fainted during a procedure at work!!

[NurseKate16]

Okay, so I'm telling this as kind of a funny story that happened yesterday.

First let me state that I am in my first year of nursing but I have seen many gross and bloody procedures and don't have an issue at all with them. I have assisted with vasectomies at my current job since I started in August and none have bothered me at all. Yesterday I had done a few procedures with doctors that morning and we had the laser running for a few hours. It was really hot in the room and I had been struggling with that all day. I also did not get a chance to drink anything since early that morning. I was assisting a doctor with a frenulotomy and started getting REALLY hot and a bit dizzy. I turned and looked at my boss who had come in to see that everything was going well and I just said" I'm really hot...and kinda dizzy". And I woke up on the floor with her cradling my head... She caught me THANK GOD because I would have hit my head on the equipment behind me. I was fine immediately and didn't feel dizzy anymore but I was SOOOO embarrassed. Of course it was my only patient of the day that was under local anesthesia only so of course he witnessed the whole thing. Poor guy comes in for surgery on his man parts and watches his nurse pass out! I apologized to the doctor over and over and to the patient because I felt so bad and was so embarrassed. They were both really understanding. I of course will not be living this down at work for a while I'm sure. Just wanted to share because I think the idea of a patient on the table wide awake during his procedure on his man parts seeing his nurse fall down next to him is kind of funny. Poor guy got dressed after the procedure and walked into the room and looked at me..."you ok?", he says. I started laughing and said, "yes, im so sorry. how are you feeling?". He was better off than me! I have only ever fainted one other time in my life. I am not squeamish or anything but I definitely have learned to make sure I take time to have something to drink throughout the day.

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

Oh Lord, Katie! How funny! Embarrassing, yes. I guess your BP tanked. I am glad that you are ok! You know that pt will be telling that story to all of his friends. "Yep, went in to get Mr. Happy a haircut and the nurse takes one look at him and falls out!"

[lckrn2pa]

Oh Lord, Katie! How funny! Embarrassing, yes. I guess your BP tanked. I am glad that you are ok! You know that pt will be telling that story to all of his friends. "Yep, went in to get Mr. Happy a haircut and the nurse takes one look at him and falls out!"

now that's funny

[caregiver1977]

Look on the bright side! You probably helped your patient feel less embarrassed about getting his "man parts" operated on!

[elkpark]

I had a similar experience in nursing school (back in the Dark Ages ). In my OR rotation (this was in a hospital-based diploma school, so we spent three months doing four days a week of clinical in the OR, actually passing instruments and circulating (with supervision)), I was assigned first thing in the morning to a lady partsl hysterectomy (actually, I was assigned to a particular room, same as the staff nurses, and that was the first case of the day in "my" room). I had eaten breakfast (I was not a regular breakfast-eater at that point in my life, but I always made a point of eating a good breakfast on clinical days), and I was v. accustomed to "blood and guts" -- BUT, I had pretty low blood pressure back then, and since my role in the case involved standing still with both arms up over my head pulling on a retractor, all my blood ran down into my feet and stayed there . As I felt myself getting dizzier and dizzier, and fuzzier and fuzzier, and warmer and warmer, I tried shuffling my feet, fidgeting around, and everything I could think of to get my blood moving (while still keeping traction on the retractor), but nothing helped. I finally had to announce to the circulating nurse that I needed to be relieved, and I managed to hang on until she got there to take the retractor, and then I collapsed on the floor. I came to on a gurney with my instructor and several of the staff nurses huddled around me, patting my face with cold washcloths. Once I was awake again, my instructor sent me down to the coffee shop to get something to eat and take a rest before "my" next case (which I did).

The punchline is that, when I came back up to the OR for "my" next case, I discovered (to my horror!) that it was another hysterectomy with the same two surgeons. I had to go back in and face them again, right after having fallen out in the middle of their last case. I was completely mortified (and I begged my instructor to not make me go back in there, I would happily do anything else, but she stood firm -- it was "my" room, and it was "my" case), but they were really charming about it -- they assured me this happens to everyone and was perfectly all right, and then spent the rest of the case reminiscing about all the times they had fainted or thrown up in med school.

[tyvin, BSN, RN]

Many moons ago as an enthusiastic student nurse on rotation at a suburban hospital I was given the opportunity to assist with a thoracentesis. I was ecstatic.

The patient was positioned sitting up laying over the end table with the back exposed. Doctor was explaining the procedure and what he was dong step by step. My job was to monitor the bottles as this patient had serious pleural effusion and needed much draining.

As the doc placed the needle into the patient's left side a mournful moan filled the room. The fluid started flowing into the bottle immediately. Suddenly the doc looks at me and asks if I'm all right. I realize I am dizzy and cold. The nurse whom was in the room assisting took me by the hand and led me out of the room. I remember a distinct smell.

Well let the razzing begin! Later many comments were made about how the patient tolerated the procedure better then the student nurse. It was all in good fun but one I never lived down as long as I did rotation there.

I believe it was the distress that the patient displayed that unnerved me but we'll never know. It's never happened since thank the Gods. It happens to everyone in one form or another. They are laughing with you, not against you.

[NurseKate16]

Oh Lord, Katie! How funny! Embarrassing, yes. I guess your BP tanked. I am glad that you are ok! You know that pt will be telling that story to all of his friends. "Yep, went in to get Mr. Happy a haircut and the nurse takes one look at him and falls out!"

hahaha. yes I'm sure he went and told everyone he knows what happened!

[CathyLew]

I fainted once while observing an operation, prior to becoming a vet tech. It wasn't the operation, it was the long day on my feet, and I had not eaten in hours. I had this feeling come over me... and I remember thinking, hmmmmm.... am I going to throw up? or am I going to faint? And I woke up sitting up against the wall. I was mortified. wanted to crawl under a rock and never go back there. the good thing about an experience like that, is you are the only one that has those strong feelings and memories. The people that saw it have a story for a few days. then they forget the face, and just remember the act, and not whom it happened to .

[Mulan]

frenulotomy?

Isn't that a surgery done on the tongue?

[NurseKate16]

frenulotomy?

Isn't that a surgery done on the tongue?

nope...it involves cutting a piece of skin on a man's *ahem...special part. there was scar tissue from a circumcision and they just needed to release the tension.

[CathyLew]

frenulotomy?

Isn't that a surgery done on the tongue?

I think if the surgery was on "man parts" it was probably Frenulum of prepuce of member. A frenulum can be a couple of places... tongue tied is just one form of the restriction of a frenulum

[canesdukegirl, BSN, RN]

I think if the surgery was on "man parts" it was probably Frenulum of prepuce of member. A frenulum can be a couple of places... tongue tied is just one form of the restriction of a frenulum

Yep. Right on Cathy.