Famous person as patient?

Nurses General Nursing

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Have you ever had a famous person as a patient in hospital or clinic? You need not say the reason for their visit for sake of confidentiality, if they are still living. Did they expect or receive special or unique attention?

Were they humble or pretentious?

I was on the floor when a back ground singer to a VERY famous 70s/80s band. I knew the band, but had no clue who this person was. The RNs and CNAs kept going into their room to ask for autographs.

My mom was an RN (she passed away 2 yrs ago) anyway, someone who wore a "Mask" gave her their number saying "you call me anytime". My mom said this person was very nice and so was their family. She threw the number away when she got to her car.

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19 hours ago, K+MgSO4 said:

I had a patient who toldme she was the Queen of England.....

Please, that is nothing. I had someone tell me they were a space alien from Venus. And yes this person was very VERY serious.

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.
1 hour ago, DesiDani said:

Please, that is nothing. I had someone tell me they were a space alien from Venus. And yes this person was very VERY serious.

Bahahahhahaba

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22 hours ago, DannyBoy8 said:

I cared for the family member of a high-level elected official who was admitted to a critical care unit. The admin/powers-that-be wanted this person 1:1.

I refused to take the assignment because there were far sicker patients who were 2:1.

Pretty sure I also took care of Jimmy Hoffa, but he wouldn't confirm his DOB.

But was the bed empty? LOL.

I live in metro Atlanta but worked for a surgeon’s office in downtown briefly. A very popular boy band from the 90s/early 2000s went there for voice therapy before going on tour again, but I didn’t get to see them personally. They were permitted to come in the back door and not sit in the waiting room just because it would have been a madhouse if they’d been spotted by adoring fans. I also had a professional athlete come in who was really nice. When I worked in billing, one of the local news anchors was a patient and I had to call about his bill and he was nice. One of the on-air meteorologists for a cable weather station was a frequent pt of my former employer (not the downtown one) and they were very nice. They use an alias on TV. This person would make me laugh because asking the routine questions, they spoke in their normal voice, but if I asked a weather question, they’d flip the switch (usually in mid-sentence) to the TV voice. They didn’t even realize they’d done that LOL. That person also came in the day the snowpocalypse was starting, when Atlanta was shut down with the snow and ice, and they told us to leave NOW. Currently, one of my regular pts owns a very large, local car dealership. They request the very first time spot in the morning so people won’t hear us call their name and be bombarded with questions from other pts. The first time I dealt with them, they were not nice about something out of my control (MRI couldn’t be scheduled when they wanted it). After getting yelled at, they did mellow out and have been nothing but nice and respectful since. They even helped a coworker get a new part for her car after a wreck!

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Specializes in retired LTC.

A co-nsg student was from Washington, DC area, so she had dealt with many VIP pts. Her impression -"they all have holes in their underwear too!" ?

To PP DanyBoy8 - Hey! I'm from Jersey! You may have taken care of JH, but I think I reeeeeally know where he is!! :roflmao:

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Specializes in Neuro.

Only physicians or family members of a physician/administrator are the only celebrities I've been graced to care for?

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Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.

I've had several celebs, usually had no idea who they were as I'm just not up on the Who'sWho type world. Other staff tells me later, ? One told me which award she had won, I still had to Google her and what the award was.....

Had a guest star on a show being filmed nearby come in, the big star of the show came to see him in the ER. Everyone was fawning over him & he was being nice to them. During shift change as I picked up the pt, someone said, " she (me) can get you a cup of coffee". I said no, I still needed to see all the rest of my patients, and usually the coffee is only for pts. Later I asked Mr. Big who he was and what he'd been in...... big mistake. Really got pissy, and I am forever the nurse who wouldn't get Mr. Big a cup of coffee.

(I do get family and friends coffee sometimes, just not in the middle of shift change)

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Specializes in Dialysis.
On 4/16/2020 at 7:28 PM, CommunityRNBSN said:

My patient in nursing school clinicals was not “famous.” I had never heard of her, and you wouldn’t recognize her name either. But she was a big player in her corner of the entertainment industry. I met her near the end of her life, when she had moderate Alzheimer’s.
When I was taking report, the outgoing nurse said “She used to work in show business. But I don’t need to tell you that. When you go in there, it’ll be obvious.” I soon saw what she meant— the patient had gorgeous dangly earrings, bright red lipstick and nail polish, and a very dramatic air. Her son had told her that the hospital was, in fact, a five-star hotel. So she kept complimenting the food (hers was puréed) as “divine” and “superb” She also told one of the nurses “You could have a career if you did something about your nose.”
She was amazing. It was an honor to care for her.

I ❤ this post 1000x

I took care of the mom of someone famous years ago, both in the hospital, then a few years later inpatient hospice. Famous child would get mad when we wouldn't close off the facility (in both cases) so that they could visit. Mom would say "famous, just stop acting up, you're no better than any of these folks". Mom was a sheer pleasure to care for. I'm not sure famous even came to the funeral when she passed for fear that fans would overtake the situation. It was only family and some HCWs that had cared for her there

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I've had well known politicians, athlete and news anchor (comes with working for a high-quality system in a big city.)

1) Psych: Athlete: super well known, 90 day stay for substance detox/rehab. No special treatment.

2) IMCU: 1 major news anchor, very kind, jovial even, no special treatment per se, but did receive some extra ice cream & Lorna Doone cookies from staff, like we would give to all our super-kind patients!

3) IMCU: 2 high-ranking, well-known politicians (at different times). Received special accommodations in that in both cases their arrivals to us were planned, so we moved patients out of the nicest, biggest, recently remodeled rooms so the politicians could have them, unit management re-arranged nurse/tech schedules to hand-pick the staff caring for them, hospital staffed additional security at entrances and near elevators/stairs, local restaurants catered food in (don't know who paid for that) and our hospital-system highest leaders stopped by to tour the unit and speak to staff and take photos and give us small gifts and acted like they did that all the time (note: those were the only 2 times in my career I saw the hospital system level leaders. We didn't know who they were until they told us). One of the politicians family members repeatedly tried to get us to give information about tests/diagnoses etc, when the patient had not given us permission for this. The family member was quite snotty, but the pt was kind. Both patients were kind and not difficult to care for.

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Specializes in ER.
On 4/16/2020 at 11:46 PM, DesiDani said:

I was on the floor when a back ground singer to a VERY famous 70s/80s band. I knew the band, but had no clue who this person was. The RNs and CNAs kept going into their room to ask for autographs.

My mom was an RN (she passed away 2 yrs ago) anyway, someone who wore a "Mask" gave her their number saying "you call me anytime". My mom said this person was very nice and so was their family. She threw the number away when she got to her car.

I took care of an older fellow years ago who had been a guitarist who played with a lot of the Bluegrass guys like Chet Atkins. He had heart problems, and he said it was because of all the speed he used back then, which was common in country music circles. He later became a truck driver and used speed then as well to stay awake on the road. Before they did drug testing it was really common in the trucking industry.

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On 4/16/2020 at 8:09 PM, DowntheRiver said:

I took care of a high level elected government official. My employer made sure to cut the person to the front of the line and all the other patients saw it. I thought it was in poor taste.

I took care of someone who had major political pull, though it was mostly behind the scenes (not current administration) so I didn't recognize him. I was told he was important, and when I googled him, I was impressed, but he was a bit of a jerk. His wife was one of the rudest, most entitled people I have ever met.

I know the hospital's foundation committee was trying to schmooze them because the guy from there kept checking in, asking me to get the doctor there faster, etc. I was like, um, he's stable, the doctor is aware of his condition and "who" he is, and she's with patients on other floors. She'll get back to him when she gets back to him.

I think the issue was that once we'd ruled out the concern he came in for, this couple expected to get out of there immediately, but the doctor wanted to get something cardiac under control first (can't remember if it was high BP or heart rate, but I do remember needing to med request something we didn't have on the floor and waiting for it to come up with the next pharmacy round). The doctor was being thorough, and not dropping all the other patients just to deal with him. I'd say this couple was used to express check out at hotels, not the glacial pace of hospital discharges.

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Specializes in retired LTC.

turtles - where do you work that discharges are 'glacial' speed?

My last hospitalization, I was told at 11:19a that I was being dschgd - out at 1p. They were setting up everything, incl transp which arrived at 12:30p.

My previous hosp, at 5:30p during dinner, I was told I "would be transferred to rehab/NH at 8:30p. Here's a list - pick a facility".

Both hospitalizations occurred within the past year; the last I was anticipating dschg soon, but not immed. The second earlier one, caught me sooo off-guard and I made the biggest mistake of my life with my 'rehab/NH from Hell' unresearched choice.

But getting back to the topic - years ago, as a new grad, I had a pt who wanted out of the restraints he needed (yeah, way back restraints weren't so bad!). He promised to 'put me in the movies'. Thing is, he really was Hollywood something or other.

Like other posters, it seemed the spouses of some VIPs were the obnoxious ones.

turtles - I'm going to steal 'glacial speed' phrase. ?

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