What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for? - page 73

1. 
   Sep 9, '06

   Quote from EDValerieRN

   I had a mom bring in a one week old for "jerking movements during sleep"
   
   Diagnosis? Startle reflex.
   
   I can understand the new mom syndrome though.. I was there once.

   Oh yeah I can definitly relate to that...I think I stayed up all night for the first weeks with my daughter, sitting right by her bed and watching her..She kept making all these lil noises in her sleep I seriously considered taking her to the ER lol but I was a young mom when I had her so I called my mom and told her and all she said was "GO BACK TO SLEEP!!!" lol thanks mom
2. 
   Sep 18, '06

   Golfers thumb:
   
   A man hurt his finger/nail on Monday and came in on Friday to have it taken care of so he could heal and fly out for golf the following week.
   
   It didn't look that bad at all and he kept pressing it asking "what do you think?". (I think you should stop playing with it!) I just told him that he came to the ER for a reason and that for his own piece of mind he might as well wait. He told me he was going home to watch the Red Sox game and would be back when it was over.
   
   Oh well..
3. 
   Sep 18, '06

   For more stupid people tricks, try www.EMTcity.com
   The calls the EMS people get are sometimes more irritating than what we see in the ED. At least we don't have to get out of bed in the wee hours to peel an orange for someone or work their VCR.
4. 
   Sep 19, '06

   Last night had a pt come in with very strange complaint. Pt stated he was kidnapped ~3 hrs earlier, held hostage, and forced to choose a poison to ingest (was told one poison was resin, the other was rat poisoning) while blindfolded. Also stated that his assailants cut him superficially on the lower abd 3 times with unknown sharp object. Then, ALSO stated that they shoved a cold metal sharp object up in rectum. After all of this, the pt was freed. He then called 911, came to the ER for tx with police at his side, pt was placed on isolation d/t possibility that he had ingested resin, a terrorist specialist came to evaluate pt and ems staff. Labs were fine, abd xray showed something in his rectum, which turned out to be small med vial (looked like insulin vial without any writing or markings on it). The vial became police evidence.
   Turns out, the pt is a psych pt (go figure!!!) and has made this story up in other localities in my area. He apparently was just seeking some narcs or attention. We all thought he was full of it when he came in, but you have to treat the pt. Poor guy is going to have the FBI following up with him too. Then, after he was discharged, he promptly went to the lobby and checked back in for "thoughts of killing myself". Turns out he didn't have a ride home and lives ~150 miles away. HA HA HA!!!!!
5. 
   Sep 23, '06

   Had a frequent flier come in the other day, unfortunately, only having been in the er for 2 months, i did not know he was a frequent flier, ugg. He comes in swearing he is having a stroke, and playing quite the part- not moving R side at all, only moving L side of face, had the expressive dysphagia going and all, i thought it was a little odd that he had no medical history or vision changes at all, no HTN, nothing, but being a small community hospital, we don't see a lot of strokes, so i was buying it, right until the doc came in and asked him if he could'nt move, how did he walk through the triage area, sign all the papers out front, etc. His story quickly fell apart from there, he became beliggerant, screaming that he was having a stroke and needed immedient treatment with dilaudid. After about an hour, bloodwork and ct done and still no dilaudid, he abruptly got up, told us all to go F ourselves, that we neglected him by not giving him the
   "proper treatment for his distress with dilaudid" and stormed out. Apparently, someone must have told him that stroke pts are seen immediently, unfortunately he was not aware that dilaudid is not the treatment for it, i'm sure he'll be in with a new story soon
6. 
   Sep 23, '06

   Quote from Traumamama59

   Tampon "lost" for two days. One of the few times I almost blew chow from the smell. :chuckle

   I actually know someone who had this happen to them. She was about 15 years old at the time and was at home alone with her dad because her mom was out of town for the weekend. (That was actually the most embarrassing part to her.) She was afraid he'd be mad but he wasn't, and took her to the ER and the doctor removed it with a hemostat. Maybe we're talking about the same person.
   
   A few years ago, one of my technicians said her grandfather had severe chest pain one night and went to the ER (Grandma wanted to call an ambulance but he wouldn't let her) and they admitted him to the cardiac care unit overnight and came in the next morning to tell him that he had indigestion. They were all so embarrassed and apologized to everyone for wasting their time, and the rest of us pharmacy staff said the exact opposite was true.
   
   Our hospital doesn't get very many "foreign body in the rectum" cases but the city where I used to live seemed to get that almost daily.
7. 
   Sep 23, '06

   Quote from ChayaN

   Hmmm, I'm surprised no one has mentioned these yet:
   
   Stubbed toe

   Hey, watch it! I went to the ER 3 1/2 weeks ago with exactly this!
   
   I stubbed it on a corner in my house (wasn't watching where I was going) and later decided to mow the lawn even though my toe hurt, and when I put my old lawnmower shoes on, something bent that shouldn't have.
   
   Yes, I had a broken bone.
   
   And I'm also very aware that a large number of ER visits could be prevented by wearing shoes to mow the lawn. Not flip-flops, not sandals or bare feet, but SHOES.
8. 
   Sep 23, '06

   Quote from CourtaneyRae

   I'm sure everyone has about the same story. But just about two weeks ago we had a person call the ambulance to bring them to the ER for a broken fingernail, now I am not talking about I ripped the nail out of the cuticle thing. I mean literally had broke a fake fingernail. I know it can be painful but come on, a ride in the ambulance and then an ER visit. Man they just kill me sometimes... Then wonder why it takes so long to be seen. I have many, maney more

   Holy smokes! How do some people keep themselves alive???????
   
   Before my grandmother went to a nursing home, she was calling EMS fairly regularly with legitimate complaints and had no other way to get to the hospital. She expressed concern to my parents that maybe one day they would tell her that they weren't going to take her there any more. They had wondered themselves if that would ever happen and I assured them that it wouldn't, and that's what EMS is for. Heavens, my dad ought to know, he was a firefighter for 35 years!
   
   An aside: After this incident, I asked my dad what the dumbest call he ever had was, and he really couldn't think of anything in particular. Late one evening when I was in college, I was talking on the phone to a friend and happened to notice flames shoot up from an apartment balcony across the street. I got off the phone with my friend and called 911, and it turned out the guys across the street decided to barbecue chicken at 10 pm! I felt like a total doofus and apologized to the FFs for wasting their time, and they assured me they didn't feel that way and the guys invited me in for dinner. I declined, but all I could think about was, what if something really terrible happened and they couldn't get there in time because of my call?
   
   My dad said not to worry about it.
9. 
   Sep 23, '06

   Blue legs. 17yo female had just been discharged by small community hosp ED, couldn't find anything wrong. She had her Dad bring her in to us because she was feling so bad. 45 min drive. I looked at her legs, yep, blue ankles to crotch. I asked a few questions then took out an alcohol swab and swiped her leg, blue wipes off, hmmmmm. She swore she didn't have any new jeans! She still wanted to be checked out, she still felt bad! I wonder how much those two ED visits cost Dad. I wonder if Dad ever got a clue about his kid???
10. 
    Sep 25, '06

    I just thought of another story.
    
    When I was in junior high, in the late 1970s, someone came out with "tanning pills" which were basically beta carotene and would turn your skin slightly orange if you took them as directed.
    
    One girl decided to expedite the process and swallowed half the bottle. The next morning, she woke up orange from head to toe, including her palms, soles, and whites of eyes, and her parents shoved her into the car and floored it to the nearest ER.
    
    When they walked in, the personnel knew exactly what she had done, and told her not to do it again.
    
    Those pills were withdrawn from the market soon afterwards.
11. 
    Sep 25, '06

    I remember those! People were overdosing on those. Someone had said that the basic ingredients were equivalent to tomato sauce (nope, can't remeber who "someone" was). I think the makers were insinuating that they were harmless. Nevertheless, it was pulled from the market.
    
    I remember some interesting tanning products in the late 70's to mid-80's, when it was very vogue to have the deepest, darkest tan you could possibly get. Not that I tanned all that often (I burn anyhow, auburn hair and fair skin), and the tanning I did do I totally regret now. I suppose it could have been worse.
    
    I'm rambling, sorry.
12. 
    Sep 26, '06

    Beta carotene (a precursor of vitamin A) is NOT non-toxic in that it's very poisonous if you get too much of it. If you know anything about Arctic exploration, you would be aware of all the explorers who died of vitamin A poisoning after eating polar bear liver, which the Inuits knew to be poisonous and did not even feed it to their dogs, and were known to starve rather than eat it. I guess a standard "serving" contains about a year's RDA of vitamin A, enough to be toxic.
    
    I know a dark-skinned black guy who has joked about going to a spray-on tan place to get his skin lightened. I know someone else, a very fair-skinned blonde, who did that before going to a wedding and it looked awful. It only works for certain skin tones.
13. 
    Sep 26, '06

    ME two nights ago my daughter fell and smashed her face on the tiles in our bathroom and bit her lip it bled and swelled up so bad I was sure she was going to need stitches....well after two hours we find out nope no stitches

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