Most surprising/shocking/interesting thing you've seen

[TexMex22]

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.

[annie.rn]

Years later my husband and I drove under a freeway bridge and the windshield suddenly popped and cracked, but didn't break. Turns out some kids were dropping rocks off of the bridge and others were hurt. The police got them.

In the area I grew up in some kids thought it would be fun to do the same thing. Only difference was they picked a huge rock and a very tall mountain overpass. The driver of the car they hit was killed instantly. They found the kids and prosecuted them for manslaughter.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

In the area I grew up in some kids thought it would be fun to do the same thing. Only difference was they picked a huge rock and a very tall mountain overpass. The driver of the car they hit was killed instantly. They found the kids and prosecuted them for manslaughter.

WOW! Awful!!!

[RN6274]

Patient with flesh eating bacteria . Wounds to entire side exposed muscles arteries and organs . Daily wound care under sedation . Worst ever I've ever seen . She was on vent initially from sepsis until family decided to remove life support and she miraculously started breathing on her own , went uphill from there and recovered fully .

[kbrn2002, ADN, RN]

When I was in nursing school, late for Clinical, I passed a guy towing a boat trailer going a bit over the speed limit. (Actually, I was going quite a bit over the speed limit.) I'd been following him for awhile, and I have no idea what possessed me to pass him at that particular moment. But just as I drew abreast of the tow vehicle, the boat on the trailer slipped sideways, and then flew off, striking the windshield of the car directly behind. (That would have been ME had I not suddenly decided to pass.) Both the driver and the passenger were killed. I NEVER stay behind anyone towing a boat . . . or a pick up with an open load.

Good golly! I bet you got a few gray hairs that day.

[Twinmom06, ASN, APN]

Years later my husband and I drove under a freeway bridge and the windshield suddenly popped and cracked, but didn't break. Turns out some kids were dropping rocks off of the bridge and others were hurt. The police got them.

this happened last year in my area only they didn't kill the passenger, they maimed and brain injured her so severely she spent months in the hospital before she could return home (this was in central PA and she was from OH). The kicker? The rock thrower plead "no contest"

[kidzcare]

And a sad one. Kid suffered major head trauma the day before their birthday. In their front yard. I can still hear the mother's screams, and that was well over a decade ago.

I can't imagine and hope I never find out what the wailing of a mother who is watching her child die sounds like

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

this happened last year in my area only they didn't kill the passenger, they maimed and brain injured her so severely she spent months in the hospital before she could return home (this was in central PA and she was from OH). The kicker? The rock thrower plead "no contest"

I don't understand -- why was the rock thrower pleading "no contest" the kicker?

[Jmarty31]

I'm sure it might not sound great but major wrist laceration hanging on by just a bit of tendon...

[dah doh, BSN, RN]

A young women who got necrotizing fascititis of her face from trying in makeup at the makeup counter at a major department store.

Intra-cardiac Epi injection! I thought it was only in Pulp Fiction, but I've seen it twice now.

Internal cardiac massage...no, they don't usually survive that.

DIC so bad that the patient bleeds from their eyes.

A necrotic member on a walking, talking man who has a girlfriend.

Leech or maggot therapy...yuckie!

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

A necrotic member on a walking, talking man who has a girlfriend.

And yet I'M still single... lol

[Jmarty31]

So I take it food was delayed after all of these experiences.... Necrotizing fasciitis?! I've only seen it once but it was a teaching video

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I saw a lot of necrotizing fasciitis at my last job. A lot. I realize now it was an unusual amount because I haven't seen it with any sort of regularity since then. I had at least four personally in my first year of employment, and that's not counting all of the ones my coworkers had. All of mine were between 20-50, they were woman, and it usually started from an ingrown hair in their pubic regions.

Anyway. The worst of those cases started as a swollen-looking blistery area on her mons pubis that looked like it was about the size of a half dollar. I would have just thought, "Well, that's quite a blister," except for the fact that the blister was greenish-black on the inside. She came back from surgery missing her entire mons pubis, both of her labia majora and the labia minora on one side, her entire buttock on one side (the tissue missing curved all the way around, was connected to the side missing the labia minora from the front) and a good chunk of the other, and most of the subcutaneous fat in her abdomen from pubic level to up to her belly button, and the missing tissue even stretched up to about breast level over the ribs on one side. It was just shocking to have seen that half dollar-sized boil before surgery and to see the patient come back with what had to be 30-40 pounds of flesh missing. She had been obese to start with and the, shall I say, valley wall where the edge of the wound was on the site where she had some abdomen left was more than six inches deep. It took multiple people the better part of an hour to pack it.

I've seen worse things than that, but nothing that scared me quite so bad. To think that started as one blister and then poof, most all of her abdomen was gone... yikes.