What Is Your Most Gross, Yucky, Disgusting Nursing Horror Story?

[yazisizit]

I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.

We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.

So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!

I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.

As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...

My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.

Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.

As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)

And of course, now so did I!

[Sergeant'sDaughter]

Oooooh. Breast cancer is one of my biggest fears. I've heard so many stories of what it does to you. Blegh.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Oooooh. Breast cancer is one of my biggest fears. I've heard so many stories of what it does to you. Blegh.

Yes, it can be real ugly. I have seen it also. I felt sorry for the poor woman. It was eating right into the right side of her chest, and it red and deep purple, with lots of holes, and cavities with puss and blood oozing out of it. It smelled just like rotting flesh too.

[Kay28]

My favorite one... Everyone is eating lunch, when out of the blue one of the elderly ladies at the nursing home pops out her dentures and licks them clean. OMG, I almost died.

[rph3664]

Being a wound specialist at my hospital, I do see lots of interresting things. Had a lady come in with untreated breast cancer, for a number of years. Her aunt and mother both had breast ca that was treated, and they did not have a good time of it. The wound exteded from her left shoulder, down to her waist (the breast was gone) around her side and up her back almost to her shoulder. I was told to meet the MD at 9 AM to see her. Let me tell you, I must have picked out at least 100 maggots from her. There was loose tissue where they had burrowed under and that made the loose tissue ripple. I did what I needed, and was fine. All was well untill I realized that I was having chicken and rice for dinner that night. Need I say more.

People who go to Third World countries to do medical care see things like this all the time.

[Sergeant'sDaughter]

Yes, it can be real ugly. I have seen it also. I felt sorry for the poor woman. It was eating right into the right side of her chest, and it red and deep purple, with lots of holes, and cavities with puss and blood oozing out of it. It smelled just like rotting flesh too.

Oh..my..god..I would have lost it. Either passed out or puked. That poor woman!

[annacnatorn]

OMG!!!!!!!!!! some of these stories made me want to puke my guts right out...some had me laughing so hard I had to go to the rest room! Yes, such a wonderful job we have. WE NEVER know whats behind door #1....

Behind my door number 1....I was a working as a CNA, had this patient, HIS WIFE would come in every night to assist us in putting her man to bed....She would insist on "cleaning his personal affects" we would leave the room when she did this, at least the others would. I stayed, he was my patient and I needed to make sure everything was ok as there were frequent complaints regarding how he was left...well the wife decided to give the husband oral..... until.....I left as soon as she started doing this, told her she could no do this, she said why not, He is my husband! Ok, so this went on for quite some time, then I was again assigned to this patient, this time I left them to their own device, curtain closed no need to worry right? well....we heard the man saying please please please at the top of his voice so I went in, I did not see "feet on the ground" I never thought anyone would do something like this...I opened the curtain and they were having sex...so I guess the "please" was for more?..not gross but was way to funny...the entire nursing staff was laughing.

The next night when the lady came in, we asked her if she wanted to be moved to a private room so her and her husband could spend some "quality time together" she said no, not tonight, once a month is all he gets, hes is a messy little fella! .....................

Did we need to hear that?

not gross, but................

[HeartOfGlass]

One of my first clinical rotations as a nursing student, we of course had to answer every call light on the floor. There was an elderly man on a falls precautions that was able to use the bedside commode, he had to go use the bathroom, and I had to stand in there to be sure he didn't fall, I was fine with it, until I realized it was explosive diarrhea. I just stood there, against the wall, with my back turned trying my best not to gag, he was certainly not shy about it. I'm fine with this type of stuff now and not so quick to gag, but so early on in the game, gave me quite an awakening!

[SGT>Moody68w]

ok, here is yet another fb up the wazoo story. i'll keep it short and sweet.

picture this: er night shift. ambulance tones out for an inmate from the local prison with severe abd and rectal pain. so they bring him in, position of "comfort" face down on tha stretcher. pt’s completely hysterical. so we assess him and have labs drawn and do an acute abd series. low&behold. the films come back and tha guy has a 1 liter water bottle that was apparently placed there by a few of the other inmates.

prolly tha most jaw dropping thing i had seen in awhile. lol

[Tooimpatient]

Ok quick question, I am about to start the nursing program so I do not know any rules as to handling these situations yet but....is it a big no-no to laugh, gag, etc. ......Because it seems almost impossible to NOT react to alot of these situations! and I have noticed alot of stories where the nurses were laughing in front of a patient about something they have done that happened to another nurse (like pooping on them). Also, if a patient purposely spits in your face or something, can you tell them that is not acceptable or say anything back or do you just have to take it and walk off? I've read some posts by nurses stating what they would like to say to some patients but can't so I am just curious how much do you have to take and how are you allowed to respond?

[SGT>Moody68w]

just try your best to keep your composure infront of the pt. after a while, you'll get used to most things you see, and be able to stay straight faced, but you will, without a doudt, at some point crack up infront of a pt. or two. lol

[prowlingMA]

I have 2 gross out to add. The first being oral cancer pt. I looked like she had a giant white gum ball in her mouth. When i leaned down to get her vitals, the smell hit me. Litterally the smell of death coming out of her mouth.

The second is another breast cancer. The doctor called me into the room to dress the area. It looked like puss covered cauliflower. White and bumpy, and the smell of rotting flesh. It was roughly the sixe of a grape fruit. Yuck!

[21police]

please read about tens -put aside your judgments for a moment-is it possible he had something other then psoriasis? once you see this you never forget it-it can move fast and it's deadly..and once you do see it it qualifies for this thread-the patient i cared for even had sloughing of her eyes.after her skin peeled off in sheets she was just raw meat.she was an elderly gal and had a reaction to a med.before she was diagnosed many of my co-workers reacted just like you did---they looked at her flaking and raw body and thought her family had neglected her and that was far from the truth...could you be mistaken,too? consider the list of meds linked to tens-very common in psych and geri populations.....

stevens-johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis can start with non-specific symptoms such as cough, aching, headaches, and feverishness. this may be followed by a red rash across the face and the trunk of the body, which can continue to spread to other parts of the body. the rash can form into blisters, and these blisters can form in areas such as the eyes, mouth and lady partsl area. the mucous membranes can become inflamed, and with toxic epidermal necrolysis layers of the skin can also come away with ease and often the skin peels away in sheets. the hair and nails can also come away in some cases, and sufferers can become cold and feverish.

with toxic epidermal necrolysis the most common cause of death is infection, which can enter through the exposed areas. this disease can leave the skin looking as though it has been burned, and areas where skin has flayed away can seep copiously and quickly become infected.

both stevens-johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis can start with non-specific symptoms such as:

coughing

aching

headaches

feverishness

vomiting

diarrhoea

this is usually followed by a red rash across the face and the trunk of the body, which can continue to spread to other parts of the body. blisters then form across the body in places such as the nose, mouth, eyes, and genital areas, and the mucous membrane becomes inflamed. with some people the nails and hair begin to come out as well. in the case of toxic epidermal necrolysis patients, the skin can start to come away in sheets leaving exposed flesh that could be likened to serious burning and is very susceptible to infection. both of these disease variations are potentially deadly. in drug related cases, the symptoms for both diseases can take one or two weeks to manifest from the first time the patient takes the drug.

drugs that have been linked to stevens-johnson syndrome include:

nsaids (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs),

allopurinol,

phenytoin,

carbamazepine,

barbiturates,

anticonvulsants,

sulfa antibiotics,

children's motrin,

advil,

children's advil,

cox-2 inhibitor

in some cases, the condition is caused by a bacterial infection. however, in many cases there is no known cause for the onset of stevens-johnson syndrome or toxic epidermal necrolysis. these skin diseases can cause massive pain, suffering and anxiety. people that have taken or are taking medications such as the ones mentioned above are urged to familiarize themselves with the symptoms of sjs (stevens-johnson syndrome) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (ten). this will enable you to seek immediate medical attention should the need arise, and early initiation of treatment can make a big difference to the seriousness of the disease as this can stop any secondary infections. the aim of this website page is to help educate and informed the public about the symptoms, causes and treatment of sjs and ten, and also to offer advice with regards to possible legal options of those affected by these diseases.

as stated above stevens-johnson syndrome is a potentially deadly skin disease that usually results from a negative drug reaction. another form of the disease is called toxic epidermal necrolysis, and again this usually results from a drug-related reaction. both forms of the disease can be deadly as well as very painful and distressing. in most cases, these disorders are caused by a reaction to a drug, and one drug that has come under fire lately is the cox-2 inhibitor bextra, which is already linked to these disorders.

other drugs that have been linked to stevens-johnson syndrome include:

nsaids (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs),

allopurinol,

phenytoin,

carbamazepine,

barbiturates,

anticonvulsants,

sulfa antibiotics,

children's motrin,

advil,

children's advil,

cox-2 inhibitor

>>>>>>> i don't mean to hijack the thread-as a nurse with experience in both acute care and ltc i have seen both sides of the fence.i hate how quick we are to bash each other whenever we can.we all have our own unique challenges every day

i'm just in nursing school so i feel wierd posting this, but there is a certain form of psoriasis that can absolutly produce these same symptoms and its extremely deadly its called erythrodermic psoriasis below is a description.

erythrodermic

erythrodermic [eh-reeth-ro-der-mik] psoriasis is a particularly inflammatory form of psoriasis that affects most of the body surface. it may occur in association with von zumbusch pustular psoriasis. it is characterized by periodic, widespread, fiery redness of the skin and the shedding of scales in sheets, rather than smaller flakes. the reddening and shedding of the skin are often accompanied by severe itching and pain, heart rate increase, and fluctuating body temperature.

people experiencing the symptoms of erythrodermic psoriasis flare should go see a doctor immediately. erythrodermic psoriasis causes protein and fluid loss that can lead to severe illness. the condition may also bring on infection, pneumonia and congestive heart failure. people with severe cases of this condition often require hospitalization.

known triggers of erythrodermic psoriasis include the abrupt withdrawal of a

systemic psoriasis treatment including cortisone; allergic reaction to a drug resulting in the koebner response; severe sunburns; infection; and medications such as lithium, anti-malarial drugs; and strong coal tar products