The most gruesome situation you've encountered?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

During Army Reserve weekend warrior days we went to the children's hospital burn unit. It was a regional center. One lady 'Lois', fell asleep smoking on her wedding night (her new husband burned to death). Burns over 90% of her body. Finger tips and toes were exposed bone. Skull was bare of skin, with screws holding her skull together. They cut skin from under her one remaining breast (the other was burned off) to fashion crude eyelids to protect her eyeballs. She made Frankenstein look like a Hollywood star. It took 5 of us to get her into the tub of bleach water, so she could have the dead skin scrubbed off. She took enough morphine to kill a platoon, yet her screams could still be heard on the floor below. That said- that pales in comparison to the child abuse cases, which are just about...unspeakable. They told us that on average, nurses only lasted two months on that floor.

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The news in our area wouldn't air the footage after the fact, so I haven't seen it. It's probably a career ending injury, and I'm truly sorry for the guy. But ghoul that I am, I'd really like to see it.

And if you're over 14, you can watch the cannibals, in action, too on YT!

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Oooh, now you've piqued my interest! I need to start looking into that!

BTW, is it weird that I found that really cool? :S lol

What's weird is I was mesmerized, rather than grossed out. The most interesting thing, he cut into her bladder, and the balloon from the catheter was still in there. I used to recall that every time I inserted a catheter. She died from choking on a prune, nursing home (one that didn't know of a handy little maneuver called "Heimlich", I gather), and that was still present also. And that reminded me of that situation in CA at the ALF- the nurse that let that woman die? If you go to an autopsy ('to see for oneself', it means), take Vick's with you to rub under your nostrils mask the odor if the perp is decomposed, and plan on throwing your clothes away...

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Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.

I got home Sunday just after he broke his leg so I missed it. Everyone on twitter was saying DON'T watch if you have not seen it because it was awful. Dodo me, who has a high threshold for being grossed out, found it on youtube. It was AWFUL to see. Yeowza I wish I had listened to everyone and not looked it up. It was pretty gruesome. I am lucky, my nursing experience does not lead me to anything near some of the stories on here! Thank goodness!

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Specializes in Peds ED, Peds Stem Cell Transplant, Peds.

A Wiener dog bit off a 4 month old male parts when he had a dirty diaper while dad was passed out drunk. How drunk can someone be not to hear the screams of a baby being attacked by a dog.

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How open can you be and how long can you remain open, to being open?

Absence of all tissue/muscle/vessels of an area 6inches wide, anterior upper thigh to ankle. Bone fully exposed entire length with hardware. Areas of dead dry brown bone, fungal and infected green at tissue edge. Was admit over a holiday weekend, from SNF and originally from level one an hour away… who faxed back in response to WTH! inquiry: “We already treated this patient”…

Don't ride motorcycles kiddies :)

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I have witnessed one gruesome thing in life. Pyoderma Gangrenosum. My grandmother had it on the back of her calf. It was terrible and getting the correct diagnosis was half the battle. The area affected was approximately 2 inches by 4 inches.

Also, while I did not witness it, my mother died of a severe case of Necrotizing Fasciitis. It was caused by community associated MRSA. It began in her groin and spread from there. She had a sulfa allergy, was diabetic and was stage 3 chronic kidney disease due to massive cystine stones prior to her NF infection. She went into a coma and was intubated the same day as admission. She was septic and her kidneys failed completely requiring dialysis. 2 days later she required a colostomy. She was also on pressors for her BP. They began the debridement in her groin with 2 baseball size removals. There were several successive surgeries that never really got a grasp on the problem. The final surgery was a 12 inch by 15 inch area that was 5 inches deep (she was obese) on her buttock and lower back. They said at that point if she did not improve, it would likely move onto her spinal cord and that would be the end. That is what happened. That all took place in 3 weeks.

For the medical personnel who were caring for her, this was undoubtedly one of the more severe things they had seen to that point in their careers. I know it sure would have freaked me out!

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Hearing a mother's scream when her little child did not survive.

One of the most helpless feelings in the world.

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Specializes in Home Health, Case Management, OR.
Hearing a mother's scream when her little child did not survive.

One of the most helpless feelings in the world.

Oh god. You win. That about makes me breakdown crying at the thought.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgical ICU.

Being in trauma, we see a lot. I have seen frozen belly's completely open, wet to dry dressings TID with stool leaking out despite tubes, drains etc. Once the dressing is removed, you can't make out any organ. I have seen mangled limbs. Questionable tissue eating cancer that took over the chest cavitity to the bone from arm pit to arm pit. The dressing was so massive it took 8 nurses to do and chux to cover.. I have seen more brain tissue outside the skull then I care to remember. I have seen CSF projectile out of the eye across the room from a cough.

After a while, they all just bleed in the background and the details are lost.. I think its a survival tool.

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Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.

Hard to say. While on active duty I saw hundreds of people with wounds caused by explosives. That combined with the effects of heat and swarms of flies... Ugh. Also saw a court yard of gas filled bloated bodies that a number of tanks and APCs had driven through and the treads created a stew of rotton body parts, mud, blood and maggots. I had to wade through, several times, it with the heel of my boot shot off.

As a nurse have seen a number of cases where people were run through combines or corn pickers, or manure spreaders, thrown into the back of a farmers truck and arrived at the ER with no notice when we had a total of three people on staff in the whole hospital. One young man basicaly had all his skin ripped off his right arm, chest and back. He arrived alive but didn't stay that way long. Once have an older very obese man brought into the ER by ambulance. He had been down on the floor of his house for almost a week and the tissue under him (whole right side) was necrotic and infested with maggots. We had to put him in a negative pressure air room to keep the stench from overcoming the whole hospital. Lucky for him he didn't last more than a couple days.

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Oh god. You win. That about makes me breakdown crying at the thought.

It will haunt me now and always. I am not a pediatric nurse, nor will ever be. It takes a unique type of a person, and it makes my heart hurt to think of how some fellow nurses cope. I needed some therapy to put it all in perspective, as did the 25 other people in the room that day.

Bless all those who work with peds that are in a dying process, a ped trauma nurse, a neonatal nurse....you all are heros in my eyes!

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Hard to say. While on active duty I saw hundreds of people with wounds caused by explosives. That combined with the effects of heat and swarms of flies... Ugh. Also saw a court yard of gas filled bloated bodies that a number of tanks and APCs had driven through and the treads created a stew of rotton body parts, mud, blood and maggots. I had to wade through, several times, it with the heel of my boot shot off.

As a nurse have seen a number of cases where people were run through combines or corn pickers, or manure spreaders, thrown into the back of a farmers truck and arrived at the ER with no notice when we had a total of three people on staff in the whole hospital. One young man basicaly had all his skin ripped off his right arm, chest and back. He arrived alive but didn't stay that way long. Once have an older very obese man brought into the ER by ambulance. He had been down on the floor of his house for almost a week and the tissue under him (whole right side) was necrotic and infested with maggots. We had to put him in a negative pressure air room to keep the stench from overcoming the whole hospital. Lucky for him he didn't last more than a couple days.

Thank you for your service! I can't imagine having all of this gruesomeness in unbelivable and unbearable heat......

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