The Craziest thing you've seen in the ED

[stephen1219]

These are my ramblings when I get the question "what's the craziest thing you've seen in the ED?" I always respond differently because I never know how to answer this question. Sometimes, there's a very specific example in mind. Other times, it's that people keep coming back to work.

When people find out I work in an emergency department, they always ask me what is the craziest thing you've seen?” I always laugh at this question because I think it's ridiculous.

I could tell them about the person with a chainsaw accident to the face. Or the woman who was so convinced that she had parasites living in her hair she picked away at her head until she dug almost completely to the skull.

I could tell them about the man in the psych ward who referred to my Adam's apple as a tea kettle ******** (the nicest of names he called me) who ended up in 4 point restraints. Or the person who fell from a 10ft ladder and had every bone in his face smashed after the window he was replacing toppled over. Or the female on suicide watch after her husband suffered a cervical spinal injury 4 months ago and told me I haven't cried since the accident”. Or my favorites, the people who have tattoos all over their body but cringe when I come toward them with IV supplies.

I could tell them about the screaming, the yelling, the spitting, the crying. The unusual anatomies, the mental health breakdowns, the social work nightmares.

After everything we see working in the ED, it's hard to sum up a single craziest moment”. Maybe the craziest thing is we don't talk about it. I've been in numerous high stress codes and sometimes we get the patient back and sometimes we don't. Either way, we go right back to business after the code because there's always more people in the waiting room. It's not that we don't want to talk, but sometimes we don't have time to have a debriefing. And sometimes we really don't want to talk about it…. because then we have to really think about it… which can be terrible. Or maybe the craziest thing… it's that we keep coming back. And that we enjoy it. At least I do. What are your thoughts?

[NickiLaughs, ADN, BSN, RN]

Yeah...it's hard to pinpoint one, a boat accident where the rope hooked onto the propeller and resulted in avulsion of the ENTIRE leg. That one stuck with me because when she transferred to our ER she was tubed but awake. Her bp was so/so, but I'd be horrified to be awake during that....

i got got kicked in the chest one day by an incubated patient who just realized their suicide attempt failed after being weaned off sedation.

so many codes...I can't even keep track of a lot of them anymore. I feel like ER nurses have a special bond because of the ingrained PTSD we obtain with no time to talk it out.

hugs. :)

[mindofmidwifery, ADN]

How do you cope with the image and thoughts of what you've seen while working in the ED? I am prepared to accept a PCT position in the ED but not sure if I am, or will ever be, prepared to handle what comes in.