Stupidest reason to go to ER

Coffee_Tea_Milk · Jan 6, 2008

Had someone present to ER wanting to be admitted because it was cold and his utilities were shut off because he couldn't pay the $600 bill after his wife left him. If the truth be known it was because his money was being used to feed his cocaine habit. He was confronted with the positive lab results and a rehab was willing to take him in that day. He declined the offer, ate a free lunch, and looked in the paper for ballgames on TV that night. :scrm:

runawaytrain · Jan 7, 2008

Three guys in a local rehab were talking amongst each other, when they discovered that they all had previous diagnostic hx of Hep C. On this particular day, they decided to come to ER to have their liver enzymes checked. (I don't find it stupid to know how your liver is doing, but ER is not the place to have a routine check up.)

Ah, it's a bonding experience. I bet they had a contest on who's labs came back the worst...

That kind of makes me truly believe that some people really do call up their friends and meet up at the ED, like it's The Spot or something. "Let's go to Club ED and score some narcs!"

gwenith, BSN, RN · Jan 7, 2008

3) man can into ER with snakebite. helpful friends had brought the snake in for identification. and yes, it was in the cooler along with the Budweiser!!! Yes, copious amounts of alcohol were involved!
:nono:

Don't freak but over here we actually ask people to bring the snake in with them - aids in identification (a lot of ours look similar - just don't ask me to do the actualy ID because for that you have to count the anal scales and THAT is too close for my comfort) The way to deal with a snake is to put it in the freezer - slows the beggers down so your boys actually did the right thing.

danzinbee · Jan 7, 2008

I had a mother of a quadriplegic teenager bring her daughter in at 4 am so that we could cut her fingernails. Needless to say her fingernails were still the same length when she left:lol2:

TLRN71 · Jan 8, 2008

ok- here you go-

chest pain X15 YEARS

Abdominal pain X6months

Discharge from left eye today

By Ambulance!!!

Top that

olddog1 · Jan 8, 2008

Broken FAKE fingernail. She got a work excuse and Vicoden. And we wonder why people come to us with stupid stuff!

cardinalle · Jan 9, 2008

While I may have missed someone else posting these chief complaints:

1. "My boogers are too hard"

2. "Theres something wrong with the baby (age 4 months) 'cuz she won't eat her Doritos"

and my all time...to date...personal favorite:

"When I woke up this morning my underwear were crooked. I want to be checked!"

NoWaNrN, ASN, RN · Jan 9, 2008

My brother in law called me told me his ear was bleeding and it was hurting really badly. He wanted a ride to the ER but I was busy and could not take him. I was really worried by the way he talked it was really bad. After he gets home my sis called me and told me they gave him this ointment called bacitracin to put on it to help it heal. He scratched his ear from wearing those stupid foamy ear pluggs at work! Thank goodness I was too busy to take him! Could you imagine how embarassing that would have been for me? Here my sis with no health care experience thought the bacitracin was something great! I wonder if he was able to get a doc note for work!

biker momma · Jan 9, 2008

We had a patient a few weeks ago who came in by medic: intoxicated (of course) and complaining of abdominal pain. As soon as he was into a bed, he got up and walked out. Turns out he was on the other side of town drinking and needed a ride to get closer to home! Gotta love it.

buggal1989 · Jan 9, 2008

Ok - had this doc (a very well dressed and manner older man - very nice to work with) call me from his office and tell me he had a patient coming in and to immediately lay her down and take the tourniquet off her finger and apply a pressure dressing. As we were not busy and I'll go out of my way to help a doc I like so I did. I unwrapped the dressing and expected to see her finger hanging off or at least a very deep laceration. One guess to what I found - a rubber band tourniquet holding back the stem of blood from a paper cut!! Any way did as he asked and put on a pressure dressing and had a suture set ready with his preferred sutures. I still cannot believe he sutured it. Did I say the patient was near hysterical. It was too funny. But I LOVED the doc. When any of his patients came in he came to see them dress in an immaculate suit and tie - I mean the works! No messy scrubs for this doc and talk about polite - we ALL loved him! Now we had another doc by the same last name so we called him Doc Charlie - he was a hoot to work with - he kissed whatever nurses where on - IT was a fatherly kiss and not an invitation to hijincks (although in his day I heard that was different) - however I heard from my dentist how he got caught in a ladies bedroom and was going out the window when the irate hubbie filled his behind with buckshot (this was WAY before my time!) and my FAV doc of all times (I cried buckets when I found out he had died (he was the doc who picked the buckshot out of Doc Charlie's behind) - he knew ALL his patients, their histories, their families, etc. The only bad thing was getting stuck in the room with him when things were popping - and he always asked so nicely for you to accompany him we couldn't refuse!

Irish339 · Jan 9, 2008

Male patient: "There is something living in my stomach"

"When I lay down, I can hear myself breathe" (that's a GOOD thing, yes?)

" I've had this cold now for 3 years" Why is in now, so important, at 2 am?

"Enough is enough"

buggal1989 · Jan 10, 2008

Male patient: "There is something living in my stomach"
Maybe it's a tapeworm????? Or if that was ruled out - maybe one of those Aliens!:w00t: