Oddest things found in a patient!

Megsd, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

A lady I worked with in an office used to work in a doctor's office and told me a great story about a man who called into the office for an appointment because he stuck his you-know-what in a bowling ball and couldn't get it out. She said the poor nurse who took the triage call was turning red as she had to ask "I'm sorry sir, you stuck it WHERE?" Of course, in order to remove it, the poor man had to come into the office

meownsmile, BSN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

There are many stories im sure. Having worked with DD folks and the PICA they suffer from, i know ive seen and heard a lot, i just wont go there though. The ones ive seen are slightly humorous at the moment, but considering the backround of the folks its really not. Some of these things result from and cause life threatening conditions through no fault of their own.

There are some "normal" individuals, and i use the word normal loosely that just are lame brain enough to do stupid stuff on a dare.

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

When we were talking about these things, the first thoughts for us nurses were the mental health of the individual involved. Some stories were brought up about DD people, and we actually discussed things to implement to hinder that from happening...man, even when we were trying to have some fun, we were thinking like nurses 100%! LOL!

Most of the cases were people being stupid though...or very intoxicated! LOL. I have said it once and I will forever say....people are very interesting..add alcohol and things get wierd fast! LOL!

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

What interesting items have you heard of...and how did they remove them?????? LOL!

I've never seen anything personally, but as a transcriptionist I heard quite a bit. I've heard lots of cases of folks with pica and self-mutilation tendencies and those go without saying, but I have a few where the people were just plain silly.

In no particular order.......

1. A woman with a cocktail stirrer in her urethra. She came to the ER saying she had a straw in her bladder. Well, knowing anatomy they knew that wasn't possible so they kept looking in her lady parts. Seeing nothing they were going to send her home. She refused to go until they "looked in her bladder" so they did a CT scan and that's when they found it in her urethra. She was taken to surgery to have it removed.

2. A man with a hat pin lodged in his urethra. Evidently he had masturbated into a towel (why he felt the ER staff needed this information was a mystery) and a piece of lint became lodged in his urethra. I guess this bothered him asthetically and he used the hat pin to try and pick out the lint - with no success. He was given sedation and the ER doc removed it with forceps.

3. A man with a magazine in a sock wrapped with Saran Wrap lodged in his rectum. It is so sad that people have too much shame......or ignorance....to know they can buy toys to achieve the desired effect without causing damage to themselves. I can't remember how they ultimately removed this foreign body.

4. The cutest one by far.....a 5-year-old girl with a kernal of corn in her ear. The doctor used forceps to remove it. When asked how the corn got in her ear she said "it just fell in there."

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

I can't believe I forgot this one...I was waiting for a relative in a VA hospital when I met this nice man who was waiting for his wife to pick him up.

He told me a story that amazed me!!!!

He was working on his prop airplane with his son and his son I guess started up the props and it hit a huge wrench and it flew and struck the mans head at the temple...it went in! Paniced the son got him into the plane and flew him to the nearest life flight hospial (which this man was in central Oregon, and they flew to Portland!!!).

The man was awake and alert the entire time. I guess the blow moved the brain material out of the way so there was NO brain perforation! Lucky man!

The Docs removed it very easily (WOW), and little damage was sustained! WOW!!!!! He even showed me the x-ray picture he had in his wallet, he uses that picture to remind himself that things happen in life, and if you can make it through that...heck with the small stuff! Good idea!

The x-ray was incredible!!!!! I was so entriqued! Great fun loving guy too...I loved talking with him!

Antikigirl, ASN, RN · Apr 23, 2006

My hubby (paramedic) said that he transported a guy that complained of abdominal pain lasting more than a week or so. Found out that the guy had a hunting accident and had a huge arrow in his abdomen...but the guy was to macho to admit it...so he cut the arrow below the entry point and kept it there! (DUH!!!!!!!!). This was a bear hunting arrow...so it was HUGE!!!!!

Guess the surgeons removed it and told him to stay away from hunting! LOL!

JeanettePNP, MSN, RN, NP · Apr 23, 2006

I can't believe I forgot this one...I was waiting for a relative in a VA hospital when I met this nice man who was waiting for his wife to pick him up.
He told me a story that amazed me!!!!
He was working on his prop airplane with his son and his son I guess started up the props and it hit a huge wrench and it flew and struck the mans head at the temple...it went in! Paniced the son got him into the plane and flew him to the nearest life flight hospial (which this man was in central Oregon, and they flew to Portland!!!).
The man was awake and alert the entire time. I guess the blow moved the brain material out of the way so there was NO brain perforation! Lucky man!
The Docs removed it very easily (WOW), and little damage was sustained! WOW!!!!! He even showed me the x-ray picture he had in his wallet, he uses that picture to remind himself that things happen in life, and if you can make it through that...heck with the small stuff! Good idea!
The x-ray was incredible!!!!! I was so entriqued! Great fun loving guy too...I loved talking with him!

I know someone who was shot point blank in the chin and survived... still has a bullet lodged in there somewhere.

LydiaNN · Apr 23, 2006

A little bit like the corn kernel story, but no so cute... My son went to a home day care provider when he was little. She had a boy of her own, a few years older, who stuck a pinto bean in his ear. She kept taking him to the PCP for frequent ear infections, and he was always given an antibiotic. Well, you can imagine how the pinto bean flourished under a steady diet of antibiotic. Given the flesh tone of pinto beans and their shape, the doc wasn't recognizing it as a foreign object, though. Finally, the kid told his Mom what he had done. Seems that a ''friend'' had convinced him he shouldn't say anything, because the doctor ''would have to cut off his ear''. Poor kid!

LoriAlabamaRN · Apr 24, 2006

We had the same guy come to the OR I used to work at four times with various items lodged in his rectum... for the first three he had creative stories about how they "accidentally" got stuck in there (i.e. he was vacuuming naked and lost his balance and sat on a tapered candle, was gardening naked and fell on a squash, etc). Unfortunately the fourth and final time he really had no explanation, it was a sex toy the size of the surgeon's arm from elbow to wrist. He ended up with a colostomy after that one. We also had a guy come in with a TV remote up there, said he had someone ring his doorbell and when he answered it two men assaulted him and stuck it up there. I got the giggles picturing him walking down the hospital corridor and everyone's TV channels changing in the rooms he went by with each step...

Natkat, BSN, MSN, RN · Apr 25, 2006

We had the same guy come to the OR I used to work at four times with various items lodged in his rectum... for the first three he had creative stories about how they "accidentally" got stuck in there (i.e. he was vacuuming naked and lost his balance and sat on a tapered candle, was gardening naked and fell on a squash, etc).

That's right out of "Appalachian ER" on Saturday Night Live. Every week he comes in with something else that "accidentally" got stuck up there.

"I was at home practicing Karate naked. I was doing the splits and there was a Stretch Armstrong on the floor and when I did the splits, well.."

Then when he came out of the exam room he had a jar of cotton balls that "accidentally" got stuck in there.

Obviously whoever wrote this sketch knows an ER nurse.

wooh, BSN, RN · Apr 25, 2006

Pampered Chef Oil Sprayer (that you can pour wahtever kind of oil into and then use to mist food/cookware). On the operative report, the surgeon made special note that the object said "Pampered Chef" on the side.