Stuff Patients Have Smuggled onto the Psych Unit...

banditrn · Aug 20, 2006

Good grief - your list beats anything I remember, which was either cigarettes or drugs!

A snake? Cyanide capsule - were the family members arrested? Come on now, share your stories!!

Meerkat · Aug 20, 2006

Good grief - your list beats anything I remember, which was either cigarettes or drugs!
A snake? Cyanide capsule - were the family members arrested? Come on now, share your stories!!

I wasn't actually there for the cyanide incident. I was told about it after the fact...a depressed patient was admitted, his family flew in from abroad (Germany), and apparently he convinced them to help him suicide. He was found in his bathroom after they left. I don't think anything happened to the family---I'm told they were inflight by the time everything was sorted out.

The snake was a python, non venomous. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I was certainly startled by it---just not something you expect to find. No one else would touch it, so I kept it until the shift was over in a box and gave it to the wildlife sanctuary next day.

epiphany · Aug 20, 2006

I wasn't actually there for the cyanide incident. I was told about it after the fact...a depressed patient was admitted, his family flew in from abroad (Germany), and apparently he convinced them to help him suicide. He was found in his bathroom after they left. I don't think anything happened to the family---I'm told they were inflight by the time everything was sorted out.

How very sad. I cannot fathom the pain this family would have endured.

banditrn · Aug 20, 2006

I wasn't actually there for the cyanide incident. I was told about it after the fact...a depressed patient was admitted, his family flew in from abroad (Germany), and apparently he convinced them to help him suicide. He was found in his bathroom after they left. I don't think anything happened to the family---I'm told they were inflight by the time everything was sorted out.
The snake was a python, non venomous. I'm not afraid of snakes, but I was certainly startled by it---just not something you expect to find. No one else would touch it, so I kept it until the shift was over in a box and gave it to the wildlife sanctuary next day.

That's terrible about the depressed patient. When I worked in ICU, all suicide attempts spent at least 1 night there - most of it was BS, but the occasional pt. was serious, and I used to feel so helpless, knowing that there was little I could do to REALLY help them.

Back to the snake - was it very big? How on earth did he get it in there? When I worked in psych, all belongings were search for 'contraband'.

nursesarah · Aug 20, 2006

one pt in my previous clinical placement hid a lighter up his orifice...then proceeded to light his room on fire.

Thanet · Aug 20, 2006

A Rabbit... and cage.

santhony44, MSN, RN, NP · Aug 20, 2006

A box of thumbtacks. Smuggled onto the psych unit by a patient's husband.

The patient then swallowed them.

They were able to remove them by endoscopy.

HM2VikingRN, RN · Aug 20, 2006

saw blades

flashlights

cigarette lighters

cigarettes

marijuana

IWANT2BEEANRN · Aug 21, 2006

When I lived in Eau Claire, WI, a guy smuggled a loaded gun into the psych ward of one of the hospitals then shot himself in the head and died.

Turns out one of the administrators of the psych unit cut the nursing staff by 1/2 to make the psych unit more profitable. The administrator of this unit was terminated immediately after this incident.

fleur-de-lis, BSN, RN · Aug 21, 2006

Holy Cow!!!! I am so glad I found this thread just a few days before I start my Psych clinicals!!! :)

SaderNurse05, BSN, RN · Aug 21, 2006

We had a patient who told her family to bring her "works" up to the unit for "closure"...Another one who brought in peices of a gun..