Strange things found on (or in) a pt.

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I've always wondered, especially after hearing about this guy who brought a snake into the ER----what is the strangest thing you've ever found on (or in) a patient?

Specializes in Psych..

I haven't worked in the ER; I'm just a student. But whenever I want some good nursing stories, I come over to the Emergency Nursing Specialty forum. I saw this on Untold Stories of the ER.

A homeless, mentally ill woman came in to the ER complaining of having worms, and would hold up her arms to the doctor. She was very dirty and had some sores on her arms. So he started cleaning her sores and found that they went quite deep. As he is cleaning further, he feels something move! It was an earthworm! He pulls the earthworm out of the homeless woman's arm and she gets very upset and starts screaming out a man's name (which I forget). Turns out she had made pouches in her arms and put that worm and many others in there, and she also had named all of them. She was very worried about the welfare of the worms, so a nurse went outside, got some dirt, and put each worm in its own separate urine cup, with its name written on top. There must have been at least 15 worms recovered from her arm pouches.

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Specializes in NICU.

Okay, it takes a lot to get me, but earthworms for the win.

:barf01:

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Specializes in NICU.

Yes... I think that is the creepiest one so far...

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Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.
I haven't worked in the ER; I'm just a student. But whenever I want some good nursing stories, I come over to the Emergency Nursing Specialty forum. I saw this on Untold Stories of the ER.

A homeless, mentally ill woman came in to the ER complaining of having worms, and would hold up her arms to the doctor. She was very dirty and had some sores on her arms. So he started cleaning her sores and found that they went quite deep. As he is cleaning further, he feels something move! It was an earthworm! He pulls the earthworm out of the homeless woman's arm and she gets very upset and starts screaming out a man's name (which I forget). Turns out she had made pouches in her arms and put that worm and many others in there, and she also had named all of them. She was very worried about the welfare of the worms, so a nurse went outside, got some dirt, and put each worm in its own separate urine cup, with its name written on top. There must have been at least 15 worms recovered from her arm pouches.

I think I saw that one on Untold Stories of the ER

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Okay, it takes a lot to get me, but earthworms for the win.

:barf01:

That's got to be the strangest I've EVER heard.

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Specializes in Psych..
I think I saw that one on Untold Stories of the ER

You're right, because that's where I saw it too. It has stuck with me ever since. I was *squirming* as I watched it. And of course, I had to call my husband over to watch too, and he got mad at me, heh.

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Specializes in Emergency/ Critical Care.
My 8-year-old niece wants to be a doctor. She devours age-appropriate medical books and her heroes are Hannah Montana and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman physician. One of the resident physicians told me that her then-8-year-old daughter thought she wanted to be a doctor too, "until she found out that doctors have to stick their fingers up people's butts."

:lol2:

We have all agreed that my niece can find that out on her own, and things like this post too.

:D

thats so funny! my 8 year old daughter wanted to be a nurse until she recently found out that you have to stick your fingers up peoples butts! She has now decided to be a vet because apparently horse bums are less gross! lmao

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well probably the strangest one was finding a guy in an MVA with an apprx 12 inch long x 2 inch diameter salami strapped to his leg!!!

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Specializes in Home Care, Hospice, OB.
well probably the strangest one was finding a guy in an mva with an apprx 12 inch long x 2 inch diameter salami strapped to his leg!!!

never know when you'll need a quick protein snack..:D

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well I guess he was off to the night club and intended to impress the girls (or boys) with his appendage - which by the way he never got there, admitted for overnight obs.. Maybe we should have confiscated the said appendage,sliced it and put it out in the break room for "nibbles"

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on a different note we had this elderly man who was constipated so he decided to straighten a wire coat hanger and insert it rectally to clear the blockage. He ended up in theatre having multiple repairs to his bowel and may have ended up with s colostomy

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Specializes in Emergency Room.

fellow er nurses,

first, let me start off by tooting my own horn a little. i just passed my boards with 75 questions!!!!! yay! congrats to everyone that has also accomplished this.

i am a brand new grad in the er. i live in a fairly rural area with a 22 bed er. this was my second day in the er and was the most unbelievable experience i will ever have.

my patient comes in via ems. the report was that a 62 year old man was found be some friends down and hurt. there was no time given for the length of his immobility. when the pt. arrived there was an automatic, destinctive stench in the air. being the curious new graduate, i was determined to get in to the room with the patient. i was followed by 2 other rn's. as we began to cut the man's jeans off we discover the most hideous site i have ever witnessed. this gentelman had a wound on his leg from his knee to his foot that was covered, and i mean covered with (no exageration here) thousands of maggots!!!!!!! show business can't even make something this bad. i thought for sure i had crapped right down my leg. as we proceeded to cut off his jeans mounds of maggots were spilling on to the bed and on to the floor and crawling all over the room! finally, as we reached the waist line of this pants we peeled them away to find more maggots all over his scrotum, perineum and member. not to mention that this man was alert and oriented x 3! we decided to roll him over to inspect his back and further did we find his orifice and rectum infested with the sick creatures.

it was absolutely unbelievable! no body had ever seen anything to this magnitude. sure it's common to have patients with bugs on them in the er. this man hand so many maggots on him that we couldn't even get them all off. nothing worked. we tried tongue blades, wash cloths, bedadine, hibacleanse, and finally peroxide.

i have never felt so bad in my life. i came home and cried myself to sleep because i couldn't comprehend just how someone had let this happen to this man. it was by far the saddest thing i have ever seen. i felt so bad for this man, he had no one. labratory values came back and he at a co2 level of 9 and a na of 112. how was he even alert????? thankfully god blessed me with the heart and ability to do everything in my power for this man. i will never for get it for as long as i live. never.

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