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!

[Mshealthness]

Im not nurse but I had dreamt of becoming one when I was younger but unfortunately it didnt happen..I have a very high respects to all nurses going through all of these tough situations.. I salute you all guys

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

These are awesome; I can't stop reading!

This really isn't all that gross, but it was one of the first things I saw that made my eyes bug out of my head as a CNA so here it is!

We had this one obese woman who was extremely proportionally obese. Most obese people are huge in their abdomen, thighs, upper arms... but it doesn't seem like the breasts and the butt always keep up, you know? Well. I could curl up into the fetal position and my entire body was the size of each of her butt cheeks. I am not kidding. I saw her walk with PT once and looking at her from the side, from her front to the very farthest out place of her butt was probably as long as my legs. Her butt just went straight back, like a perfect hourglass figure x 100. This lady called near the end of the shift to say she'd had a bowel movement. She could roll pretty well, so I had her roll and the bed was sparkling clean.

"Are you sure it wasn't just gas?" I asked.

"Positive. I really think I did something."

Okay, well, being the good CNA that I was at the time, I dutifully grabbed a wet washcloth, lifted the higher butt cheek, and wiped. Nothing. I wiped again. Nothing. I tried one more time... still nothing. At this point I asked her again if it had been just gas, and she said she wasn't sure, but she really thought she had a bowel movement. I went even deeper and wiped a fourth time... and finally came across something. It was then that I realized that her butt cheeks were so large that bowel movements never had the chance to make it to the bed. I finally found her rectum after lots of digging, and I was having to stand somewhat sideways because my arm disappeared a few inches past my elbow into her butt crack while I was doing it. No lie - her butt cheeks were so large that there was at LEAST a foot and a half between her butt cheeks and her rectum. I was more than elbow deep in butt, but at least there was no bowel movement on the outer foot of the inside of the butt cheeks because all of the bowel movements got trapped about five or six inches from the rectum. I still had a good eight or nine inches of my exposed arm scraping against the inside of her butt cheeks because my glove stopped at my wrist, though, which bothered me. When I finally finished and left the room, I had to wash up to halfway between my elbows and shoulders just to make sure I got every place her butt touched. I have never seen anyone with anatomy like that since then. Most people are just not that proportional when they gain weight!

[SweetMelissaRN]

These are awesome; I can't stop reading!

This really isn't all that gross, but it was one of the first things I saw that made my eyes bug out of my head as a CNA so here it is!

We had this one obese woman who was extremely proportionally obese. Most obese people are huge in their abdomen, thighs, upper arms... but it doesn't seem like the breasts and the butt always keep up, you know? Well. I could curl up into the fetal position and my entire body was the size of each of her butt cheeks. I am not kidding. I saw her walk with PT once and looking at her from the side, from her front to the very farthest out place of her butt was probably as long as my legs. Her butt just went straight back, like a perfect hourglass figure x 100. This lady called near the end of the shift to say she'd had a bowel movement. She could roll pretty well, so I had her roll and the bed was sparkling clean.

"Are you sure it wasn't just gas?" I asked.

"Positive. I really think I did something."

Okay, well, being the good CNA that I was at the time, I dutifully grabbed a wet washcloth, lifted the higher butt cheek, and wiped. Nothing. I wiped again. Nothing. I tried one more time... still nothing. At this point I asked her again if it had been just gas, and she said she wasn't sure, but she really thought she had a bowel movement. I went even deeper and wiped a fourth time... and finally came across something. It was then that I realized that her butt cheeks were so large that bowel movements never had the chance to make it to the bed. I finally found her rectum after lots of digging, and I was having to stand somewhat sideways because my arm disappeared a few inches past my elbow into her butt crack while I was doing it. No lie - her butt cheeks were so large that there was at LEAST a foot and a half between her butt cheeks and her rectum. I was more than elbow deep in butt, but at least there was no bowel movement on the outer foot of the inside of the butt cheeks because all of the bowel movements got trapped about five or six inches from the rectum. I still had a good eight or nine inches of my exposed arm scraping against the inside of her butt cheeks because my glove stopped at my wrist, though, which bothered me. When I finally finished and left the room, I had to wash up to halfway between my elbows and shoulders just to make sure I got every place her butt touched. I have never seen anyone with anatomy like that since then. Most people are just not that proportional when they gain weight!

Hahahahahahahaha, I don't know why this made me crack up but I just pictured someone literally swimming in skin to find the mysterious missing bm! Lol

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Hahahahahahahaha, I don't know why this made me crack up but I just pictured someone literally swimming in skin to find the mysterious missing bm! Lol

That's really about what it felt like. I hope I never run into anyone with a butt that big ever again.

Here's another one that I remembered, but this one isn't particular funny.

One of the other CNAs had a patient with liver problems who was huge and extremely confused because her ammonia level was through the roof, so I helped out with her a lot that shift. She was continually talking to Jesus - forgive me Jesus, I'm sorry Jesus, I love you Jesus, and others. I had a pretty bad feeling about this and so did the nurse. The nurse spent all day trying to get her transferred to ICU but the MD kept insisting that we just keep giving her lactulose and her ammonia would come down and she'd be fine. I had helped with her most recently at about 1850, right before shift change. I was still finishing up my charting at 1930 when I heard a nurse say that she needed help. I rolled my eyes but thought I'd be nice and help. When I got in the room the patient was covered in blood from her waist up and wasn't breathing. We called a code and started CPR. The thing was that the blood had come from the patient's mouth - I'm guessing ruptured esophageal varices - and every time we did a chest compression more blood would spray out of her mouth and onto her, the bed, and us. I managed not to get any on my scrubs but by the time the code team got there my gloves looked like they had been dipped in a vat of blood and there was blood all up my arms. Some of the nurses ended up almost covered in blood. We managed to get a perfusing rhythm back long enough for her to make it down to the MICU, but when I looked at the patient list in the MICU the next day out of curiosity her name was gone. I bet she didn't last very long after we transferred her.

I washed like crazy when I finally got home because I never did find out what had caused her liver problems and I was paranoid she had Hep C. That was the gross part for me - thinking about my arms covered in the blood of someone with an unknown liver disease whose chart I had never seen, who could have had absolutely anything for all I'd known.

[MiGab]

I am stealing this story from a family member that is also a nurse. They had a patient with maggots in their lady parts.

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

I had a friend that had received a homeless pt as an admit from the ER. I offered assistance bathing the pt as he was exceedingly odiferous; and, from experience, I knew moral support was required for this particular bath. So, as we are cleansing his genitalia, we noticed his 'shorties' moving; upon further investigation, suddenly his bush erupted and THOUSANDS (well, probably less that that- but it SEEMED like thousands) of spiders evacuated and ran for dear life!!! I was so grossed out. They WERE spiders, by the way- but he did have scabies and other fun little roomies on his person in addition. Oh my word! What fun we nurses have! Keep the secret, because if the world knew how glamorous our jobs were, they would all want in on the action- and, of course, the massive paychecks. hehehe

This is the only post in this entire thread (so far, on page 175) that has made me almost dry heave. I really hate spiders... I would have just died!!!

[BSNbeauty, BSN, RN]

Got blood in my mouth from a patient . Don't even ask how .... Still grossed out by it:(

[calivianya, BSN, RN]

Just thought of another one!

I was helping this lady change her ileostomy bag after she'd had broccoli for dinner. She just kept producing copious amounts of liquid stool... but she could tell when it was coming and would warn me right before a big splash so I could get a fresh towel. This was going really well until all of a sudden, with no warning, she let out one of the LARGEST farts I've ever heard come out of an ileostomy. I was so sure I was about to get sprayed that I threw myself backwards against the wall with a total look of horror on my face. When the gas subsided the lady and I just looked at each other with these wild-eyed expressions on our faces and just started laughing. I continued cleaning her up with no problems, and she adamantly swore that she was never, ever eating broccoli again! At least this one was a near miss and I didn't end up getting anything on me.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

..... I was so sure I was about to get sprayed that I threw myself backwards against the wall with a total look of horror on my face. When the gas subsided the lady and I just looked at each other with these wild-eyed expressions on our faces and just started laughing.

It's moments like that when you really make that connection with the patient and share an emotion that make cleaning up all of that crap so rewarding.

[PacoUSA, BSN, RN]

Just thought of another one!

I was helping this lady change her ileostomy bag after she'd had broccoli for dinner. She just kept producing copious amounts of liquid stool... but she could tell when it was coming and would warn me right before a big splash so I could get a fresh towel. This was going really well until all of a sudden, with no warning, she let out one of the LARGEST farts I've ever heard come out of an ileostomy. I was so sure I was about to get sprayed that I threw myself backwards against the wall with a total look of horror on my face. When the gas subsided the lady and I just looked at each other with these wild-eyed expressions on our faces and just started laughing. I continued cleaning her up with no problems, and she adamantly swore that she was never, ever eating broccoli again! At least this one was a near miss and I didn't end up getting anything on me.

I can't stop laughing ... lmao!

Sent from my iPad using allnurses.com

[SaoirseRN]

I was helping a patient with her trach care (she was doing well with it on her own, but was tired tonight so I offered to do it), when she had a coughing fit. I had the suction ready but she was clearing pretty well on her own, and near the end took a big breath and coughed hard, and a thick, yellow and red gob of sputum about the size of a bottle cap launched from her trach, flew through the air, and landed on the wall opposite the bed, a foot down from the ceiling, AND STUCK THERE.

I awarded her 10/10 for that one!

[nitenite]

Oh God the above made me gag. Mucus is my weakness.