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

Specialties Emergency Nursing Q/A

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 ?

Specializes in ICU, ER, HH, NICU, now FNP.

1. Sunday am - walked off the ambulance with the medic - she was pulling her hair and crying and acting as if something was really wrong - "I have dandruff and the flakes are really killing me!!!!" (At 7 AM on a sunday morning no less.)

2. Ambulance arrives with 1 year old baby - no parent in sight - mom is at work, she'll get here as soon as she gets off work (it's 1 now, she gets off at 5 - sitter sent child in. Why? She didn't have a thermometer and the mother told her to call an ambulance to check the baby's temperature. I did read that mother, and the sitter who showed up with her, the riot act about the appropriate use of emergency service personnel and equipment and gave her a thermometer from the supply room. Kids temp? 99.1

3. "I think I am pregnant - I want a pregnancy test"

As for sticking the bill to people? They could honestly care less. If they have nothing t begin with, there is nothing that can be taken away.

and do you have to treat them?

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

I work in the Uk and recently we had a man come in with a headache for 3 months but he did'nt go to his Doctor or use any analgesia for the 3 months!

Also had a woman who was bitten by her dog asking if the cut she received will leave a scar.

We also have drug users coming in with complaints of abdominal pains who we cannulate then they leave the hospital with cannula still in their arm!

There is also the homeless alcoholic who gets drunk so he can come to the hospital by ambulance and have a bed for the night.

Yes be real careful what you ASSUME about people going to the er for c/o menstrual pain. I too suffer from endo! It is one of the worst misunderstood PAINFUL diseases out there. I am only 28 about to have my second surgery just for this disease. Doc is recommending a hyst, but I would like one more child. I agree with you the pain is FIFTY times worse than childbirth. I also had a natural delivery, no meds 9pds 13oz and I would rather do that again than experience the month to month pains of endo! So FYI to all the Nurses please take our menstrual cramps complaints serious!

On a lighter note this is one of the threads that I enjoy reading on a regular bases :chuckle !

Ohhhh, I'd be careful with this one Fab4. I started having problems when I was 12, dx with possible endometriosis at age 15 (first surgery). I have an extremely high pain tolerance, probably because of those experiences so young. I used to take every OTC pain med you could, with absolutely no relief. When I finally got prescription pain meds, getting rid of the pain meant I couldn't even function, just sleep. It SUCKED. When I finally had my daughter (which incidentally ended my painful periods but not my problems), one of the first things out of my mouth was that birth had NOTHING on my cramps. I had a natural delivery, no epidural, no meds. Labor didn't even touch what I went through on a monthly basis.

My uterus went to it's resting place at the age of 35. After multiple bouts of anemia, numerous surgeries for polyps, a fibroid the size of a baseball, I had a vag hyst. I had a uterus 14cm big (my doctor, who is incredible, said, "My that's a BIG one!), still did it lady partslly. Post op pain wasn't as bad as the cramps of my youth.

Just food for thought.

Yes be real careful what you ASSUME about people going to the er for c/o menstrual pain. I too suffer from endo! It is one of the worst misunderstood PAINFUL diseases out there. I am only 28 about to have my second surgery just for this disease. Doc is recommending a hyst, but I would like one more child. I agree with you the pain is FIFTY times worse than childbirth. I also had a natural delivery, no meds 9pds 13oz and I would rather do that again than experience the month to month pains of endo! So FYI to all the Nurses please take our menstrual cramps complaints serious!

On a lighter note this is one of the threads that I enjoy reading on a regular bases :chuckle !

Mysister also has it. she has had 2 surgeries also.

My own personal story..

Last night took my son to the local "after hours doc in the box" with a temp of 105.4 rectal "he is 2". Temp has been going on for a couple days but couldn't get it down last night.

Well at the minor emergency clinic we look him over for 2 hours can't find anything wrong with him. No UTI, red throat, cough, runny nose just really high fever. So Dr. tells me to have him to the local ER "just in case". I take him in and the nurse is rolling her eyes at me and seems bothered that I even was in the ER. I told her everything that the other Doc had done and said and she said "I guess he didn't think of a viral infection" and rolled her eyes again. So after 5 1/2 hours half a bag of fluids "he wouldn't eat or drink", blood culture, CBC, chest X-ray, the Dx is Pneumonia. Shot of Rocephin and a Rx for more antibiotics and we were on our way.

So in your opinion was this a ridiculous thing to bring him in for? I didn't get a chance to talk to the first nurse again to see if her attitude changed any.

I am still going my pre-nursing classes, so I don't know if pneumonia is a serious enough thing for ER. :imbar

Thanks you all!! :imbar

That nurse's rudeness and lack of compassion for your son is unexcusable. She judged your son's condition a little too quickly I think. I am also in nursing school and I know I'll never treat a patient the way you were treated! Last summer I had 2 kidney stones. The first one in my right kidney I passed without a problem after a trip to the ER, the second time it was in the left kidney. I went to the ER both times, was given some pain medication thru iv and other iv fluids, and then sent home as usual with a prescription, though the second time the attending physician was very hesitant to give me an RX for pain medication; I guess they thought I was a drug seeker because I had just been there a month before for the other kidney stone. Well the next night the pain was back, something unusual for me because usually the first time at the ER is usually sufficient and I pass the stone on my own at home. Well I went back to the ER, my mom drove me and I was in excruciating pain. The ER nurse told me while rolling her eyes that I shouldn't have come back and that I needed to try and pass it on my own. I would if I could haha! I waited in the ER waiting room for 3 hours while crying and throwing up because I wasn't taken seriously by that nurse. Turns out I was later admitted to the hospital and I had to have the stone surgically removed and a stent for 10 days because according to the doctor it would never have come out on its own because my left ureter is too small! :angryfire

Specializes in Emergency.

Here is another fabulous ER tale - had a 450+ pound lady that somehow rolled out of bed and onto her wrist - EMS had to call the firefighters to bring in the FLT (fat lady tarp) to get her to the ER. She was admitted with a colles fracture and when I took her up to the ortho unit with the paramedics and firefighters in tow to get her to a weigh bed - she stated that she might weigh a little heavier tonoc because of the orthoglass splint we had applied in the ER. Everyones face dropped! We still chuckle about it! :chuckle

Specializes in Emergency.

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Rj:rolleyes:

c/o: havent eaten all day....and there was the woman who complained of nausea p swallowing her husband's semen.....and the innumerable elderly patients who come in after 11pm for constipation....and of course in CA you have drug addicts who call 911 to get an ambulance ride to the ER to try to get a dose of Demerol...which is one reason their taxes are so high. there was the convict who stuffed small pebbles and milk carton scraps up his urethra until he couldn't pee so he could get a ride to the ER for a change of scenery...and did it seven times in a few months....

and do 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 :)

Just for fun information:

Here's some interesting stuff about Coke being used as a contraceptive. Great urband legends page at snopes.com.

http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/sperm.asp

We have our share of pregnant pts using EMSA like a taxi service. It's usually the case of either someone being 1-2cm, the contractions hurt but they can't wait for their BF or whoever to get off work to take them to the hospital or the pt is 1-2cm, the cxt are starting to hurt and they call an ambulance. The ambulance pulls up front and drops off pt, followed by a carload of people who could have taken her to the hospital.

This always bothers me.

Hello. I'm a lurker and just getting started with prerequisite classes.

But I'm curious what you all think ... how about strep throat in a teen over a 3 day holiday weekend? Just wait 'til Tuesday and see the PCP? It's emergent. He might not die, but he's sure gonna be miserable.

Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

A bottle of Ralph Lauren cologne up his butt. Can you believe he "fell" on it? In all of my life, i have never fallen on a square, glass bottle. (Nor a round one either.)

A bottle of Ralph Lauren cologne up his butt. Can you believe he "fell" on it? In all of my life, i have never fallen on a square, glass bottle. (Nor a round one either.)

My moms friend is a nurse and she said once while working in the ER, someone came in with a lightbuld up his butt. Of course the reason he was rushed in is because the buld shattered.

OUCH.

And then there are the stories of gerbils up the butt. I guess some people get off by giving the gerbil a steriod shot, letting it run up a tube that is already up the butt and....

well, you can figure out the rest. :uhoh3:

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