Most surprising/shocking/interesting thing you've seen

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What's the most surprising/shocking/interesting CC/presentation/wound/injury/whatever you've seen at work (without violating HIPAA).

Let's try to keep it real and not write a book per comment. :eek:

Emergent pericardiocentesis at bedisde after pacemaker implantation punctured the ventricle and pt was in tamponade.

Maggots in a leg wound that I discovered after cutting the dressings off of a patient's leg that appeared to be months old. I saw something writhing underneath the dressing and literally jumped back and exited the room to find help. I can deal with sputum, poo, urine and vomit... live creatures... no.

Yeah, it's the smell that gets me. We have had several "maggots foot" in our department. Stinks up a lot of area.

BSN GCU 2014. ED Residency ;)

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

Gosh there have been a few! Most interesting wounds were an evisceration of a chest wound so deep you could literally see the heart beating. I was amazed we healed it without issue just packing it with saline soaked kerlix, it took time but it healed just fine. The other one that really sticks out was our one and only experience with maggot therapy for an impressive coccyx ulcer. The dressing change was a pretty neat process, too bad it was considered a last ditch effort and ended up being a case of too little to late and the patient passed away within a week of starting the treatment.

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Oh, that reminds me of another cool experience! We had a woman from Mexico, no prenatal care, who presented to L&D in active labor. Based on her stated LMP, she was around 38 weeks. I labored her, and when she was ready to deliver, called in the OB. She pushed for a while and then delivered a baby who was tiny and scrawny. This baby looked to be about 3-4 lbs. I remember the OB and I looked at each other in horror, both of us thinking "Holy ****! Did we just deliver a 32-weeker here?" (we were a level one, meaning we had NO NICU, and anyone less than 36 weeks in labor was transported an hour and a half away to Phoenix).

All of a sudden, instead of delivering the placenta, the OB yells out "We need more staff in here! We've got twins!" The dad looked like he was about to pass out when he heard. The second baby came out without a problem, and looked much healthier, about 6 lbs.

Placenta (singular!!) delivered, and we realized we had mo/mo twins, twin-to-twin transfusion, and a velamentous insertion.

For non-OB people - each one of those things mentioned would make this an extremely high risk pregnancy, with regular monitoring, possible early delivery, and delivery in the OR (if not a scheduled C-Section). All of these things TOGETHER?? Holy ****, this woman was a walking time bomb, and we labored her like it was no big deal. Luckily, mom and babies were all okay. Dad, maybe not so much! :)

How the species survives ;) great story!

BSN GCU 2014. ED Residency ;)

Sent from my iPhone using allnurses

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In psych, the most shocking thus far was me getting punched by a patient. (I'm not sure why I was shocked.)

I got stabbed with a fork breaking up a fight in the dementia ward. That was an interesting incident report.

Another one slapped me and accused me of human trafficking when I was giving her roommate her meds for the night.

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Oh, that reminds me of another cool experience! We had a woman from Mexico, no prenatal care, who presented to L&D in active labor. Based on her stated LMP, she was around 38 weeks. I labored her, and when she was ready to deliver, called in the OB. She pushed for a while and then delivered a baby who was tiny and scrawny. This baby looked to be about 3-4 lbs. I remember the OB and I looked at each other in horror, both of us thinking "Holy ****! Did we just deliver a 32-weeker here?" (we were a level one, meaning we had NO NICU, and anyone less than 36 weeks in labor was transported an hour and a half away to Phoenix).

All of a sudden, instead of delivering the placenta, the OB yells out "We need more staff in here! We've got twins!" The dad looked like he was about to pass out when he heard. The second baby came out without a problem, and looked much healthier, about 6 lbs.

Placenta (singular!!) delivered, and we realized we had mo/mo twins, twin-to-twin transfusion, and a velamentous insertion.

For non-OB people - each one of those things mentioned would make this an extremely high risk pregnancy, with regular monitoring, possible early delivery, and delivery in the OR (if not a scheduled C-Section). All of these things TOGETHER?? Holy ****, this woman was a walking time bomb, and we labored her like it was no big deal. Luckily, mom and babies were all okay. Dad, maybe not so much! :)

as a mom of twins this blows my mind!

Fourniers Gangrene - poor man was cut from hip to hip and had his scrotum and penile shaft skin removed. 5 rolls of wet kerlix 3x per day including wrapping his testicles with the gauze - 10 days after the original surgery they closed him up and took a skin graft to make him a scrotum and replace the skin. All started with abdominal pain and a fever.

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.
How did that happen?

He was riding his bike and hit the brakes a little too hard. Back of the bike came up and propelled him up and he landed right on the stem and gravity did the rest.

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Specializes in LTC.

Had a diabetic that had a BKA and the surgical wound became infected and mult complications. Gentleman wouldn't allow surgeons to a above knee amp. So we were doing daily dressing changes pulling the skin flap up over exposed bone, skin flap was literally hanging. Tissue had literally rotted away from bone. It was nasty. Finally he allowed the AKA and healed well, went home and learned to walk again with his prosthesis.

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Specializes in OR, Nursing Professional Development.

Man impaled in the chest by something that flew off the back of the pickup truck in front of him. He was driving, wife was in passenger seat and had to hit the brakes from her side to stop the car. Unfortunately didn't make it out of the OR, although there were many who were surprised he made it into the hospital still alive.

Lesson: Always secure items in the back of your vehicle! That driver was never found (and may not have even known of their involvement), but would have faced manslaughter charges if he/she would have been found.

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Specializes in Mental Health, Gerontology, Palliative.
What's the most surprising/shocking/interesting CC/presentation/wound/injury/whatever you've seen at work (without violating HIPAA).

Let's try to keep it real and not write a book per comment. :eek:

a 20cm skin tear full thickness down to the bone

Fortunately after alot of work managed to get the edges together

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Specializes in OB.

A full term intrauterine fetal demise, presumed to be related to the mom's completely uncontrolled diabetes due to non-compliance. Baby was the classic child of a diabetic mom---almost ten pounds, with huge fat rolls and pads on the shoulders, like a Michelin man. The head delivered and then there was a 30 minute shoulder dystocia of this macerated, deceased fetus---I was terrified the baby's arm or head would get pulled off. Luckily one of our large, strong male OBs was able to wrangle to baby out, but one arm was literally hanging on by a small piece of skin. Absolutely awful.

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

OK, one happy one, for a change :)

Young, apparently healthy man was gathering mushrooms in the wilderness of Russian forest and got his leg caught in a wolf trap. When he somehow crawled out of there to a place where he could get help, he was already bleeding profusely. Nobody was smart enough to put tourniquet on, so his Hb was about 3.5 when he was brought in hospital. While he was getting prepped for surgery, it was found that he carries extremely rare combination of blood antigens and cold agglutinines, at the same time. Here people like this can be given specially prepared erythrocytes, erythropoethin, plasmapheresis, dialysis, etc., we had nothing of it. So he was just given IV crystalloids for rehydration and left to fignt as best as he could. His wife was told that his chances were thin, she asked what she could do, out of nothing else someone told her that good nutrition, rich in protein and iron, could help.

That day starting, she came every 8 hours, 7 days a week, each time with thick, juicy steaks and patiently fed her husband piece by piece. That was the time when most people were living literally on not much more than bread and potatoes. God alone knows where she was getting that much beef of prime quality and what she and her three small children ate in the meantime, but in a week the man was starting to get better. He left hospital after 4 or so weeks, with full recovery and great blood count, and no transfusions of anything.

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Boy these stories are awful. I just have a relatively tame one, psych stories can be really strange but sad, such a horrible misunderstood illness.

My dearest friend Joe died suddenly and unexpectedly, a few days later I was on my psych rotation for nursing and a patient walked up to me and said, "Joe isn't dead." cue to eerie music!

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