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

nursebearfeet · Nov 15, 2006

:bluecry1: kids are always the worst for me. we had a 2 year old who's face was completely destroyed by a pitbull, he died, the resident and i hid and cried afterwards.

15 month old mva ejection, was in a car seat that wasn't belted to the seat.

6 &7 year old siblings who were shot while their mother was buying drugs.

we also had a 67 year old who shot himself in the head and blew his face off from forehead to upper lip.

so many of them.

bill4745, RN · Nov 15, 2006

A very obese lady who sat in her recliner and could not get out. Several days later, her family found her and called 911. In our ER, we quickly discovered that thousands of maggots had decided to live under her breasts and abdominal folds! Not a pleasant site.

lozza81 · Nov 15, 2006

Pedestrian vs car, the guy had incomplete above knee amputation of his left let, compound fractures to his left arm, and his skull was completely boggy, having to do CPR on him for a good 5 minutes, before the docs decided to call it.

8 week old, cardiac arrest, just says it all, thank god i wasn't working that day, don't think i would have coped very all.

40 year old guy drove himself up to the ER after having his metal grinder explode and having half the balde embedded into his left cheek bone.

52 year old man, called the ambulance for back pain post fall, yet they were to find out that he had a squamous cell carcinoma to his left shoulder blade, that had not been treated, EVER, and it had wrotten his skin, muscle, and bone away, that was pretty gross, not even tea tree oil underneath the face mask could take away that smell.

Think I could keep going, but it's pretty late here, so am gonna go to bed!

Trauma Columnist · Nov 15, 2006

My worst case was one of my first in 1996 while on orientation we had a 4y/o brought in, in full arrest after having been tortured by her mother's boyfriend for 90 minutes. The paramedic that brought her in was in nursing school and eventually became an ER RN but never could shake this case and left the ER. The RN that was orienting me left the ER and bedside nursing within 6 months. One of the detectives who handled the case left the police force, one of the doctors changed his residency to radiology from ER.

I stuck it out for 10 years (and for the most part loved it), but that beautiful little girl always will be in my mind!

ERERER · Nov 15, 2006

I first thought that i would skip over this thread, but maybe need to vent???

++all the SIDS babies and their moms

++6 month old girl who was RAPED by her step dad.... ended up with a colostomy and cystectomy after incredible surgeries

++putting the dead 2 week old in mom's arms to say goodbye after her drunk stupid husband rolled the car

on second thought, i am going to stop. this is too much.

RGN1 · Nov 15, 2006

Kudos to all of you though who have tried to help the victims of these awful incidents because I for one don't think I could ever be an ER nurse.

Thank you for making a difference because I'm sure you have done, even if you don't think you have!

gr8rnpjt, RN · Nov 15, 2006

To All ER Nurses everywhere,

((((((((((((((((HUGS))))))))))))))))))))))

You do your best all the while seeing humanity at its worst. ( I could never)

Thank you.

muffie, RN · Nov 15, 2006

humble admiration for those doing a most difficult job in the ER

Gompers, BSN, RN · Nov 15, 2006

Not ER but NICU here - though we do go down to ER to help resuscitate any newborns that are born down there or outside of the hospital. One day I am holding the pager and get called down to the ER. It was me, another nurse, a NICU-based RT, and two of our docs.

Basically we are faced with a dead baby. She had been born about 2 months early at home in the bed, and the parents assumed she was stillborn because she didn't cry immediately. She had part of the amniotic sac still around her, over her face, so of course she COULDN'T cry. The parents called 911 and when the paramedics got there, the baby was still laying there on the bed, freezing, with the sac over her face. So they pull it off and intubate her, then get her to the ER. By the time she got to the peds trauma bay, she was about 15 minutes old and had never had a heart rate.

Well, it's a baby so we still do everything we can. Our docs work with the ER docs, and the ER nurses helped us NICU nurses. First things first - you're not dead until you're warm and dead, right? We bust out a portable warmer mattress and put it under the freezing baby. Our RT retaped the ETT before bagging her because it was in waaaaaay too far (well into the right mainstem) and our other nurse helped do compressions. I saw that the ER doc was about to do an intraosseous line, so I suggested an umbilical venous line instead since it would take about two seconds and was much easier. He was very happy for the suggestion and thanked me as I handed him the catheter out of our transport pack. Yep, two seconds later, we had nice access. The ER resident wanted to give all the meds, but her hands were shaking and she had no clue how to work the stopcock and flush the meds in. So I basically told her time was of the essence and took over! She seemed miffed at me but this was not the time for her to practice!!!

I can't believe how calm I was. My hands didn't even shake as I pushed tons of meds - epi, atropine, bicarb, albumin, saline, emergency-release blood, etc. The ER nurses were awesome - they drew up and checked all the meds and blood and just kept handing me syringe after syringe. After about 10 minutes, the ER doc asked if anyone had any other suggestions. We all said no, because we knew it was too late - the baby was already at least 25 minutes old. Well, just as we stopped compressions and bagging, our other NICU nurse said verrrrrrry quietly, "I hear a pulse." Sure enough, we got the kid back. Within a minute, her color had changed from pale purplish-gray to bright pink. She even started moving a bit. We put her in the transport isolette on the vent, and her heart rate stayed strong without the need of compressions or medications.

I couldn't believe it - this kid was dead. No nice way to put it. She was gone. And we brought her back to life. It was amazing! And having been the one that pushed all that medication and blood into her, I felt that I played a huge part in that.

Unfortunately, the seizures started about an hour later and the family chose to remove life support the next day. She had been hypoxic for way too long, of course.

cari rn · Nov 15, 2006

Wow, had no idea how awful some of these would be when I posted the thread (call me naive). I've had my hand over my mouth for all of them! Some of you have seen and dealt with some truly horrible things. It's no wonder when they say that it takes a certain kind of nurse to work in the ER.

Jennifer, RN · Nov 15, 2006

8 month old infant, beautiful, chubby, very healthy looking.

brought in to er by ems in PEA. baby was left with babysitter, babysitter left infant on bed to sleep, found baby between wall and bed later. Baby was blue and pulseless. no CPR for about 9 minutes until police arrived and police started cpr. EMS intubated in route and got pulse back. baby had no corneal reflexes, however, and read his obituary in paper a few days later. Very sad.

my husband and i struggle everyday with sleep deprivation working opposite schedules in order to not have to do daycare for our 3, soon to be 4, kids. this case validated all of our struggles for me.

nursebearfeet · Nov 15, 2006

my husband and i struggle everyday with sleep deprivation working opposite schedules in order to not have to do daycare for our 3, soon to be 4, kids. this case validated all of our struggles for me.

me too sister. i remember being a new er nurse when there was a ped trauma. 18 month old whos step father had beaten his head in to a wall because he was crying. it still amazes me that people think they can hurt children to make them stop crying. he was the most beautiful baby. fat, curly black hair, chubby cheeks. like an angel laying there. i was completely filled with rage, to think that some one could do that to a baby. i wanted to hold him and rock him and make every thing ok. but, he was already an angel by then. :bluecry1: