The worst code you've seen?

During my preceptorship, a pt was being transferred to our ICU. PEA in the middle of the hallway. The MD running the code got sick from doing compressions and had to leave to vomit, a recent midsternal incision opened (blood everywhere), and the ribs cracked. Sadly, no one realized until about 20 minutes in that the spouse was standing there, watching.

My job (as the student nurse), was to chase away the callous idiots at the other end of the hallway recording it on their cellphones for broadcast, whooping it up like this was their own private episode of ER.

While the violence of this code and the inevitable death made me sad, the fact that people are so immune to the suffering and right to dignity of others made me absolutely sick.

That is horrible.

Yeah. It was a couple of young men and a middle-aged woman. I demanded to see the cell phones to make sure they deleted it (probably not really my right to do so, but I was MAD:mad:). The woman started yelling at me for "snatching" the phones away. Which I didn't, I asked for them. I wonder how she would have felt if it had been her on that table.

Yeah. It was a couple of young men and a middle-aged woman. I demanded to see the cell phones to make sure they deleted it (probably not really my right to do so, but I was MAD:mad:). The woman started yelling at me for "snatching" the phones away. Which I didn't, I asked for them. I wonder how she would have felt if it had been her on that table.

Technology has done something 'not right' to some people....it's like they're entitled to insert themselves into everybody's business... very uncool....should be a federal crime d/t HIPPA...

I'd say it's a draw between the 50-something Native American lady who bled out from esophageal varices (gads, what a horror show THAT was) and the young father whom I was admitting with "a little chest pain" and turned from pink to gray to purple in a matter of about two minutes, all the while begging me not to let him die. Those two are the ones that still haunt me, years after the fact.

yikes... Varices are bad (my guy started blowing blood bubbles, then puddles at a drug/alcohol rehab place 15 miles from a hospital- but he lived... the bozo ambulance guy wanted me to sink an NG before they left to avoid getting the rig messed up...yeah, sure- just let me drive that tube through the hole in his gullet...NOT). We didn't have any code stuff to speak of- a dusty suction set that sounded like a bi-plane with a bad attitude. After tossing about a liter of blood into the basin, the guy gets all quiet...I asked if he was ok..nothing....yo- still with me? ... nothing.....FINALLY, he looks up and says he was praying.... I reply "as you were". When the ambulance guys were hauling the guy out the door, he looks up at me and says "d@#n enchiladas" (this was after lunch...).

Technology has done something 'not right' to some people....it's like they're entitled to insert themselves into everybody's business... very uncool....should be a federal crime d/t HIPPA...

Feeling entitled is an epidemic in our society today. It is crippling us and will only get worse.

After tossing about a liter of blood into the basin, the guy gets all quiet...I asked if he was ok..nothing....yo- still with me? ... nothing.....FINALLY, he looks up and says he was praying.... I reply "as you were". When the ambulance guys were hauling the guy out the door, he looks up at me and says "d@#n enchiladas" (this was after lunch...).

I feel bad for laughing...but really..."d@#n enchiladas"?

Three stand out:

A toddler s/p an abuse situation.

A middle-aged male with an earlier episode of CP, now resolved with no intervention, and an OK EKG. Very pleasant guy with a very pleasant family at bedside. He asked me if I could find out the score of the big game ... and then crashed 45 seconds later without warning.

A patient with esophageal varices. Enough said.

Patient with dead bowel and DIC. Took over a half hour to make her presentable enough for her family to come in and say goodbye. Even then she looked terrible.

These are soo sad.

Code on a pt in dialysis

I wasn't a part of this one but a end stage esophageal CA patient...lots of blood (old and fresh) everyone.