What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

And did you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing ?

[Hooked on ER]

We had a pt. call the ambulance because his water heater was broken.

[sharpeimom]

a friend's son is a paramedic with our local ambulance service. i live in a very very small town where we all either know or are related to practically everyone else.

a call came in from a very agitated lol whose voice was still recognizable despite her level of anxiety.

when the dispatcher realized she was speaking to mrs. ___ and that she was nearly ninety, she yelled for the paramedic. he decided a visit was probably needed since she was not known to be a panic button pusher.

the problem when the crew got there?

her equally elderly dog was choking and they dislodged the cat toy and were on their way.

miss gertrude the dog never made it to the people er, but almost!:)

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

[RhiaRN75, RN]

Great thread! I have seen:

-I was watching Diagnosis X..... Well, you might have some rare condition. My teeny ER doesn't happen to have the one doc on the east coast that specializes in that working tonight. Sorry.

-The umbilical cord dropped off.

-'I had a scratch a few weeks ago. I don't remember when my last tetorifice was. I've been waiting 30 minutes, why can't the doc just see me quick? This is why I would never come to this place for a real emergency.' Ummm.... he's arranging an airlift.

-Yeast infection.

-30 minutes after triage, presenting complaint of 'baby spits up'. The parents announce they are leaving now- 'We've waited too long and the ped is back from lunch...."

-I took the smiling Bob pill, got a headache, just want to make sure it's ok to proceed as planned.

-I got this letter a couple of days ago so I want to make sure my child doesn't have lice. He didn't.

-Sunburn. Not even pink.

-Sunburn, fairly bad a week ago, healing now.

-Saw the doc two hours ago, took a pill 30 minutes PTA, no better.

-Overheard a stranger at the store talking about 'the mursia'. Wants a 'salve in case it's catching'.

-Had a fever/threw up/had an itch/ etc. yesterday. Resolved now.

-A pt brought in by EMS after a minor fender-bender. No damage to either vehicle. Pt refused repeatedly a c-collar or backboard and even signed the paper. Refused again at the ER. Refused the soft-collar at D/C even though we never mentioned one and it wasn't ordered. Also stated to the doc upon initial assessment- 'I just need documentation in case I sue for whiplash.' Good luck with that!

-Elderly pt, family in for the yearly visit. They brought pt to the ER and dropped the pt off! Pt states to me "I don't know why the beep I'm here."

People are interesting, that's for sure.

[inteRN]

80% of what we see is ridiculous. From "I need you to trim my in grown toenail" to "could you xray my thumb because it hurts when I text message" I like ER because I actually have a job where I go to work and laugh.

[OMGWhatIsThatSmell]

We had to cut the bra off of a patient once who exclaimed, "no, that's my only bra".

I am offended.

You clearly have no idea what it is like to be poor. Have you ever had to ration food so your children would be able to eat? I doubt it.

[ttreeds]

A young girl, probably in her early 20s was admitted to the ER cuz she had a frozen hotdog stuck in her a** hole!!!! I was mortified to say the least lol

[Cindy_A]

I am offended.

You clearly have no idea what it is like to be poor. Have you ever had to ration food so your children would be able to eat? I doubt it.

I think maybe her point was, that the bra needed to be cut off because of a medical emergency. If you could die, your bra should be the least of your worries. If the person was that poor, I'd buy them a new bra myself, or see if the hospital would replace it. That is, if the person survived.

[Virgo_RN, BSN, RN]

I am offended.

You clearly have no idea what it is like to be poor. Have you ever had to ration food so your children would be able to eat? I doubt it.

I know what it's like to be poor, and I'm not offended.

[rph3664]

A young girl, probably in her early 20s was admitted to the ER cuz she had a frozen hotdog stuck in her a** hole!!!! I was mortified to say the least lol

Is this for real? A frozen hotdog in the lady parts is an urban legend that's been circulating in various forms for decades, and every generation of high schoolers thinks they made it up.

[sharpeimom]

i am offended.

you clearly have no idea what it is like to be poor. have you ever had to ration food so your children would be able to eat? i doubt it.

i think maybe her point was, that the bra needed to be cut off because of a medical emergency. if you could die, your bra should be the least of your worries. if the person was that poor, i'd buy them a new bra myself, or see if the hospital would replace it. that is, if the person survived.

bras (new ones) are available through the salvation army, associated charaties, many woman's charities,

just to name a few places. sources like the the welfare board, food pantries have lists of who in a given area handles such clothing issues. if this mystery patient's only bra had had to be cut off in many hospitals, they would have had resources for her to visit.

as a previous poster pointed out, having to request a new bra was a nonissue, compared to having a potentially life-threatening problem go untreated.

people get upset over oddball things frequently, but what they rant, rave and complain about usually isn't what they're really bent out of shape over.

kathy

shar pei mom:paw::paw:

[inteRN]

I think one of the most rediculous was for a pregnancy test. Min cost of $500.00 for the ER visit when they could have bought one at Walmart for like $7! Or even have one done free at the health dept ... I'm sure that bill didn't get paid anyway.

because medicaid won't cover them unless they have documentation of +pregnancy from a dr/hospital--a jacked up catch 22 huh...

[ThrowEdNurse, BSN, RN]

"My water got turned off."