"Funny Codes"?

[burn out]

One night we got a new admission into ICU from ER. It was a female patient being admitted with COPD in her 40's. She did not appear to be in distress and was able to talk with o2 on vital signs were all within normal limits no red flags anywhere. Her nurse got her admission assessment done without incident and pt settled in. Suddenly, we are charting at the desk, when there is a loud crashing sound in her room. We run to her room to find her face first against the wall(Like she had collide with the wall at a great rate of speed) and was slideing face first down the wall, her catheter was stretched acrossed the room (connected to the bed still) her water pitcher spilled all over the floor and her heart rate dropping in the 40's then 30's then 20's call a code. It was a disasterous (sp) code having to perform it in the floor. It took forever to get her intubated and the doctor was soaking wet when he was done with that, then he had to shock her in all that water (with paddles in his hands he said..just say I was a brave man). We were calling for our strong monitor tech to help but he had run to the "Can" and could not come out. It took us an hour to get her body up out of the floor so the family could see her (we had to bind her up like a turkey and use a backboard and hoyer lift plus 6 people to lift).

I now this was tragic but afterwards we all were talking about the code and how it went and we all started laughing. Sometimes laughter is the only way to cope with this job. Are we just sick or does anyone else have codes like this and how do you cope?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

so what's the best way to clean coffee off a laptop screen? you guys had me laughing so hard i couldn't control it! i spewed! this thread should have come with a beverage alert!

so here is one of my stories: this was about 30 years ago and i had just recieved notification that i had passed my boards and was in charge for the first time. we had a patient admitted to our telemetry floor for "work-up". not "syncope work-up" which was common for us or even "thyroid work-up" -- she weighed more than the capacity of our scale. just "work-up." and the first line on her order sheet (in fact the only line) read "bath before seen by md."

it was a sign of the times (and my youth and inexperience) that instead of laughing my head off, i actually tried to bathe the person before the md saw her. more accurately, i delegated to the two student nurses who were assigned that patient as their first admit under the guidance of the experienced lpn. they were diploma students and had been bathing patients all semester and were sure that we were maligning their skills when we told them to call us if they needed any help at all.

it wasn't long before one of the student nurses came to me sheepishly and said "she won't fit into the shower." (each room on that floor had a lovely little bathroom with a rather large, tile shower stall.) "what do we do?" bed bath was pretty far down the list of options as the woman, a farmer who clearly didn't get into town very often, was absolutely encrusted with dirt and filth. a soaking was in order.

we had a large tub room that was rarely used -- we stored all of our extra equipment in there, so it's likely that the students didn't even know there was a tub in the back. the students enlisted two classmates who were already done with their admit, and cleaned out the tub room, cleaned the tub, and led the patient to the tub room accompanied by a pile of supplies including two of the "big boy gowns," since one didn't adequately cover the territory. with the lpn supervising, they got the tub filled, the patient undressed and the floor mopped afterward because most of the water slopped out when the patient got in. by now, most of the staff was aware of what was going on and stopping by to check it out and offer help. the students, far from being insulted by now, were grateful for the help -- especially when it came time to get the now-clean patient out of the tub. she was stuck.

someone got the bright idea to grease the patient to get her out of the tub, and dumped a whole 16 ounce bottle of keri oil into the mix. it might have worked, except that by now the stress of the bath and being the center of attention was starting to get to the patient, and she began complaining of chest pain and gasping for air. i got called to the scene when she turned blue and stopped gasping for air.

it took every staff member we had, including some cardiologists and a pulmonologist making rounds in their expensive suits to drag that woman out of the tub. she was greased, remember? ever seen a "greased pig catching contest"? it's impossible to hold onto a greased pig or an enormous, greased patient. keri oil is a superior lubricant! by the time we'd maneuvered two bath blankets underneath her and hauled her, dripping from the tub it was probably too late, but we dragged her out into the hall where there was room to work and started cpr. chest compressions on an enourmous, oiled patient were somewhat problematic. the first person who tried -- one of the cardiologists in an expensive suit -- had his hands slide out from underneath him and found himself sprawled across her chest.

by then we had the crash cart and the paddles were suitably greased up with the appropriate jelly, and applied to the closest approximation of the correct position that one person could achieve. (thank god it wasn't me with the paddles!) at the shouted "clear", everyone save the hapless resident with the paddles jumped back and jennifer hit the button.

soaking wet patient lying in a puddle of water and keri oil, resident kneeling in the puddle -- not a pretty picture. the electricity arced in a blue flash above the patient, but those who saw both assured me that the light show was even more spectacular below, and jennifer, the resident came flying backward on her a$$.

jennifer was fine, the patient didn't make it. when it was all over, i noticed for the first time the ring of ambulatory patients and visitors watching the entire show. it was talked about for years! years later, i worked with a nurse who graduated from that hospital's last diploma class. the story had made it to legend status -- and the nurse who told the story during a boring night shift story marathon prefaced it by saying "i doubt if this is true, but . . ." she didn't believe me when i told her it was true and i knew because i was there!

[muffie, RN]

now ruby, that story takes the cake

that thar bath done kilt her

[eltrip]

And I was just telling my daughter yesterday that back in Medieval times, it was thought that bathing would kill you...didn't realize that it could actually hold true!:roll :roll :roll

[weesyanne]

This isn't really a code story, but it was funny to me and my coworker at the time, so here goes:

We had these two older debilitated ladies in a semi-private room and the lady in "B" bed died one night. She was a DNR, so that wasn't an issue. We called the funeral home to retrieve the body after doing all the appropriate paperwork, making all the necessary calls, etc. When the funeral home workers arrived in the middle of the night, one of them was a fairly young man and the other an older man, probably one of the owners. They were asking the location of the body and my coworker Mary told them, "Be sure to get the one that's dead, not the one that just looks dead". We all burst out laughing EXCEPT for the older funeral home director, who had this really horrified expression on his face!:uhoh21:

I know this may sound really awful, but I am remembering this today because that coworker, Mary, passed away last year. I will never forget her or that warped sense of humor that she had and what a joy she was to work with.

[ritarunningfeet]

Ruby that story is GREAT!!! I almost pee'd myself laughing so hard:lol2: :chuckle :rotfl:

[Dorito, ASN, RN]

This isn't really a code story, but it was funny to me and my coworker at the time, so here goes:

We had these two older debilitated ladies in a semi-private room and the lady in "B" bed died one night. She was a DNR, so that wasn't an issue. We called the funeral home to retrieve the body after doing all the appropriate paperwork, making all the necessary calls, etc. When the funeral home workers arrived in the middle of the night, one of them was a fairly young man and the other an older man, probably one of the owners. They were asking the location of the body and my coworker Mary told them, "Be sure to get the one that's dead, not the one that just looks dead". We all burst out laughing EXCEPT for the older funeral home director, who had this really horrified expression on his face!:uhoh21:

I know this may sound really awful, but I am remembering this today because that coworker, Mary, passed away last year. I will never forget her or that warped sense of humor that she had and what a joy she was to work with.

We actually had a funeral home worker start to load up the "un-dead" one. You really had to look close to tell the difference. Thank goodness the nurse walked in when she did to correct him! (It's not really awful....we were snickering too)...

[muffie, RN]

2nd hand from my colleagues about 15 years ago...

the married boyfriend visitor of a pt coded in the pt lounge

his face hit the wall and turned purple and his toupee flew off as he hit the floor

he had been in 3rd degree hb all day

supervisor had to phone his wife to pick up his car

how do you splain that one ?????

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

[lupin]

I've only been through two codes so far and both times I've made a fool of myself....

The first code was on a pt who had a flaming uti and pyloric nephritis who turned septic then coded on us. We had a brand spanking new grad on the floor who came running with an ambu bag and started squeezing it onto this woman's face immediately. Only thing was it was a peds ambu mask and didn't cover her nose and mouth. Then one of the docs said to push a bag of saline, well, there's me next to the IV pump and I switched her d51/2 for ns, tossing the d5 bag behind me. When I got out to the hallway, I realized my whole back was soaking wet from me throwing the bag of d5 over my shoulder. I was wearing yellow and EVERYone could see my underwear.

Same new nurse, different situation. We have a rapid response team that we call for pts who are circling the drain to help stop codes before they happen. Our night supervisor leaves at 4am on Thursdays. She had just left and I heard a rapid responders code called for our adjoining unit with this new nurse there. I was the only RN on that side so I went over to help out. The new grad had called a rapid response on a new admit COPD exacerbation BECAUSE SHE WAS BREATHING HARD!!!!:trout:

LAst story. I got a patella fx admit on night shift. Pretty routine admit, got up to our floor at midnight had had MSO4 in the ER about nine, was alert and oriented, HTN was only hx. I had just finished my admit orders and paperwork when his light when on and the night supervisor went to check on him. She comes running up to the station and asks how much pain medicine had I given him to which I replied none. He was diaphoretic, with that 100 yard stare, unable to respond, BS 141, BP 58/38, pulse 70. So we call rapid responders and while I was with him just grabbed him by the shoulders and started saying, HEY stay with us! We ended up sending him to our ICU unit because no one could figure it out what was wrong with him. Halfway down to ICU he starts it again, going diaphoretic, unresponsive, and I started yelling at him again to stay with us. After he was transferred and we got him back to responding to us, everyone started laughing at me saying, stay with us, stay with us. What can I say? I just freaked because the dude wasn't responding right. But he's still around and the doc who transferred him will see me and ask if I'm saving anymore pts' by shear will.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

2nd hand from my colleagues about 15 years ago...

the married boyfriend visitor of a pt coded in the pt lounge

his face hit the wall and turned purple and his toupee flew off as he hit the floor

he had been in 3rd degree hb all day

supervisor had to phone his wife to pick up his car

how do you splain that one ?????

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Oh, please stop, my mascara is running. I have a rotten cold and when I laugh so hard it makes me cough. Keep them coming.

[ccusherry]

This is not quite a code but the patient came very close. A 40ish man came to our ER c/o not feeling right. He looked very pale so the intake nurse sent hom right through to the ER. I normally do not work there but was helping out as they were extremely busy. We got him connected to the monitor and the tracing looked bad, got an EKG which showed an inferior MI. To make a long story short, the ER doc was a very vain man, never a hair out of place, very arrogant and condescending to the patients. He had a thing for shoes, his were always polished and perfect. Well, the patient was deteriorating and the doc was examining him. The patient kept saying that he did not feel well and the doc kept saying you'll be ok. Well, next thing you knew, the patient said I don't feel well and the doc started to say "You'll be OK" when the patient turned his head toward the doc and started to vomit profusely. The look on the doc's face......I felt sorry for him. It had ran over the front of the doc's clothes and even into his shoes. YUCK!!!!!

[Rabid Badger, BSN, RN]

Oh where to start. We have so many codes, and there is something to laugh about after every one.

Not long ago a bunch of us were out for breakfast and one of my coworkers started telling a story about how she had been involved in a code and could NOT figure out how to get the pressure bags going. She felt stupid, it was right on the bag, and a simple stopcock lever, but she couldnt figure it out.

The very next day after our breakfast, she has a patient go into sudden shock for no apparent reason, calls me in and says "um i think I might need help, can you come in here?" We go in and that patient is in dire trouble, by the time we got the O2 flush we were no longer able to get sats and her pulse was fading fast. We called a code, and the poor med clerk arrived and just stood there, nooooo clue what to do while we started bagging and setting up. ICU team arrived and we worked on the patient for a good hour. I started pressure bagging units and units of PRBCs into the patient. My coworker comes up and starts trying to set up pentaspan and saline to pressure bag and she gives me that look. We both burst out laughing because, you guessed it, she couldn't remember how to pressure bag. So here we are in the middle of a code laughing our butts off looking like idiots and we couldnt stop. Turns out we ended up taking the fluids out of pressure bags and just squeezing the fluids in because her circulation was nil.

After 2 hours of that crap, we were able to sent her E1 to the OR, where they found a massive gi hemmorhage. They said they opened the patient up and blood just came shooting out.

On the other hand, I have had a DNR death once, and while we were discussing it at the desk, phlebotomy came in and tried to draw bood from the patient, couldnt figure out why they couldnt get a good stick. We had a god laugh about that one.

[Jvilleredhead]

This isn't really a code, but still funny second hand story. An LPN who trained me was telling me about the "old" days in nursing school clinicals. Her instructor called her over, told her to take the patients blood pressure in Room whatever and then come tell her what it is. Now she's really nervous new student, goes in and tries like 4 times to get this lady's pressure. She comes back out and the instructor looks at her with eyebrows raised and says, "Well, what is it" She decided to be honest and told her she couldn't tell her cause she really had trouble with it. Instructor of course looked at her sternly....paused for a minute...then said "Good job, cause that pt is dead"

What a mean instructor!!! But I guess she kinda had a sense of humor.