How in the world..and why?!?!?

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

So as I was leaving shift on day...a patient was about to arrive. We had this patient planned for one room and got a quick call from our admin that they must be placed in a room close to the RN desk!

Okay..we have had a recent FLUX of suicidal pts or one on one 72 hour watch (we are not set up for psych!)...two weeks ago a CNA was attacked and hospitalized (she is fine now). SO we are very leary now...so having this switch of rooms scared us...

Well for once..I was answering the phone (I am agency and rarely get behind the desk)..and heard that this patient was found to be Munchausen by Dx a few minutes before transfer. The story..this patient has come into many different hospitals for different ailments self inflicted for several years...but this time...this patient got a 30cc syringe and needle...collected a few day old fecal matter, and injected it all into their abdomen for over a week and now has fistulas and cellulitis of the internal abdominal walls! It wasn't told if it was theirs, a pets, another persons...or all of the above!!!! This patient is only in their late 30s!!!!!!!!

WOW...I just can't believe why or how a person comes about doing this to themselves...I know it is a mental disorder..but holly cow! It is utterly unimaginable at the furthest reaches of my mind!!!!!!!

Have you had patients that have done things that just baffle you no matter how hard you try to rationalize or explain it in your mind???????

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Specializes in Public Health, DEI.

Yes and no. What I mean is that the activity itself is unfathomable to the organized mind. However, the brains of people with mental illness are not typical, and their thinking isn't always organized. On a rational level, I do know this. That doesn't mean I understand these behaviors at a fundamental level, though.

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

OH it sooooooo is hard to fathom! But...of course that doesn't sway my job or tx of this patient...it is just...different! I am use to having some insite at least..this one...holly cow!!!!! Ummmmmm nope!

Well then again I can't fathom Muchausen by proxy either! Or other mental illnesses in the psychosocial realm....

One thing I know for sure....my state, and I know others do not have funding, facilities or what not for these people! We wind up having staff hurt and beaten because these pts wind up staying WEEKS at our hospital awaiting ANY placement...there is just no place to put them! Very sad!!!!!!! Very sad indeed........

My sympathies are there..no doubt..but my goodness...this one is a new one for my experience book!

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I had a Munchausen patient today!!!! Mine did something equally as unfathomable and the end result was similar - cellulitis. Argh. I feel terribly bad for this patient, but at the same time, it's so challenging to relate to it. What I find even more surprising is that 50% of the people pity and placate her in any way they can and the other 50% totally disregard her as a "nutcase". Strange disease.

Amanda

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

The mind is very difficult to comprehend isn't it?

We had a patient that was so psychotic, he sliced open his abdomen and began eating his viscera and intestines. (Prior to arrival mind you.)

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU.

I don't know if this is true or not but one of my friends (a family med M.D.) told be that healthcare professionals are more likely to have Munchausen- my friend had a by proxy patient that was injecting chicken fat between her daughter's toes....blech!

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Specializes in Case Management.
The mind is very difficult to comprehend isn't it?

We had a patient that was so psychotic, he sliced open his abdomen and began eating his viscera and intestines. (Prior to arrival mind you.)

:smackingf

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Specializes in Education, Acute, Med/Surg, Tele, etc.

well it is a wierd line..you don't want to continue the cycle by aiding in their need for pitty or attention..but at the same time..you don't want to ingnore....it is difficult to say the least!

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Specializes in Neuro ICU.

I am a student RN and we were told of a patient that was on the floor that had injected fecal matter into her knee and ankle joint spaces. YUCK! I can't imagine where the idea comes from.

Also had a visitor that had sliced his throat in the cafeteria and then walked bleeding into another area of the hospital and stabbed himself in the chest approx. 14 times and pulled pieces of his lung and threw it on the wall before he died and collapsed.

It really is hard to wrap one's mind around why folks would want to do such to themselves. I suppose in the career we have chosen we will see many oddities.

On a better note!! I was called yesterday and offered an extern job on a surgery/transplant SICU. I am sooooo excited and nervous at the same time. I start the 21st. :clown: I don't know quite what to expect.

Have a grand day!

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I had a pt once who stabbed himself in the abdomen. He also had a history of shooting himself in the abdomen!

Woohoo....it was just a horrible wound. And so painful.

Wonder how many times he could get away with it before it kills him.

Hard to understand, and sad. He was fairly young.

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