ER- HELP: Dumbest reason people go to ER

Nurses Humor

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ATTN ER Staff!

I am writing a "paper" on the dumbest reasons/stories that people show up/come to ER. Would appreciate ANY input ANY of the ER staff out there has for me.........................IF you'd like a copy of the FINAL draft, please let me know and I'll forward it.

Thanks much!

PS. My winning entry so far is a Mom who brought 1 month old infant in at 2:30 AM because "it wouldn't look her in the eye. It doesn't recognize me!"

Not making this up

Specializes in Pediatrics, NICU, ER, PICU.

I had a parent call an ambulance 12 TIMES, YES, 12 TIMES in one month and had her child brought to the hospital for a "cold"..... that was the most ridiculous thing ever. Medicaid abuse.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, NICU, ER, PICU.

Ohhhhhh and the ones that come in for "FEVER" and we ask what the temp has been running..."I don't know, I don't have a thermometer but by hand, it's high" and one of my favorites when I asked that question, the lady was all in a panic and said "Oh my God, this baby has been running fever of 98 all night" yeah 98!! :smackingf

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

It used to be so frustrating to try to teach the parents how to treat a child with a fever.

I had a grandmother with her daughter and her child come into the ED once for itching. They all had lice. It too me 45 minutes to explain what a PRESCRIPTION was. They had NEVER been to a pharmacy and had no idea what to do with this piece of paper I was giving her. I also had to explain to her the process for getting rid of the lice. They just sort of sat there. I knew that what I was trying to tell her, in the most basic language I could come up with, was just get getting in. What can you do?

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It used to be so frustrating to try to teach the parents how to treat a child with a fever.

I had a grandmother with her daughter and her child come into the ED once for itching. They all had lice. It too me 45 minutes to explain what a PRESCRIPTION was. They had NEVER been to a pharmacy and had no idea what to do with this piece of paper I was giving her. I also had to explain to her the process for getting rid of the lice. They just sort of sat there. I knew that what I was trying to tell her, in the most basic language I could come up with, was just get getting in. What can you do?

Judge Judy once said that the saddest cases in her family law court involved parents with mental retardation. She said, "A lot of them don't know how the process works, but they have children anyway."

:scrying:

I once temped in a doctor's office, and he had a patient who didn't know what a prescription was either, although he was not mentally challenged. He was quite young - just out of high school - and very healthy, and it had to be explained to him that many drugs require a doctor's permission to obtain, and how to proceed from there.

Edit: Here in the Midwest, people like the ones you described usually know what a prescription is, because their children are on ADD/ADHD meds before they are toilet trained, and antipsychotics before they are in school.

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

We had a guy come into the ED one day with a snake bite. When I asked him what kind of snake it was he put this bait bucket up on the triage desk, opens it up, and the snake was in there. I asked him how the snake managed to bite him and he said he was driving along and the snake was going across the road. He did not want to run over and kill the snake so he got out and picked it up to move it off the road. As he did this, the snake bit him. So he knew he was going to have to come to the hospital, so he got his bait bucket, picked up the snake (that bit him AGAIN) and put him in the bucket. He just did not want to kill the snake.

I know how he feels. I would not have run over the snake either but he could at least have gotten a stick or something to move the snake off the road. He was a real animal lover.

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We had a guy come into the ED one day with a snake bite. When I asked him what kind of snake it was he put this bait bucket up on the triage desk, opens it up, and the snake was in there. I asked him how the snake managed to bite him and he said he was driving along and the snake was going across the road. He did not want to run over and kill the snake so he got out and picked it up to move it off the road. As he did this, the snake bit him. So he knew he was going to have to come to the hospital, so he got his bait bucket, picked up the snake (that bit him AGAIN) and put him in the bucket. He just did not want to kill the snake.

I know how he feels. I would not have run over the snake either but he could at least have gotten a stick or something to move the snake off the road. He was a real animal lover.

Personally, I like snakes, but I still would rather NOT risk dying by venom.

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We had a guy come into the ED one day with a snake bite. When I asked him what kind of snake it was he put this bait bucket up on the triage desk, opens it up, and the snake was in there. I asked him how the snake managed to bite him and he said he was driving along and the snake was going across the road. He did not want to run over and kill the snake so he got out and picked it up to move it off the road. As he did this, the snake bit him. So he knew he was going to have to come to the hospital, so he got his bait bucket, picked up the snake (that bit him AGAIN) and put him in the bucket. He just did not want to kill the snake.

I know how he feels. I would not have run over the snake either but he could at least have gotten a stick or something to move the snake off the road. He was a real animal lover.

Was he en route to McDonald's or the Sirloin Stockade?

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

One guy came up to the desk with abdominal pain. I asked him how long he had been having the pain and he said 10 years. I said why did you come to the hospital today. He said he got a ride.

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

This was not exactly dumb, but it was real funny. This woman was with her friends at a bar. They were dancing and she started feeling something warm in her butt area. She went to the bathroom and was having profuse rectal bleeding. Her friends took her to the ED. When the doctor went in to see her (he is a friend of mine) he took a look and discovered that the back strap of her thong had excised one of her external hemorrhoids. She was a nurse so she got a good laugh out of this as well.

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I am tired of people coming to the ER with constipation problem, eat more fiber, exercise and drink water damn it! lol

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

I had a little man come to the triage desk one day. When I asked him what was wrong, he said "I'm sick!". I tried to find out what sick meant. Do you have pain? Are you bleeding? etc. Finally he just yelled at me "Lady, I done told you, I'm just sick". So he finally worked his way back to the doctor. When the chart came back to me at the end of the shift, his discharge diagnosis was "sick" with a prescription for tylenol. The doctor did not get any farther with him that I did.

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

That was so funny. I always wonder myself why something you have had for a week becomes an emergency at 3 am on a Saturday. Here, let me hit you a couple of times with this 2x4 and we will see if we can give you a REAL emergency.

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