Four Star ICU Visitors

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

what's the most outrageous thing a visitor to your icu ever did?

i was taking care of a multi-system failure patient -- vent, balloon pump, dialysis and about nine drips. he was an inmate with a life sentence, and when we explored the option of withdrawal of care although his family was all for it, the state said no. that would be shortening his life sentence.

despite all we could do, it was obvious that the guy was dying, and the state prison system decided it would be humane to let his son visit the guy one last time. only one problem. the son is also an inmate with a life sentence. nevertheless, our sw prevailed and managed to arrange a visit from the son. there were two prison guards for our intubated, comatose patient and four for the son who was handcuffed and had leg shackles as well.

the visit was going well. the son was quite pleasant and appropriate, asking reasonable questions, very cooperative. i started to relax around him and more or less forget the circumstances of his visit. suddenly, a shout erupted and i was tackled from behind. there was a lot of yelling and carrying on, and i couldn't see a thing because i was on my stomach, underneath an obese prison guard. when the dust cleared, sonny was on the floor with the other five guards on top of him and there was a 3 foot long, homemade machete on the floor. seems sonny was determined to shorten dad's life sentence!

ruby

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Whoa - that one amazes me!

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Can't top that one!!!

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

Well did he manage to do it?!

[LindaMarie76]

Holy S--T!!!!! (1) How did he make a "homemade machete"? (2) How the hell (or should I ask where) did he hide it????

[prmenrs, RN]

I think you're the winner, Ruby!

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

Ruby, you must have one BIG angel following you around!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i think you're the winner, ruby!

i don't want to be the winner -- i want more stories!

ruby

[my2sons]

And just the other night I was complaining what a waste it was to have 2 police officers sitting around (playing on the internet) while I cared for their handcuffed to the bed charge: all I'm gonna say about him is that he had a tatoo on his chest "BORN TO LOSE"! and we had about a hundred phone calls from his gang (or the other gang) claiming to be family and asking about his condition.

[mattsmom81]

I think your story tops even mine Ruby, but I'll tell my worst.

The nurse daughter of an ICU patient was angry she could not get the docs to agree to withdrawl of life support. Thus she came to visit, barricaded the door thoroughly, extubated her loved one, turned all the alarms off and 'held off' my ICU coworkers til it was too late for them to get in and do anything. This whole situation was very hushed up by our risk management team, I only know about it from whispers from the extremely traumatized day shift who needed to decompress a bit when nights came on duty.

[TraumaQueen]

We had a kid who shot himself because his girlfriend broke up with him.... she was pregnant.....

The family of the kid who shot himself wanted some of his semen, so they could impregnate his step sister, so that baby could grow up and kill the baby the girlfriend was pregnant with....

They did more things than that..... but, that was by far the weirdest.

[UM Review RN, ASN, RN]

The family of the kid who shot himself wanted some of his semen, so they could impregnate his step sister, so that baby could grow up and kill the baby the girlfriend was pregnant with....

How bizarre!