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!

[al7139, ASN, RN]

I have two gross stories:

While I was in NS, I worked as a nursing assistant on an ortho ward (we also took medical and neuro patients).

The first story happened with a very confused woman with dementia. She was on isolation for MRSA (blood borne). I walked into her room to do vital signs, and see if she needed toileting, etc. She had pulled her PICC line out and was bleeding all over the place! There was blood pooled on the floor, her bed, and all over her. I grabbed her insertion site to apply direct pressure to stop the bleeding (thank God I had gloves and a gown on!), and reached for the call button to call the nurse for help. She was mumbling and incoherent, and had no idea what was going on. As I leaned over her, she reached up and touched my face with her bloody hand! Yecch!!! The RN came in, and immediately called for more help so I could be "relieved of duty" to wash my face and report my exposure. Luckily, I didn't get any blood in my eyes, nose or mouth! I was treated prophylactically, just in case, but I still cringe every time I have to go into a MRSA patients room!

Thank God for a healthy immune system!

The second incident was not as bad but still "creepy". We had a pt who had been hit while trying to cross the highway on foot. He had obvious psych issues. He masturbated constantly, and had to be told to stop so we could take vitals, do dressing changes, etc. I am very glad he never "finished the deed" so to speak, in my presence, but still creepy nonetheless.

I am sure as I keep working I will see worse.

Amy

[RNDreamer]

:lol2: I loved that show, and used to sing that song to annoy my co-workers :lol2:

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[VegRN]

This is not nearly as disgusting as some of your stories but both of these situations nearly made me vomit.

...A pt hits his call light, his nurse is on lunch so I got to answer the call light. Pt had been prepping for colonoscopy that morning. I walk into the room and he is on his commode with watery poop splattered everywhere. It is on the commode, all over the floor, on the side of the bed, on his equipment next to his bed, on the walls. I couldn't believe it, specially the splattering on parts of the wall. It ended up taking another nurse and I over 30 minutes to clean him up and to clean enough of the room up so that housekeeping would come in to clean the rest up.

....I was taking care of a thoroughly hick pt (I can say that because I am a bit hick too). She was in isolation for resp MRSA and I was ready to give her the abx ointment for her nares. She say she wants to do it so I say "fine" and give her the q tip with the ointment on it. She takes the qtip,smears the cream on her finger and shoves her finger in her nose to apply the cream and work it around her nostril. And then does the same for the other nare. I nearly died, I was so disgusted. I could not believe it.

[RNDreamer]

Not as disgusting as my patient who, instead of letting me clean him and his poop up, would rather stick his bare hands (with long nails) between his "cheeks" and dig the poop out...so not only do I have to clean him and his poop, but I have to scrape the poop out of his nails while he argues with me that there is no poop...Really? Then what is this? Chocolate? :uhoh21:

....I was taking care of a thoroughly hick pt (I can say that because I am a bit hick too). She was in isolation for resp MRSA and I was ready to give her the abx ointment for her nares. She say she wants to do it so I say "fine" and give her the q tip with the ointment on it. She takes the qtip,smears the cream on her finger and shoves her finger in her nose to apply the cream and work it around her nostril. And then does the same for the other nare. I nearly died, I was so disgusted. I could not believe it.

[RedWeasel, RN]

I was precepting and there was a young peds girl who was special needs, her mom swore by (i think it was mag cit or golytely-cant remember) to keep her reg'lar. She stated that it only takes an hour to work. Well lo and behold hour is up and we were changing her diaper since it was wet with urine. One thing I never understood. Why dont pp change the bed and the diaper at the same time (i was a student-now i do different) you know roll it all tuck all the dirty and then the clean. No not this time we clean the girl up and with her bare butt in the air we are tucking the dirty linen and starting to fit the new clean sheets. My precepter felt that after that we could place a clean diaper. WELL> I hear hyperactive bowel sounds from the girl. Her face forms a grimace and before I can grab the new diaper to throw under her (preceptor had told me minutes before I didn't need to do that yet-tho I had thought common sense tells ya it will at least catch accidents from getting on the new sheets etc) she shoots liquid diarrhea 10 feet over the end of her crib and it hits the wall and runs down in many little streams. The mom just laughs. Guess who gets to clean it? Ah bless you all you students.

[RedWeasel, RN]

I once was cathing a male and had just a slight bit of resistance so I remembered that is was normal and to raise him up a little bit to a more 90 degree angle. Went in fine but then (I have never had this happen) urine started spewing out the meatus AROUND the catheter! All over the bed. Way unprepared for that.

Another time pt had MRSA in sputum, cdiff and VRE in urine. Had trach. Never had to sxn him before but one night he had a breathing treatment and was coughing. I gowned, masked gloved even foot bootied up (we have carpet floors ick-cant really get em clean can ya and I am not stepping on them with naked shoes with pt who has cdiff and defecates on floor sorry). Anyway pt gets ready for me to sxn him catheter goes down and pt promptly coughs-catheter slips through my fingers down onto floor as mucus and blood (mrsa) land on my sleeve and gown. I will always wear goggles or face shield when sxning from now on. Yeah.

[RedWeasel, RN]

I know a fairly new nurse who was doing a bowel program on a pt. She inserted the supp and removed her gloves. The pt was a little anxious and asked her to do some dig stim before she left. She said oh sure. She proceeded to do her duty and a terrible look came across her face. NO GLOVES. Ackkk. I said that is why you DOUBLE GLOVE-so you have layers for something like this-in case you have to grab something quick.

[RedWeasel, RN]

One time one of my pts had come back from a day pass. He was A&O but felt he could wait to get back to his room on the unit to empty his colostomy (maybe it was an ileostomy?) anyway, he shouldn't have waited I was detailing every corner of the room with those qtip thingys for an hour. I even had to detail his cell phone. Oh the smell. Turned out I had the same cell phone. Couldn't answer it without thinking of that. Had to get a new model for myself.

[EmmaG, RN]

Got a call near the end of my shift that we were getting an ED admit with diagnosis of psoriasis.

All I could think was psoriasis??? What the hell...

The report I got was crappy and vague and all I was told was the man had a "rash".

I have never seen anything like it before or since.

He was in his 40's, had come from the state mental hospital (where he'd been a long term patient), and (aside from his scalp and eyelids) the entire surface of his body was raw and oozing serous fluid. There was no damn 'rash'. The man had no skin.

He stood up and the fluid poured off of him, leaving huge puddles all over the floor. Could barely get a BP on him, as the cuff kept sliding off. He came up without an IV; they'd not been able to get one in ER or draw any labs because for the same reason, the tournequets wouldn't stay on. I just grabbed the largest bore angio I could find and plugged it into his AC, drew the labs then hooked him up to fluids as fast as I could run them.

I was beyond furious. He had NO business being on an onc/MS floor. I couldn't believe the ER doc...

I called the supervisor (who only had the crap report from ER about the patient) and told her this man needed to be transferred to a burn unit, as the admitting doc came in (who had never seen him before, thank God he was always the first to make rounds in the mornings), took one look and had him flown out to the burn unit.

I found out when I returned that night, he died within hours of getting to the unit. He was too far gone. It still infuriates me that he was let down by so many who were supposed to be caring for him. No way in hell that happened in a day or two. The negligence of the state hospital was appalling in waiting so long to get him medical treatment. I'm not a CC nurse, but it was obvious the man was critically ill. He had no freaking skin!!

But, he was a ward of the state; paranoid/schiz; and of course nothing ever came of the situation. How those people can live with themselves is beyond my comprehension.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

/I] infuriates me that he was let down by so many who were supposed to be caring for him. No way in hell that happened in a day or two. The negligence of the state hospital was appalling in waiting so long to get him medical treatment. I'm not a CC nurse, but it was obvious the man was critically ill. He had no freaking skin!!

But, he was a ward of the state; paranoid/schiz; and of course nothing ever came of the situation. How those people can live with themselves is beyond my comprehension.

It sounds like a little more then psoriasis-did you ever hear what his final dx really was? TENS,maybe? I've seen that-it was really something (ps-unless you have experience in LTC both geri and psych-you don't really understand how difficult it can be to treat these people-it's very easy in the ER to look at some dirty LOL or psych pt.with massive pressure ulcers or a black foot and blame the nursing home without knowing that perhaps the resident was admitted from home in that condition and refused care for months or years-Maybe nothing came of this situation because there really was no one to blame.Our system is not perfect but it is better then what goes on in many other countries)

[EmmaG, RN]

It sounds like a little more then psoriasis-did you ever hear what his final dx really was? TENS,maybe? I've seen that-it was really something (ps-unless you have experience in LTC both geri and psych-you don't really understand how difficult it can be to treat these people-it's very easy in the ER to look at some dirty LOL or psych pt.with massive pressure ulcers or a black foot and blame the nursing home without knowing that perhaps the resident was admitted from home in that condition and refused care for months or years-Maybe nothing came of this situation because there really was no one to blame.Our system is not perfect but it is better then what goes on in many other countries)

It wasn't like anything I'd seen before; he essentially had no skin. Aside from his scalp and eyelids, you could not reach out and touch intact skin anywhere.

He was calm and compliant. In reading the transfer note from the hospital, he was there as well. He had been a ward of the state for years. My anger is that once he developed this condition, it was allowed to reach this stage before someone decided to get him treatment. So yeah, I DO blame those who cared for him in the state hospital.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

It wasn't like anything I'd seen before; he essentially had no skin. Aside from his scalp and eyelids, you could not reach out and touch intact skin anywhere.

He was calm and compliant. In reading the transfer note from the hospital, he was there as well. He had been a ward of the state for years. My anger is that once he developed this condition, it was allowed to reach this stage before someone decided to get him treatment. So yeah, I DO blame those who cared for him in the state hospital.

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