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 ?

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.

Last night I triaged 5 people in a row all c/o SOB, numbness tingling, carpal spasms,O2 sats all at 100 no surprise, also with a positive RMS. Their families were all hysterical about them having possible MIs and CVAs. They were aged 15 to 19. Bad enough they were all hyperventilating, but why in hades would their parents even begin to think they were having MIs and CVAs. Iwas sympathetic with the first 2 then it just kind of wore me down and then I wanted to, but didnt, slap them all sillier than what they were beahving. The patient and their Families.

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

We had a guy one night who came in by ambulance for c/o a sore throat.

It went like this:

EMS: Barnes, Barnes this is St.Louis county EMS 4

Me: Go ahead EMS 4

EMS: Yes barnes we have a 26 y/o male with a c/o sore throat no other complaints at this time, we could not get you on the line 8 minutes ago so we called such and such dumbass community hospital who ordered us to start an IV and give 25 of demerol, his vitals currently are 130/60, p-80, o2 sat 100%, Temp- 99.1 F, R-14

Me: ok, whats ur current eta (while im rolling my eyes and wondering why in the hell the family practice doctor at such and such dumbass community hospital would order an IV of NS and Demerol for a sore throat.):angryfire :nono:

EMS: about 4 min barnes

Me: ok ems 4 ( while the whole er staff is in the background dying laughing half of them on the floor:lol2: )

Then they get him there I felt like slapping him but didnt, anyways he gets mad and wants a stretcher room because I put him in the ent room in the dentist chair, then he wants a hot meal and me to authorize ems to take him back home.:madface:

Specializes in Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergy.

How long did it take for them to get the OR ready for that sore throat? Did the patient make it through the night?

Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

Had a fella come to the reg desk the other night wanting a note from when he had come in over the weekend. Now the problem was that HE HAD NEVER ACTUALLY CHECKED IN. He stated he got drunk fell and hit his head and his mom made him come in. He got there and it was busy in teh WR so he left without ever checking in. 1 week later he is standing at the desk requesting "Something on a hospital letterhead" that sates he had been to the ER on "Friday or Saturday."

"UUUHHHHH Not gonna happen."

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

Yes he made it and since I was charge nurse he made his a$$ go right out the front door and get his own ride because I wouldnt authorize EMS to take his stupid a$$ home, he was so mad at me when I explained that we were for patients with real serious emergencies and so was ems and we could have been helping a chest pain patient or cva pt. for the time he was taking from us when he could have went to the 24 hour urgent care next time im gonna ask if this patient is triagable and make ems drop him off at the front door.

Rod RN,BSN

oh my god this is something else. and wait till you hear what the doc told me to tell the person.:nono: i was working for an ob/gyn and i get a call from a young girl sounded like she was in her teens, she proceeds to ask me if you could get pregnant by a dog:uhoh21: omg the doc happened to be standing there when the call came in. I was in shock and trying to not laugh. the doc told me to tell her we just dont know.:nono: :nono: :nono:

The answer is "NO".

I think you handled it poorly. Laughing at a young girl who may be subjected to bestiality is hardly what I would call a professional intervention.

Getting more information and facts would be better than snickering.

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

scampi...LOL....get over yourself!

most of whats here is funny - the rest ya take with a grain of salt

WE had a phone call which begged us to take care of a dog who was hit by a car. The man pleaded that there was no where else to go and believe me, we really wanted to help him--How do you intubate Lassie? s experience?

But were you able to save the nail?

Seriously, though, don't ambulance drivers have the authority to refuse to transport people who obviously don't need it?

When my mother was sick, we called an ambulance. The ambulance workers, unfortunately, knew her. They told us that they refused to transport her (no traige, no assessment...nothing). They gave us a voucher for a cab, and told us not to call 911 again. Ever. After a few hours of waiting and wondering if we actually needed to go to the ED, we used this voucher and got her to the hospital. She spent 12 hours in the ED, 2 days in ICU, and then she died. Septicemia from a bladder infection that spread...

I don't know if we should give ambulance workers the discretion to decide if a patient should be transported or not. Just my HO...I don't need rebuttals or anything. But just maybe we should leave the REAL triage to the REAL ED workers. They can decide who really needs to be seen.

...chrissy...

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

A few cities have what they call "No load" policies meaning they don't have to take every call in to the hospital just because they request to be transported. In other cities however, the medics can refuse transport if the situation is deemed to be not a life threatening emergency and/or the patient has access to another means of transport. Grave errors have in judgement have been made and there have been lawsuits however so many cities have done away with the no load policies. Others stick to them with all their guns.

It is a difficult situation when you have so many people who abuse the service. No loads were originally intended to prevent abuse - ie - hangnails - dandruff - didn't sleep last night for no good reason - etc. But they are supposed to perform an assessment and document it in order to no load. In some ways - it is more trouble for them to no load than to just take the person in. More paper work, dealing with chain of command etc.

You know you are an ER nurse if you've ever had to leave the room because you were about to laugh in the patient's face. I KNOW I would have to run out of the room for this one! I'm laughing so hard with tears running down my face that I can hardly type!:chuckle

not true. that's not something restricted to ER nurses, it's ALL NURSES!

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