What is the most interesting case you've seen in the ER?

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Jan 17, 2012

not necessarily the most INTERESTING clinically, but definately something that has stuck w/me. Our DEM has a 6 bed Mental health treatment area for psych pt's, sometimes etoh pts, suicidal/homicidal, etc. Well when I was a new nurse and new to the ER, there was a pt in MHT for acute psychosis, hallucinations etc. however the patient also happened to be pregnant, around 16-20wks i think, and was complaining of abdominal pain. well in our ER that automatically earns you a pelvic exam, so during the exam the MD says "what the heck.. whats in here?!" at the same time he's pulling a significant amount of some foreign objects out w/forceps. after a few minutes of trying to figure out what the heck it was, we realized it was chicken wings! honest to god, actual buffalo chicken wings, bones and all! Immediately the patient goes nuts, screaming for us to put them back in b/c her baby is so hungry and she's trying to feed her baby! she became so upset that we "stole her baby's food" that she had to be restrained and given sedation so she couldn't hurt herself or anyone else. She was a tiny little thing, but she had to have had at least 6 chicken wings up there, wings and drumsticks lol, no idea how long they had been up there or how she managed not to perforate her lady parts or cervix. all i could think about after that was god i hope those weren't the super hot buffalo style wings b/c i can't imagine what pain that would cause, and also kind of impressed that she was at least ATTEMPTING to take care of her baby, even if it was in a really gross, psychotic way lol.

:eek:

zoidberg, BSN, RN · Jan 19, 2012

we realized it was chicken wings! honest to god, actual buffalo chicken wings, bones and all!

and i thought i liked chicken wings!

DebanamRN, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2012

plasmapheresis on a patient withbabesiosis and no spleen. the pt had all his red blood cells exchanged in an effort to save his life. took 20 units of prbcs. i transported the bags of blood in a basin. sadly, the pt died.

lvad - weird to hear humming where a heartbeat should be.

charcot-marie-tooth disease - thought is was a dental disorder,, had to google this. charcot-marie-tooth disease fact sheet: national institute of neurological disorders and stroke (ninds)

klienfelter's syndrome - had to google that one too.

[/h]]klinefelter's syndrome: medlineplus

All4NursingRN · Jan 20, 2012

Earlier this week had a patient with metastic brain Cancer (DNR/DNI) who came in handcuffed to the stretcher with the police and his family because of his extreme agitation (due to the brain ca), we gave this man as much as we could to sedate him, without any luck, we phyically restrained him (3 nurses, 1 tech, MD all at bedside) even with 2 and 4 point restraints with no luck. Eventually after 3 hours of restraining and trying to calm him he exhausted himself, gasping for air and basically coded. Dead within 5 hours. So sad.

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Jan 22, 2012

Son brings his mom in by ambulance. She had a root canal 4 days earlier. He couldn't get her on the phone so decides to go check on her. He finds her unresponsive. She's taken almost all of the Percodan and hasn't touched the Pen-V-K. The roof of her mouth is even with her teeth its so swollen. She gets tubed immediately. there are no unit beds so she has to stay with us. We have her in a sitting position in the bed. The swelling starts heading south. The oral surgeon comes in and puts a series of penrose drains in her neck and they are all oozing pus. Someone croaks in MICU so we send her upstairs. She ends up having medistinitis and should die but she didn't. The oral surgeon submitted an article to such and such journal and it was published.

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Feb 7, 2012

1. Stroke alert by EMS, right side completely flaccid, blown right pupil, hypertensive 220's/130's, GCS of 8. We get a second call to have respiratory on standby because his O2 sats were dropping and they were going to intubate, ETA 5 minutes. They were unloading him from the ambulance, he suddenly jerked upright and vomited his ET tube out! As we are walking to CT the pt 'miraculously' recovers, NIH of 0, initial head CT negative. HTN resolved. Admitted for observation.

That's one helluva TIA or MIRACLE in my book! lol

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Feb 7, 2012

I don't know that these are my MOST interesting, but definately up there, and both happened on the same night, last week.

26y/o black male transferred to us for c/o "t.v. remote in rectum x 2 days", it was a big sucker too, took 3 AAA batteries and had to be surgically removed!

An hour left till shift change, EMS comes on the radio saying they are bringing a 44y/o white male who cut off his member with SCISSORS after FOUR attempts, because "jesus told him to do it", and was then thrown into a field to feed the rats! member was not recovered, pt waited 5hrs to call EMS, he came in with probably about an 3/4in of a mangled looking nub. Earned himself an immediate suprapubic cath, cauterization, and a trip to the O.R.

Saddest part about it was that he did it in front of his 13y/o son whose mother had killed herself a few weeks prior and both parents were schizophrenic! He was so distraught in the E.R. and they couldn't find any family to come get him... poor kid :bluecry1:

sweetnurse63, BSN, RN · Feb 7, 2012

Oh my gosh!!!!! your er stories takes the cake.

sweetnurse63, BSN, RN · Feb 7, 2012

Now this story is bizzare

Christy1019, ASN, RN · Feb 15, 2012

lol, i'm pretty sure i'd still encounter these bizarre situations even if I had a desk job lol, as my coworkers always remind me, i'm the sh*t magnet and call me the "psych whisperer" lmao, and they seem to find me outside of work like I'm wearing a sign that says "if you're crazy please come tell me all about it!" haha

CrashED · Feb 15, 2012

1) Paramedics report patient is found acting "Bizarre", diaphoretic, co Chest Pain radiating to his neck. Turns out the patient had a whole slue of problems. STEMI, Menningitis and to top it all off he had a CVA too!! Needless to say he had quite an impressive CT scan and his Lab work lit up light a christmas tree!

2) Man comes in with 4 ruptured aneurysms in his head...Talking, GCS15, Neurologically intact...only minor complaint sinus headache! CT showed the entire frontal lobe as a puddle of blood!

3)4yr old comes in with decreased LOC, did a full work up...turns out he got into someones special brownies, he woke up asking for some chips!

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · Feb 17, 2012

3rd degree block on a patient with previous hx of renal failure and dialysis. we emergently dialyzed him and watched the 3rd degree block reverse itself.