Stupidest reason to go to ER

Published

ER Nurses/MD's etc.

I am currently writing a "paper" on stupidest reason for someone to come to ER.

ANY input you can send me would be much appreciated. IF you'd like a copy of the FINAL draft, let me know.

THANKS in advance!

PS. My winning entry so far is:

A woman who brought 1 month old baby in at 2:30 (AM of course) because "it won't look me in the eye, It doesn't recognize me!"

Not kidding

LOL, gradyrn, now I have heard it all!

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that would be major cruel. as a migraine sufferers - any noise hurts. and what most people with migraines won't tell you (cause they are afraid they'll wind up in the nut house - and believe me i've surveyed many migraine sufferers) is that they do not think logically when having a migraine, that they feel like they are on a different plane, that they feel like they are someone else, and many other weird things they do not tell their doctors. you just simply don't "think" as you would when you are "normal". i only say this cause no one knows who i am and i don't want locked up when i have a migraine! and i have never read any of this in migraine literature - why? because migraine sufferers are afraid to speak out. i have talked to up to 50 people who suffer from migraines and they all give similar stories - so this person may not have been in her "right" mind and calling an ambulance seemed to be the correct thing to do. it's been a long time since i've had very bad one - but taking overdoses and doing weird things is common when you have a bad one! and besides childbirth it's the worst pain i've ever had and i suffer from fibromyalgia!

as a migraine sufferer myself, i have never encountered your "different plane" symptoms. regardless of this, i still think calling ems unless it is life threatening is misuse of the system. (migraines are not life threatening:angryfire!) fibromyalgia is not life threatening either:angryfire! i have always been in my "right mind" with a migraine. i know what i am doing, know right from wrong, knew overdoses are wrong each and everytime i have had a migraine. there seems to be other issus there and i hope you can get it worked out. either way.....ems should not be called for migraines......:banghead::lol_hitti

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

Young man was at a party, his friend offered him a joint. He'd never smoked before.

He came to the ER "feeling weird" after taking a few puffs.

I'll bet.

Also, smoking anything probably is not a good idea when you have a history of severe asthma!

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Specializes in 6 years of ER fun, med/surg, blah, blah.

Yeah, but I'll bet he didn't inhale either......:icon_roll:lol2:

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Specializes in Critical Care.
Sorry. It stands for Brought In By Ambulance.

No problem. I figured it stood for soemthing easy, but my mind couldn't figure it out. :D

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Specializes in ER.

sometimes these people are whiners and it is okay to laugh about it but be careful...

64 yo lady admitted reliably every 2 weeks for chest pain, always wore such pretty dresses, pretty makeup, hair done just so. After a few months of seeing her reliably every 2 weeks-- when she needed her meds refilled i asked "why are you coming back, are you having trouble affording your medicines? Do you not have acess to a primary physician?" she teared up and said to me.... "No I got all my meds but my grandson stole them all-- He sold all my furniture, he lives with me and i am scared so i lock the door at night." Amazing what you find out when you ask... I am ashamed it even took us that long to figure out, this lady knew she needed her meds and was scared for her life every day because her druggie grandson had druggie friends over leering at her, he sold all her drugs.. the state of the world these days. Just be careful with the judgment, its all good until your wrong and you will never forget it when not if--- you are.

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Specializes in Emergency Department Nursing.
Anything other than:

hemorrhage

compound fracture

stroke

severe infection

MI or severe chest pain

severe abdominal pain

labor dystocia, pp, other OB emergency

near-death from trauma or other sudden onset

sudden loss of vision or paralysis

sudden incontinence

is stupid. My recent experience in the ER confirmed this to me. Even my severe pain and sudden loss of use of a limb didn't keep me from avoiding the lunacy of going to an ER. Heck, I think maybe we should just do away with ER's altogether and just, when it's our time to go, go. Just kidding - but almost serious.:devil::idea::devil:

Here's a stupid reason to call 911 - no ride. Not an emergent condition, just no ride to get to the ER for treatment of HIV-related pain. I had a home care patient who did this once. Granted, he was sicker than usual but I thought we ought to try to find a friend or relative to carry him to the hospital, not call 911 so an ambulance would come. What did I know?

How about nursing homes sending people who are hospice patients AND total DNR's to the ED because they are.... dying.

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Specializes in ER.

So yeah, I agree with pretty much all of these...except (for me at least) the toothache patient.

Many years ago when I was medic-ing, we had a toothache call at 3:00AM. The patient hurt, only complaint. They had been put on ABX that day for an abcessed tooth, but it was hurting still. No difficulty swallowing, no swelling...nothing. They walked out to the ambulance. I drove, and my partner in back was taking the pt's temp. We're toodling along, when my partner calls the pt's name twice, then tells me to pull over. I stopped and by the time I was in the back, the pt's neck had swelled up past their chin, and was pulseless and not breathing. Partner is hauling butt to get them on the monitor, and they was in asystole. I tried to tube, but the airway was completely shut down and full of exudate. I had to do a blind surgical airway (due to swelling, I couldn't find any landmarks), and we managed get ACLS going in record time, but they were already gone. The immediate thought was an airway issue, but there was no hypoxic struggle... massive infection, just instantly gone. :(

Still haunts me to this day. So now, when a patient comes into the ER with a toothache and everyone rolls their eyes, I get a little knot in my stomach and stay on my toes the whole time. I know it's a one in a million case, and that you can't treat every one like a critical case...but mine always at least have a lock in place, and I keep a bit closer eye on them than is probably normal. That crap is NOT going to happen to me again!

(A funny add on...I was telling this story the other night at work. As I was enthralling everyone with my tale, the ER doc stuck her head around the corner and said, "That was you with that patient?" I knew that she had worked at the recieving hospital that night way back when, but had completely forgotten that she was the doc on duty when I brought them in. It was nice to not only be able to talk about theories that we had come up with since then, but to give me the credibility...because most people don't believe me when I tell it. She also treats me with more respect, since she found out that I was the brave soul that did the impossible airway...)

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infection Control.
So yeah, I agree with pretty much all of these...except (for me at least) the toothache patient.

Wow, makes me think about all the times I dismissed patient's complaints and was lucky enough not to have what happened to you!:banghead:

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Specializes in Hospice, ER.

I was always guilty of rolling my eyes at the toothache patients - until the day the girl with the toothache turned out to have massive cellulitus of the face and involvement of the underlying bone. She was admitted with massive IV antibiotics.

Of course, we still see the toothache drug seekers. But it taught me to at least look at the patient before passing judgement.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infection Control.
as a migraine sufferer myself, i have never encountered your "different plane" symptoms. regardless of this, i still think calling ems unless it is life threatening is misuse of the system. (migraines are not life threatening:angryfire!) fibromyalgia is not life threatening either:angryfire! i have always been in my "right mind" with a migraine. i know what i am doing, know right from wrong, knew overdoses are wrong each and everytime i have had a migraine. there seems to be other issus there and i hope you can get it worked out. either way.....ems should not be called for migraines......:banghead::lol_hitti

you've been lucky - but even i might have called an ambulance when i had one of my seven day migraines and didn't have anybody to take me in. your lucky in that you don't go to "that other palne" casuse believe me it is wicked weird!!! i've never taken drugs with the intent to get high but it sounds to me like some of the things meth user experience which could be logical as meth causes the release of dopamine which gives you a naturla high (the diff plane) and severe pain might trigger the same response - because belive me it's been serve enough where i couldn't even see and like a fool drove myslef home when i should have taken my butt to an er as i was lucky it was only a migraine!:cry:

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True story..."I brought my son in because he watched a scary movie last night and his stomach has been hurting ever since!" - NOTHING was wrong with this 4yo! Discharged within minutes

pt comes in with c/o elbow pain. pt's dog hit pt's elbow with its head and it hurt really bad. "I take morphine for chronic back pain but it isn't helping my elbow!" Are you KIDDING me?

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