart right there in the ER, and we were all stunned when he shocked the heart with the internal paddles and it started beating again. Sent him off to ICU and fully expected him to die from sepsis since the repair had been done in the ER rather than in the sterility of the OR. I was shocked into silence when, about a year later, a boy came in with some complaint, and when he took his shirt off and I saw the scar on his chest, I realized it was the same boy. That is the first and only time I have ever seen a traumatic arrest survive after having the chest cracked.

wow - that is great.

Specializes in ER.

My first week in the ER and my first trauma. Mom and some guy driving in the car, restrained. Baby in the corificeat, not restrained. Rollover - baby ejected (still in the corificeat) 100 or so feet - found face down still in corificeat. Comes to the ER, baby is awake, crying... I was at the head of the bed, felt her head: large and boggy.

She was intubated, they flew her to the nearest level 1. Mom seemed wasted and was wheeled on her stretcher to see her after they intubated her - wonder how she felt, knowing that she buckled herself, but not her baby... could've been worse - at least she was in a corificeat. Don't know if she survived after transfer, though.

I wasn't working this night but this is the story I got the next day.Approx. 20 year old male riding ATV while intoxicated (favorite past-time in my state which is why WE refer to them as "after-life transport vehicles).

The young man flips up onto a telephone pole and his scrotum was caught(and ripped) on the steps of the pole (the little metal things sticking out that lineman climb). EMS arrive, scoop and run to the ER trying to control bleeding. The guy ended up going to the OR.

But the best part, is the young man's best friend saw that his buddies "family jewels" were dangling and grabs them off the pole and is in hot pursuit of the squad with his prize in tow.

No one knows what happened to the young man, other than he lived to tell the tale. But everyone in the ER learned the definition of a "true friend" that night and is now an expression for how we treat each other.....

Any, "you know I have your back" is quickly followed by, "yeah, but would you grab my n*ts off a pole?":coollook:

Specializes in ER.

Teenager who was with a "friend". The friend accused him of stealing and "showed him how thay take care of people like that where he was from". He slit his throat from ear to ear. The first officer on the scene saved the kids life. He held a roll of paper towels to the wound. He was swirling the drain on arrival. A trail of blood from the squad entry to room #2. We initiated 2 lg bore IV's, and did RSI. He was shipped to the local level I trauma center where they sewed him up and sent him home after r/o with an ultrasound. I saw him a couple of years later and he realized how lucky he was to be alive.

Specializes in Emergency Room.

guy up probably 30 feet, trimming a palm tree with chainsaw.........this is how they do it all the time. He fell, hitting his head on top of 6' block fence. doa. chainsaw missed.

*bump*

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