What is the freakiest thing you have ever seen at work?????

Nurses General Nursing

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Several years ago we had an elderly intubated woman admitted from the ER. She had resp. distress at home and ended up vented. They brought her up to us minus her post intubation film so x-ray came up and did one. After, they sent the film to us. As we stood there looking at it I said Ooops, guess whoever tubed her put her teeth on her chest. Into the patients room I go and pull back the top of her gown and whala, no teeth! Apparently her resp. distress was caused by swallowing her uppers! Poor thing needed surgery to remove them, the bronch was unsuccessful.

Specializes in RETIRED Cath Lab/Cardiology/Radiology.

1. Man to our angio suite for AIF angio for PVD/gangrenous toe. While assessing pt, we detected movement under nail of gangrenous toe: maggots wiggling around!

2. Pt from ED for emergent carotid/vert angio: knife handle sticking out from just under left orbit - stabbed in significant-other-related incident. Amazingly, no vessel damage but surgeons needed to know exactly where the knife was before removing it . . .

3. And the classic, GSW to foot (or other lower body part), w/excuse, "I was just cleaning it," or "I was asleep in bed and a gunfight erupted outside/in the other room (take your pick), and I was shot."

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Actually, my BIL was operated in Greece during our vacation, because a wooden piece of a Suvlaki perforated his Meckel.

(Which he didn't know about of course!)

Take care and chew your food really well, Renee

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Specializes in ED staff.

Had a ptaient come to us after receiving treatment at an outlying hospital. He and his GF got into it when he came home drunk (again) after seeing another woman (again). She just about pulled his member clean off of his body. So patient comes to us with his member wrapped in an ace bandage sticking straight up. Urologist comes in to see him, we unwrap the member, it's got a decent blood supply...I dunno how cause it's just barely there....gives a whole new meaning to "how's it hanging?". I wish I had kept up with how the surgery went and all, but you know how it is in the ED, once they leave ya, you don't usually know what happens to them. To a certain someone who will remain nameless, this story is for you ;)

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From my first months in the ER:

1. An elderly man with a 12 inch kitchen knife embedded in his abdomen and stuck into his vertebra. Missed his aorta. He had diabetes, terminal CA, etc. Told his wife he was thinking of killing himself. She said, "just don't make a mess in the house." (!) Man takes knife out in back yard, falls onto it, hari-kari style. Wife calls 911. Deputy first on scene said he werestled with man to hold him still-man was wiggling trying to nick aorta. Arrived on backboard, totally restrained with this huge knife protruding from him, totally immobilized by miles of adhesive tape. Man is still bucking a rearing trying to get knife to nick aorta. Being newbie, I was assigned to hold his legs and feet still-not easy! We "saved" his life. He made to surgery, which was "successful." I couldn't begin to imagine what it must have been like for that poor man to go back to his "loving" wife!

2. Man placed in one of my rooms by triage nurse with stinking, dirty bandages to both lower legs. Got him on the bed, cut the dressings open, and saw what looked like moving grains of rice, and a nice, pink, granulated wound. Maggots! Dr. said no biggie-a blessing actually. Man was diabetic, had been d/c'd from same hosp. 2 weeks earlier; had been living under picnic table in park ever since. That was the day I found out that maggots don't care for Betadine.

3. Saturday night-ddrunk comes in that had been in a fight. Had been hit in mouth by fist, was bleeding profusely. Bottom teeth had lacerated lip, almost seperating it from chin. It was held by tissue tags on both sides. Man was VERY DRUNK, very confused, borderline combative, extremely talkative. Finally got wound sutured, pt. D/C'd. Later that night, pt. returns. Another fight, stitches ripped out, one skin tag torn through-bottom lip hanging only by other skin tag. Man very confused, combative, keeps swinging arms and head. Every time head swung, so did lip. He was so drunk he didn't feel the lip flapping in the breeze, and against his face. Finally, I got a mirror, showed him his face-whoa! Scared the sh** out of him! Lay down on the stretcher, and was meek as a lamb as same doc resutred him.

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How about 24 needles into to member... talk about body piercing!!!

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OMG! Is this of the heroin type as described earlier, or some sado-masochist?

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Specializes in ED staff.

Had a pt once who was a homeless paraplegic. Middle of the summer he calls an ambulance to bring him in...I can't even remember what the complaint was. The poor guy was covered in sores especially on his back side but the ickiest part was this... he had a colostomy with no bag on his stoma, in July, in Alabama. He had maggots allover him. The nursing assistant and I went in to clean him up looking like we were going to the moon, had protective garb on everything and when we got through, I took a shower, couldn't get that smell outta my nose to save my life.

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OK, this is the weirdest for me. Working the ER, 58 yr old female, c/o foreign body in lady parts. get her back in exam room, then she says, well, actually, I was raped. So, we call the police, social services, etc. the dr is doing the exam, all the sudden goes "Hey! it's Mr. Potatoe Head" ( as in the TOY!!!)

she had managed to get the FEET of Mr. Potatoe Head pulled off,but he still had the big smile!! When the police took the "evidence" he asked me, "So, is this the perpetrator?"

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One high school student I taught showed me an x-ray when I got to the ED to check on her working-thank goodness she was mature! It was a vibrator in a pt's rectum, and she was lol when she said it was still running! And the wife showed up, The staff had all they could do not to be rotflol!

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Specializes in Hospice, ER, Telemetry.

We once had an older "gentleman" in our ER who had tried to insert a TV remote into his rectum. Got it in there, but got scared when he couldn't get it out. Doc had no sympathy for him, rather than remove it in endo, he removed it digitally right there in the ER with no anesthesia. A few years later, the same man came in with a large pill bottle in the same place. I guess he didn't learn his lesson the first time. He must have really had some issues!!

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I had a patient that I knew was on the verge of dying when I came out of report at 6:30 am. I checked on him briefly at 6:45 and he was still breathing on the Bipap machine. Then the fire alarm went off. I got into check on him again when the respiratory therapist called me in there at 7:30. He had passed away. The Bipap never alarmed that he stopped breathing. I figure that he passed away shortly after I checked on him. When I was doing mouth care on him, I touched his uvula in the back of his throat and IT FELL OFF. It looked like a huge chunk of raw meat. So gross!!! I almost puked right then and there. :imbar

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while working ER..man c/o abdominal pain......the doc removed a bust of beethoven from his rectum.

Middle aged obese woman admitted for SOB. Doc orders a foley cath to be placed.... took two techs to retract her abdominal apron...I found a moldy ham sandwich in the abdominal folds.

chewing gum stuck to the end of a used proctoscope.

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