Things you've seen in the O.R that made your teeth crinch?

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Mar 23, 2010

Guy up in yellow fins for a buttock abscess. Don't you looooove those add ons? The cottage cheese pus literally shot about 8 feet when the surgeon started. I had to stand outside the substerile because I was swallowing my own vomit from the smell. Once it was over there was so much chunky pus it looked like a placenta on the ground. Never have been in a case that has made me vomit since.

I think you win! :uhoh3: :eek:

muornurse1 · Mar 24, 2010

Ive been in the OR for about 23 years and I have seen a lot of crazy stuff!!

1. Vaccum cleaner hose on a member-Explaination: Vaccuming in the nude tripped and hose came apart. LOL

2. 12" butcher knife stuck all the way in the frotal region of a young mans head. Came up from the ER on a gurney laughing and talking, thinking he was Jesus because he lived through the ordeal. Had to have a crani.

3. Large acorn squash in the rectum. Had a big hook on it. Pt had to have a bowel resection and a colostomy.

4. 16 oz. Pepsi bottle in a lady parts. Vaccum formed somehow and would not come out!

5. Pt. that weighed about 900 lbs. with a lg. pannus came in to get a vertical banded gastroplasty (open procedure)-back in the day before Lap Bands and Gastric Bypass. Raised up pannus to begin prep and found rotting chicken sandwich and a million maggots. Had to power irrigate the maggots into a crani head bag before the prep!

I could write a book!!!!

RNman09 · Mar 25, 2010

I didn't see this, but classmates of mine who observed a craniotomy say they saw a fly land in the sterile water, and the nurses just looked at each other and the fly, and continued to use it to irrigate the patient's brain.

Yeah, that is wrong!!! You all have some interesting stories, Thanks for sharing them :yeah: . Once we had pt who had an unexpected case of flatulence during a hemorrhoidectomy while being cauterized. It created a small spark but no harm to anyone, it just made the case a memorable one.

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Mar 26, 2010

Yeah, that is wrong!!! You all have some interesting stories, Thanks for sharing them . Once we had pt who had an unexpected case of flatulence during a hemorrhoidectomy while being cauterized. It created a small spark but no harm to anyone, it just made the case a memorable one.

Ha! An intra-operative "blue cauldron"! :lol2: That's what we called them as kids anyway..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fart_lighting

mcmike55 · Mar 26, 2010

The lithotomy position with pus is a close second,,,but fans I think we've got a winner!!!!

Pt. that weighed about 900 lbs. with a lg. pannus came in to get a vertical banded gastroplasty. Raised up pannus to begin prep and found rotting chicken sandwich and a million maggots. Had to power irrigate the maggots into a crani head bag before the prep!

I vote for this one!!!! :yeah: :eek: :eek:

My contributions see pity-ful after that! Other than the assorted pus and "foreign bodies where they should not be", the only one I have is the pt who ate things he shouldn't have.

The pt was a repeat offender, and ate anything he could get his hands on, often resulting in exp.laparotomies.

We pulled silverware, jewelry, even a radio antenna out. I think the worst was thin strips of linen, which, partially digested, really could send you reeling!

Mike

muornurse1 · Mar 27, 2010

Thanks so much for the vote!! This is a true story I will never forget!! (LOL)

prplscrubs · Mar 27, 2010

lacross ball in rectum! yep.. the guy was so upset with himself... hot sauce bottle, candle, vase, coke bottle, vibrators....

also, my fiance is a scrub tech and got called in one night because a guy was "changing a lightbulb" and happened to be naked. he ended up "falling on the leg" of the chair he was standing on, then he decided to try chainging the lightbulb again and again "fell" on the leg getting it stuck please tell me 1) why you are chainging a lightbulb naked?!? 2) how do you fall on a chair leg, when you are standing on the chair?!? 3) why would you do it a second time?!? 4) who really thinks we are going to believe these stories when they are making them up?!?!? o my the things we see!! :rolleyes:

madwife2002, BSN, RN · Mar 27, 2010

far too gross I just cannot imagine why some people put these things in those places-yucky yuck

GadgetRN71, ASN, RN · Mar 28, 2010

Saturday Night Live used to do a skit called Appalachian Emergency Room that always had a guy come in with stuff up his butt..he'd claim he was doing something like changing a lightbulb in the nude, then he claim that he fell "brown eye down" on it, and that's how it ended up in his rectum.. :lol2: I'm going to see if I can find a link..

Ok..found one. This one is a little different-and it's kind of PG-13 so just be warned.

$fracturenurse$ · Mar 28, 2010

Oh yeah, we pulled a mag lite out of a guy, not a little mag lite, a big cop mag lite. Said he was trying to "push" his hemorrhoids back in??? Seriously??? Ended up with a bowel resection and a colostomy. I remember looking at the x-ray. It floated around the PACU for ever...(Of course that was the days before HIPPA and such!)

staceyp413 · Mar 28, 2010

Carrot (and a big one) in the colon. Inserted rectally and removed abdominally.

Whenever a colleague says I don't know and doesn't follow it up with "I'll find out"

RNman09 · May 1, 2010

Well I guess that settles it, not a lot can turn an OR RN's stomach:barf01: or make their teeth cringe (maybe the smell :sniff:at times) thank you all for sharing your experiences :thankya: