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!

[MelissaRN]

My big gross out is bathing people that are 300 or 400 lbs. They have nasty yeast in their folds. It's so gross, you feel the gloves sliding through it and it feels all mushy. I scrubb it and dump the old yeast powder to it.

[Chibi Baka]

"Here comes Peter Cottontail.....hopping down the bunny trail..."

This is too much!!! Im laughing so hard Im crying!!!:roll

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

My big gross out is bathing people that are 300 or 400 lbs. They have nasty yeast in their folds. It's so gross, you feel the gloves sliding through it and it feels all mushy. I scrubb it and dump the old yeast powder to it.

(fake injured tone) Hey, I'm 320 and I don't have yeast. Not all of us are yucky.:rotfl:

[teeituptom, BSN, RN]

Not so long ago we had a patient come into our ER with a huge abscess on his back. It was first thing in the morning and we woke our doc up to come take a look. She examined him and suggested the usual course of antibiotics for a week or so and then an incision and drainage. He refused, saying it was too painful to tolerate that long (although he had waited nearly a week before coming in at 7 a.m. on a Sunday).. Anyway, our doc was about to end her shift and was in no mood to argue so she complied. After carefully numbing the area she made her first incision and whoooosh... the pus came out like a shotgun ..right into her mouth and eye!..... We were so grossed out, but also kinda wanted to laugh (we didn't). She didn't say anything, went to the sink and washed thoroughly. She finished the procedure with grace... after having put on a mask (which I suggested before we started but she refused).

So you think she would learn a lesson from this right? No. Several weeks later we were instilling charcoal into the NG of an uncooperative and unhappy overdose. She came in to see how things were going and despite our gloved, gowned and masked appearance, got close to the patient. He promptly vomited/spewed/spit charcoal in her face.... her mouth again!

She still doesn't mask up as much as I'd like, but certainly more than she did before.

That doctor isnt too with it

[smilin_ER_RN]

(fake injured tone) Hey, I'm 320 and I don't have yeast. Not all of us are yucky.:rotfl:

me too.... but i suppose if they are needing to have someone bathe them then they are probably pretty gross!!!! but no i checked and no yeast here LOL this 320lb girl showers every day!!!!!!!

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

me too.... but i suppose if they are needing to have someone bathe them then they are probably pretty gross!!!! but no i checked and no yeast here LOL this 320lb girl showers every day!!!!!!!

Ah, you're right. If you can't reach, you can't wash.

[nightmoves]

When I was in the service during Vietnam and fresh out of training we had wounded brought in from an aid station via dustoff (helicopter evacuation.) The medic had done a pretty nice job of packaging the wounded GIs and I was being oriented to triage.

I stepped in a blood clot and ended up flat on my derriere between two litters, so I decided to start my triage right there. Getting up into a squatting position, I turned to the patient on my right and started my brief head to toe assessment. Pupils dilated, sluggish, reactive, equal. Carotid pulse 110's. Respirations 30 and shallow. No neck or thoracic wounds. Large Elastoplast dressing covering the abdomen. I noticed pooling around the injured man's flank, and tentatively touched the edge of the dressing while calling for one of the surgeons.

The Elastoplast must have been ready to let go, because that is exactly what it did. As it rapidly retracted, the injured man immediately eviscerated. I was absolutely horrified, and assisted the surgeon in wetpacking the exposed organs. He was immediately transferred to the OR and successfully debrided, but succumbed to sepsis and pulmonary edema a week later. I have never forgot this incident, and still occasionally have nightmares about it, although I was assured again and again by the surgeon, my chief nurse, and the hospital commanding officer that I did not kill the patient. (It was a miracle that he had survived the initial blast, the helicopter trip, and the surgery.) Despite years of participation in veterans' groups, I will never forget that young man.

When I talk to young colleagues who signed up for the reserves when we were at peace because it seemed like a good way to earn a car payment, I wonder how they would react emotionally to such an incident.

Fast forward twenty-five years to an oncology unit, where I was in the role of a nurse leader. We had admitted a breast cancer patient who had a late diagnosis and an extremely necrotic breast with an odor that I have not smelled since South Vietnam. She had obviously metastasized, a CT scan earlier that day had showed pulmonary and bony involvement. She was febrile and her blood pressure was dropping despite antibiotics and volume expanders. Unfortunately, the attending had not broached the subject of her prognosis with her that day, and she was a "full code." And naturally, that is exactly what happened that night at about 2:30 AM.

Since the unit staff had not gotten a backboard under her prior to initiating CPR, I grabbed the headboard off, moved to the side opposite her necrotic breast and started to roll her over to place the backboard. I suddenly felt something heavy, warm, and wet on my foot--it had sloughed and fallen off right onto the new shoes I had just bought that day.

Sorry these incidents aren't funny, but you asked disgusting, and these take the cake.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

When I was in the service during Vietnam and fresh out of training we had wounded brought in from an aid station via dustoff (helicopter evacuation.) The medic had done a pretty nice job of packaging the wounded GIs and I was being oriented to triage.

I stepped in a blood clot and ended up flat on my derriere between two litters, so I decided to start my triage right there. Getting up into a squatting position, I turned to the patient on my right and started my brief head to toe assessment. Pupils dilated, sluggish, reactive, equal. Carotid pulse 110's. Respirations 30 and shallow. No neck or thoracic wounds. Large Elastoplast dressing covering the abdomen. I noticed pooling around the injured man's flank, and tentatively touched the edge of the dressing while calling for one of the surgeons.

The Elastoplast must have been ready to let go, because that is exactly what it did. As it rapidly retracted, the injured man immediately eviscerated. I was absolutely horrified, and assisted the surgeon in wetpacking the exposed organs. He was immediately transferred to the OR and successfully debrided, but succumbed to sepsis and pulmonary edema a week later. I have never forgot this incident, and still occasionally have nightmares about it, although I was assured again and again by the surgeon, my chief nurse, and the hospital commanding officer that I did not kill the patient. (It was a miracle that he had survived the initial blast, the helicopter trip, and the surgery.) Despite years of participation in veterans' groups, I will never forget that young man.

When I talk to young colleagues who signed up for the reserves when we were at peace because it seemed like a good way to earn a car payment, I wonder how they would react emotionally to such an incident.

Fast forward twenty-five years to an oncology unit, where I was in the role of a nurse leader. We had admitted a breast cancer patient who had a late diagnosis and an extremely necrotic breast with an odor that I have not smelled since South Vietnam. She had obviously metastasized, a CT scan earlier that day had showed pulmonary and bony involvement. She was febrile and her blood pressure was dropping despite antibiotics and volume expanders. Unfortunately, the attending had not broached the subject of her prognosis with her that day, and she was a "full code." And naturally, that is exactly what happened that night at about 2:30 AM.

Since the unit staff had not gotten a backboard under her prior to initiating CPR, I grabbed the headboard off, moved to the side opposite her necrotic breast and started to roll her over to place the backboard. I suddenly felt something heavy, warm, and wet on my foot--it had sloughed and fallen off right onto the new shoes I had just bought that day.

Sorry these incidents aren't funny, but you asked disgusting, and these take

the cake.

They are definitely biggies, Rusty. Now I'll give a couple of disgusting experiences of my own. The first one happened when I was 13. It was early in the morning on a summer day. My mother took my brother with her to hook up the team of horses and hitch them to the hay mower. (es, the old fashioned way. This was in the 50s.) As she was stepping on the small lever that got her up on the seat, she slipped on the early morning dew covered lever, went to catch herself, and she landed on the mower bar, jamming it into her bowels.

She yelled to my 12 year old brother to help her off, and told him to lay her down by a haystack, and go get some help. He ran into the house, frantically telling us what had happened, and we immediately call for an ambulance, and we ran up to where she was laying. When we arrived, we saw her intestines laying on her right leg. Back then, the doctor rode with the ambulance, and 30 minutes after EMS was called, the surgeon got out of the ambulance, bandaged her eviscerated bowels, and they took her to the hospital. She was in there a long time, because she also contracted perotinitis from the incident, but she did recover.

The second incident was with a resident at a LTC facility. I was a nurses aide at the time. The resident had cancer of her right breast. when the dressing was changed, we saw an area that was deep purple, deep red, and pockmarked with holes all over that oozed a fluid,and some blood. Her breast had been eaten away with the cancer, and we saw what was left. Definitely not a pretty site, but back then there was no hope for survival when a person had cancer.

[smilin_ER_RN]

I guess we asked for it huh? hey i just wanted to say thank you for serving for you country!!!!!

[debRN0417]

Mine can't top some of the things I've read but anyway, when I worked in the ER we had a young man involved in a MVA. He had a very large head laceration that was bleeding all over the place. The Rescue squad had him all taped down and immobilized with a hard collar (you know the drill) and the ER doc was getting ready to sew him up. We had not cleared the c-spine yet because he was bleeding so badily we had to put some staples in to get it stopped. Anyway, he kept saying "I'm gonna puke". The doc kept saying "No you're not son, just hang on, just a minute more"...well the kid kept getting greener and greener and I said to the doc that maybe we should log roll him over cause he looked pretty bad, but the doc didn't wanna stop, so guess what....yep, he projectile vomited all over the place...it looked like a guyser...it was everywhere, runnung down the walls, in his c-collar, :rotfl: fortunately, I saw it coming and stepped back a little, but the doc was splattered,,,he wore this hairpiece that looked like road-kill (the doc) and there was undigested food all tangled up in his wig! :rotfl: The kid apologized...I was cracking-up :rotfl: but that wasn't the worst of it, when I was cleaning it up, there was whole pieces of french-fries and hamburger, with the cheese still on it! It was definately Wendy's....whole pickles...gag me . I haven't ate Wendy's since.

[Papercutz]

I was a new CNA in the nursing home and feeling very proud of my first step in my chosen career.

A nice littel old man in a wheel chair waved at one of my co-workers (a pretty littel 18 year-old, fresh out of high school sugar and spice type of girl). He said "honey come over here please" as she bent down to talk to him. He moved the blanket covering his legs and SPLAT! he ejaculated right in her face and mouth. I never saw her again and thus my nursing career beagn...........

OMG YOU CANT BE SERIOUS!!

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Mine can't top some of the things I've read but anyway, when I worked in the ER we had a young man involved in a MVA. He had a very large head laceration that was bleeding all over the place. The Rescue squad had him all taped down and immobilized with a hard collar (you know the drill) and the ER doc was getting ready to sew him up. We had not cleared the c-spine yet because he was bleeding so badily we had to put some staples in to get it stopped. Anyway, he kept saying "I'm gonna puke". The doc kept saying "No you're not son, just hang on, just a minute more"...well the kid kept getting greener and greener and I said to the doc that maybe we should log roll him over cause he looked pretty bad, but the doc didn't wanna stop, so guess what....yep, he projectile vomited all over the place...it looked like a guyser...it was everywhere, runnung down the walls, in his c-collar, :rotfl: fortunately, I saw it coming and stepped back a little, but the doc was splattered,,,he wore this hairpiece that looked like road-kill (the doc) and there was undigested food all tangled up in his wig! :rotfl: The kid apologized...I was cracking-up :rotfl: but that wasn't the worst of it, when I was cleaning it up, there was whole pieces of french-fries and hamburger, with the cheese still on it! It was definately Wendy's....whole pickles...gag me . I haven't ate Wendy's since.

That was one time the doc should have paid more attention to the NURSE!!!! Served the boy right!!