What's the scariest thing you've ever seen as a nurse?

Nurses General Nursing

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I'm Curious... What's the scariest thing/experience you've ever seen or had as a nurse?

Mine was when I had to tell a pt husband to leave as there was home/?abuse issues. The husband and patient got extremely angry and I had to call security to escort him out. When pt husband left I was very shaken over this situation as I was only a nsg student at the time. So I told the charge I was going to get a coffee and step outside for some air. When I went outside, the husband was pacing in the parking lot staring at me. It looked like he was going to go postal. I was stiff with fear and I didn't know wether to stay or run. Finally security ran out and escorted me in and the husband finally left. Man was I ever shaken up about that!!!

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Specializes in Hospice.

I was once holding a baby who stopped breathing and turned blue. He had been having periods of apnea, and I was just a float, so the peds RN was having me restrain him while she placed a second IV. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen. On top of it, we were not equipped at that hospital for such a sick baby, and there was a blizzard, so we had to wait 2 hours for an ambulance to arrive. That night was when I knew peds was not for me.

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Specializes in ER/ICU/STICU.

Not really scary, but have had family's start tearing up the place after a loved one has passed. A couple of times the police had to be called because security can only do so much.

On a side note, I am curious how you were put in the position in your situation as a student. I can't believe that the nurse assigned to that patient and the charge nurse were not the ones handling the situation after the abuse was suspected.

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I was once holding a baby who stopped breathing and turned blue. He had been having periods of apnea, and I was just a float, so the peds RN was having me restrain him while she placed a second IV. It was the scariest thing I have ever seen. On top of it, we were not equipped at that hospital for such a sick baby, and there was a blizzard, so we had to wait 2 hours for an ambulance to arrive. That night was when I knew peds was not for me.

i keep saying i wanna do peds but i dont think i can handle children dying, its not all bandaids and cough syrup, im sure its something i would get use to, (death period id have to get use to) but children really sick and dying, no chance at them having a life, would just break my heart

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Specializes in ICU, Home Health, Camp, Travel, L&D.

Significant Other went *crazy* when MD didn't make it for baby's delivery and it was RN-assisted. Gorgeous delivery, mom & babe in excellent shape & nursing like old pros by the time doc rolled in. FOB became very abusive to staff & had to be escorted out.

More drama & threats to life as well as threats of suit followed, and it was a hot mess for a couple of days. We didn't walk out alone for a while after this situation.

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this does not happened to me. It was told by one of my much senior staff nurse.

A patient chased her during night shift with a glass bottle and shouting that he wanted to kill her! Patient had history of violence and the hospital refused to admit him in the first place.

She hid behind a curtain till he went away. The nurses were so relieved when he died, as he has caused a few serious injuries to other nurses.

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The scariest thing I can remember was when I was a brand new nurse we had a psych pt on our unit who didn't like blondes. No one knew this until after we started our shift that night. He wigged out when I hung a new bag of IV fluids. He jumped up so fast I really didn't have time to react and had me pinned against the wall with IV pole and his body. I stayed calm and thankfully someone heard the noise and defused him. The supervisor moved me to another part of the unit since he attacked and threatened to "cut me into little pieces and hide the parts". He tried to find me later that night but had a guard at the door that wouldn't let him out. He was shipped out the next morning. Very scary stuff!!

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I was working as the only nurse in a home care setting (responsible for 20 MRDD patients). One of the staff yelled out, "He's not breathing". I ran to his bedside while several staff were just staring, yelled at them to get him in the floor so I could perform CPR and yelled at someone else to call 911 (Why didn't they do this already is beyond me). He was blue...already gone. All I had in that house was an Ambu bag and phone to call EMS. Very sad story that I will never forget.

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The most scary thing I have ever seen in my career was the alien creature eat through a man's abdominal cavity in the ER. The man entered the ER with the complaint of cramping, and general malaise, and exhibited a low grade fever. The man was triage, and had been in the ER for about 2 hours, when the he began to scream like a woman. Two nurses, and four paramedics found the man violently arching his back, and his abdomen looked as though it was being poked from something within. The man fell flat on his back and the green alien creature with dinosaur teeth, let out a hiss and growl, and scurried on its was out the hospital ER and never to be found. That was the scariest thing I ever seen in my life.:uhoh3:

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Ok - truly scary - Post-CABG bone infection. Had to pack wound very carefully - could see the man's beating heart. He was shipped out to another hospital for more surgery. I think they were going to try to wire the sternum again.

Doing home health - Pt reached over to move her pillow, and a gun fell to the floor. Yes, it was a 'bad' neighborhood, but after that, I reminded her to put the gun away before I arrived!

Working in ICU back in the early 80's - - gunshot wound, pt stated he didn't see who did it. Wife came in later threatening to finish the job. Not sure if she started it, though, but security and the cops were called. This was a small unit with only curtains between the beds.

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Specializes in LTC, OB, psych.

I was working charge at a NH and the son of a resident threatened to come in with a gun and get even with "the people who took his dad away." The guy had a long criminal history.

What really scared me, however, was that it was a weekend and management were nowhere to be seen; we just locked the doors, informed staff, and developed a code phrase among us, should the guy show up.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

last week a young kid was involved in a serious MVA. I heard the call go out over my scanner (I'm also a volunteer FF/EMT) and ifugred we would obviously get the patient and he'd be there by the time i got there. Make a long story short, came up from the OR with an SBP of 40...Epi, levo, fluids w/o. blood w/o, Iv's where ever you could stick one. Came in o nthe unit for 5 min with a full OR team, 2 Anesthesiologists, 2 Trauma Docs, 2 Trauma PAs, 3 RNs, an RRT..PT brady's down to 30s, pulseless, CPR, died within 10 minutes. Massive massive trauma, blood everywhere coming out of every single hole you could imagine. Father came in, couldn't look at me (who was doing compressions) or anyone, just said thank you over and over again, was bawling his eyes out. Just simply awful, and the the images of this kid are just burned into my retina's. I've done EMS for 10 years ad been an RN for 1.5 years and i'd rahter code 8740273647162 old people, than code someone so young. There is nothing easy about it..on a quick side note, would it be out of line if i went to he funeral mass ? I think no but if someone could PM me with an answer or advice id appreciate it..thanks

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