"Funny Codes"?

Nurses General Nursing

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One night we got a new admission into ICU from ER. It was a female patient being admitted with COPD in her 40's. She did not appear to be in distress and was able to talk with o2 on vital signs were all within normal limits no red flags anywhere. Her nurse got her admission assessment done without incident and pt settled in. Suddenly, we are charting at the desk, when there is a loud crashing sound in her room. We run to her room to find her face first against the wall(Like she had collide with the wall at a great rate of speed) and was slideing face first down the wall, her catheter was stretched acrossed the room (connected to the bed still) her water pitcher spilled all over the floor and her heart rate dropping in the 40's then 30's then 20's call a code. It was a disasterous (sp) code having to perform it in the floor. It took forever to get her intubated and the doctor was soaking wet when he was done with that, then he had to shock her in all that water (with paddles in his hands he said..just say I was a brave man). We were calling for our strong monitor tech to help but he had run to the "Can" and could not come out. It took us an hour to get her body up out of the floor so the family could see her (we had to bind her up like a turkey and use a backboard and hoyer lift plus 6 people to lift).

I now this was tragic but afterwards we all were talking about the code and how it went and we all started laughing. Sometimes laughter is the only way to cope with this job. Are we just sick or does anyone else have codes like this and how do you cope?

Specializes in cardiac med-surg.

oh wow, that's good

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Specializes in SICU, EMS, Home Health, School Nursing.

On the other hand, I have had a DNR death once, and while we were discussing it at the desk, phlebotomy came in and tried to draw bood from the patient, couldnt figure out why they couldnt get a good stick. We had a god laugh about that one.

Oh, I completely forgot about something like that happening to me until you said that... I had a patient die one night and we were waiting on the funeral home to come pick them up. Well at my hospital we have a special picture that we hang on the door when a person has died, and it being my first patient death, I completely forgot to put the sign up. Well lab goes into the room and comes right back out and was like "um did you guys still want us to draw her blood??" In the midst of me being stressed over my first patient dying, my other patient was not doing well, and I was buried under paperwork, that at least gave me a smile.

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" It was also very pleasing to tell the intern...no pulse means no pedal pulses no matter what doppler you use..and metal probe to shock BAD!"...LOL!!!!!!!"

we recently had a code and the intern kept using the doppler to find a pedal pulse. finally another doctor said "just stop it, its not there!"

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Specializes in ICU, PICC Nurse, Nursing Supervisor.

oh my gosh one time during dinner at a ltc center a patient began choking on her food... she was in a gerry chair and we took the tray off got her stood up and i began the heimlich on her. i could not get the blasted food out of her throat and let the (male) med aid take over...lol .. he got behind her and every time he did the upward thrust the patient let out a big ole fart....

i was laughing so hard that it was almost impossible for me to tell him his hands were in the wrong place....anyway we got her airway and her colon clear.......

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Specializes in ER, Med/Surg.
that thar bath done kilt her

Water allergy? :chuckle

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
and while I was with him just grabbed him by the shoulders and started saying, HEY stay with us! We ended up sending him to our ICU unit because no one could figure it out what was wrong with him. Halfway down to ICU he starts it again, going diaphoretic, unresponsive, and I started yelling at him again to stay with us. After he was transferred and we got him back to responding to us, everyone started laughing at me saying, stay with us, stay with us. What can I say? I just freaked because the dude wasn't responding right. But he's still around and the doc who transferred him will see me and ask if I'm saving anymore pts' by shear will.

I can honestly say, Lupin, that this one had me laughing out loud all by myself - HILARIOUS!

The one and only code I have ever initiated, when I was still a very new nurse (I'm just beyond amateur now actually), I froze up and forgot how to quickly put the bed in CPR mode....so the wife comes to me and says, "we need some help in here - he's turnin' blue". And he surely was (and so suddenly - turned out to be a problem with his new trach canula), this obese man who was sitting with the bed completely upright. I just panicked (sp) and started screaming, "I need some help in here" like 2 times and then remembered to turn around and pull the code button. Pt made it. I just kept thinking over and over how stupid I felt, wasting those 5-6 seconds saying "I need some help in here", thinking that the wife was thinking, "well, hell, I could've done that".

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
oh my gosh one time during dinner at a ltc center a patient began choking on her food... she was in a gerry chair and we took the tray off got her stood up and i began the heimlich on her. i could not get the blasted food out of her throat and let the (male) med aid take over...lol .. he got behind her and every time he did the upward thrust the patient let out a big ole fart....

i was laughing so hard that it was almost impossible for me to tell him his hands were in the wrong place....anyway we got her airway and her colon clear.......

i am crying with laughter over here - that picture is priceless!!!!!!!!!!!!! best one yet!

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.

Man, this is like "The Best of the Code Bloopers". Keep 'em coming!

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Specializes in ER, Med/Surg.

The one "nearest-to-a-code" I ever initiated was a patient with V-Fib. I was the clerk behind the desk in the ER. I could see the cardiac monitor, but from where the nurse was (I think she was in the same room as the patient actually) she couldn't see it, we were the only ones there but the doctor. I haven't had a rhythm "class", but I pay attention and ask questions; I know enough to look at most things and say, "That don't look right, hey nurse, you better look at this NOW".

So anyway, the patient goes into V-fib for about 15 beats or so, I happened to be looking at the monitor and yelled for the nurse just as the "beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep" started. She in turn yelled for the doctor, the patient resolved on his own and we transferred him out, since we don't have an ICU.

BTW: We have GE monitors in the ER, and with some help of the sales rep we made up sayings for the allerts. The first tone is low and maybe a second long: "booop", we say, in a low voice "nurse". The second is a higher pitched "beep-beep" = "help me". The third is the highest level, it is the three "beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep" = "911, 911, I-am-dead"

Hmm...it is much funnier in person...

Pat

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Specializes in Orthosurgery, Rehab, Homecare.

My first code (on a unit that doesn't see many) - Pt going down the tubes. Obviously crashes (grabs chest and begins agonal resp) I put my arms out to my sides and yell, "OH S#!+, NOBODY PANIC!" and hit the button. Went on to begin a successful code. Pt's son was in the room when I yelled my "first instructions".:imbar I think I was talking more to myself than anyone else.

~Jen

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Specializes in Med/Surg; Psych; Tele.
A couple weeks ago we got a code announcement over the intercom: "Code 1, COR zero, first floor atrium near the vending machines. Code 1, COR zero, first floor atrium near the vending machines." I run downstairs near the vending machines to find a large man supine on the floor, major head lac and blood all over the floor. We run through a series of assessmnets, I find his wallet and get his name and also find a small glucometer and insulin supplies in a fanny pack he was carrying. When I do his blood sugar it's obvious why he's on the floor: it was in the 40's. I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. There he was, on the floor bleeding like crazy, with a blood sugar in the 40's, right next to the vending machines. I had this vision of him feeling sluggish, walking to the vending machines...gotta...get...some...sugar. Dollar...bill...too...crinkled...fading now...fading...fading...

I couldn't help it. For whatever reason it just cracked me up. We got the guy settled, got him to the E.D. and he was fine. After all this was done I was walking back to the unit. I was still smirking to myself at the absurdity of laughing about a situation in which a person took a header due to low blood sugar. As I'm thinking about this, another announcement comes over the intercom that ties up the whole thing: "Environmental services to the first floor atrium near the vending machines. Environmental services to the first floor atrium near the vending machines."

Started laughing again. Man, I have some sort of illness of inapprporiateness...

I think I have the same illness! GREAT story!!

A bit off the subject here, but reading this just made me think of recent things that came over our intercom that made me laugh out loud....

1) Would the Adams Family please come to the ICU waiting room

2) Mr. Right to the main lobby....Mr. Right

Ok, sorry...back to the warped code stories

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Specializes in ICU.

Oh yes, I forgot. Not a code story, but I always get a kick out of when I'm standing over a deceased patient with a med student or a resident and I ask them if they would like to officially pronounce or shall I? Often I get the "Oh sh*t, I don't know how to pronounce" response with a look of panic. So cute.

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