I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.
We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.
So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!
I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.
As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...
My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.
Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.
As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)
fyi my dear nurses: when someone leaves a tampon in for 3+ months, do not send the tampon in a cup for a culture. just swab the green, yellow, black, & gray mucus off of it and throw it away; because that is what the lab is gonna do anyway. it smells to high hell.
bbbbbllllleeeeccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
yyeerrcccchhhh!
excuse mw while i go and get a washtub full of vicks and a rather large barf bag...
My story isn't nearly as awful as many of the others, but it was the one time I truly lost it. I've been pooped on, vomited on, and seen many icky things, but this was the one time I broke down.
We were turning a dead gentleman to place him in the body bag, and I was up near his head when we turned him towards me. Suddenly, I felt something cold running down my leg and into my shoe. I looked down and saw/smelled dead bowel liquid running out of his mouth, onto me. I think it was the unnatural COLDNESS of the fluid that was so disturbing.
I was like, "Oh! Help! Help!" A nurse's aide led me to the shower and got me plenty of soap and fresh scrubs.
I'm usually the one with a cool head who can handle the crisis situation, but being puked on by a dead man freaked me out. They still laugh about the time I got Zombie Juice on me.
This one didn't happen to me, but it happened to my good friend, and it's a classic.
The patient was an unfortunate woman who'd been ejected from her car and then laid in a ditch for an unknown length of time until she was discovered. She had severe basilar skull fractures, and it was summer in Texas.
A few nights later, my friend was bathing her. She was washing the patient's face when suddenly a stream of hundreds of maggots came spewing out of the patient's nose. Maggots were everywhere: squirming on the patient's mouth, her chin, her gown, falling off the sides of the bed.
My friend, who is the most excellent ICU nurse and as cool as a cucumber, screamed like a little girl. The phlebotomist was drawing blood at that moment; when Jeni started screaming, he immediately ran away, out of the room, leaving the needle in the patient's arm. The rest of the staff took one look at Jeni's ashen face and thought she was about to die; someone grabbed the crash cart.
To this day, ten years later, Jeni has never eaten rice again.
When I was a student, we were permitted to work in our training hospital. A female on our med/surg unit came in after laying in her home for who knows how long. She had a lesion...no...a huge hole, in the side of her neck. already filled with maggots when she came into the ED. The night nurses thought it would be a good learning experience for me to change her dressing. Luckily at that time, it was just outside of the realm of what I was allowed to do. WHEW!!!
My niece had fraternal twins in '96. The girl's gestational age was 37 weeks and the boy's gestational age was 36 weeks. She said that's what happens when you do it twice in one week...lol
Specializes in Hospice & Palliative Care, Oncology, M/S.
When I was a student, we were permitted to work in our training hospital. A female on our med/surg unit came in after laying in her home for who knows how long. She had a lesion...no...a huge hole, in the side of her neck. already filled with maggots when she came into the ED. The night nurses thought it would be a good learning experience for me to change her dressing. Luckily at that time, it was just outside of the realm of what I was allowed to do. WHEW!!!
Good grief - to this, and the story above.
I have a feeling that anything involving maggots is going to be my downfall.
sharpeimom
2,452 Posts
bbbbbllllleeeeccccccccchhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
yyeerrcccchhhh!
excuse mw while i go and get a washtub full of vicks and a rather large barf bag...
kathy
shar pei mom:paw::paw: