What Is Your Most Gross, Yucky, Disgusting Nursing Horror Story?

[yazisizit]

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!)

And of course, now so did I!

[luvche]

I thought my grossest story was when a gentleman's G-tube became clogged. We tried EVERY old fashioned and new fashioned way to unclog it. Finally my charge nurse decided it just needed elbow grease. I stood back. She did until the pressure shot the syringe out along with all the old, rotten tube feeding. Guess who it hit? ME!!! It smelled like rotting milk. All we had in spray form was Lysol. So after wiping down I had to decide whether I wanted to smell like rotten milk or ORIGINAL (not meadow fresh!!) industrial Lysol. It was a great rest of the night.

The next year, I was travel nursing. A co-worker had a patient who was old, homeless and b*t sh*t crazy. He finally had to be restrained. He was also receiving blood. We walked into his room to check on him and had somehow got to his IV line, chewed in in half and was DRINKING THE BLOOD HE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE INFUSING!!!! All this in a period of 5-10 minutes!!!! While in restraints!!!!!!!!!

[RexNYC]

I had an elderly patient who was receiving tube feeds through his PEG. Around mid-morning he had vomitted so I decided to turn off his feeds for a while. A couple hours after turning off the feeds I gave him some po meds through his PEG & followed it up with a flush. As I turn my head away from the patient to place the cath tip syringe on his bedside table I hear a retching sound & the next thing I know the poor guy is projectile vomitting literally gallons of bile all over me. :barf02:My entire left side was soaked: my scrub top, my pants, & my long-sleeved undershirt. I must've been in a little bit of shock because as I'm coming out of his room & everyone realizes what has just happened to me all I could think was: "I gotta decompress his belly right now!" Luckily my charge nurse took me in hand. He reassured me he would take care of my patient & he took me to another section of the unit & got one of the nurse practitioners to find me another set of scrubs to change into. I will remember that moment for the rest of my life.

[Leonca]

The next year, I was travel nursing. A co-worker had a patient who was old, homeless and b*t sh*t crazy. He finally had to be restrained. He was also receiving blood. We walked into his room to check on him and had somehow got to his IV line, chewed in in half and was DRINKING THE BLOOD HE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE INFUSING!!!! All this in a period of 5-10 minutes!!!! While in restraints!!!!!!!!!

That may be less disgusting than all the patients who are caught eating their own poo, but it's still pretty disturbing.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

One of the worst things I saw was total fecal and urinary incontinence in a cat caused by the Manx gene. Some Manx are missing nerves which prevents them from having control of their bowels. The kitten was 15 weeks old. I don't know how the client was able to put up with that for so long before bringing it in. The client agreed to euthanasia since it isn't treatable and an x-ray we took afterward showed severe megacolon from inability to properly empty the bowels.I must have the missing Manx nerves then too.

[NurseAuntowl]

I work on a critical care step-down unit where we see all manner of wounds. The worst (so far - I'm still a new nurse) was a very unfortunate gentleman admitted with sepsis associated with gangranosum pyoderma, an autoimmune disorder that results in giant horrific stage IV and V wounds with tunneling that connected some of them ALL OVER HIS BODY - trunk, buttocks, groin, arms and legs. He'd been cared for at home by his wife and a home healthcare nurse for 6 months prior to admit, and they'd been dressing the wounds with wet packing and duoderm and leaving them covered for days at a time, so you can imagine what we found when we finally got all the dressings off him. Dear lord the SMELL. He required jet lavage debridement every other day and a full dressing change every day, a process that could take as long a three hours and had to be done in a couple of blocks so he could be medicated and we could stand to be in the room with him - and this went on for 5 weeks. By the time we finally got him DC'd to rehab, the whole unit smelled like rotting flesh.

[luvche]

I work on a critical care step-down unit where we see all manner of wounds. The worst (so far - I'm still a new nurse) was a very unfortunate gentleman admitted with sepsis associated with gangranosum pyoderma, an autoimmune disorder that results in giant horrific stage IV and V wounds with tunneling that connected some of them ALL OVER HIS BODY - trunk, buttocks, groin, arms and legs. He'd been cared for at home by his wife and a home healthcare nurse for 6 months prior to admit, and they'd been dressing the wounds with wet packing and duoderm and leaving them covered for days at a time, so you can imagine what we found when we finally got all the dressings off him. Dear lord the SMELL. He required jet lavage debridement every other day and a full dressing change every day, a process that could take as long a three hours and had to be done in a couple of blocks so he could be medicated and we could stand to be in the room with him - and this went on for 5 weeks. By the time we finally got him DC'd to rehab, the whole unit smelled like rotting flesh.

We had a lady brought to hospital from nursing home. When I got report from ER, they said when they pulled off her leg bandages, there were maggots all in her wounds (when did nursing home last check her wounds?????)

we had to do many wet to dry dressings daily. My sift fell such that I had to do them twice a shift. IV fentanyl along with PO percocet didn't even begin to help the pain this woman had during that. She was about 85 years old. So sad. No family to speak of that we knew

[mscranton]

While I was changing an ostomy bag and cleaning his site; some feces splashed onto my lip!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly stand to even think about it!!!!

[NurseAuntowl]

While I was changing an ostomy bag and cleaning his site; some feces splashed onto my lip!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can hardly stand to even think about it!!!!

We had a long-term pt. with an osotomy bag that required emptying every hour (or more) OR ELSE. It exploded on a regular basis - the first time it was noteworthy for a new nurse, but after that it just became routine. They ought to make those things with a one-way gas valve - 30 cc's of fluid, and it's exploding? (and I'm guessing you WOULDN'T be surprised how far 30cc's of fecal fluid can travel under pressure).

[rph3664]

We had a long-term pt. with an osotomy bag that required emptying every hour (or more) OR ELSE. It exploded on a regular basis - the first time it was noteworthy for a new nurse, but after that it just became routine. They ought to make those things with a one-way gas valve - 30 cc's of fluid, and it's exploding? (and I'm guessing you WOULDN'T be surprised how far 30cc's of fecal fluid can travel under pressure).

I never had kids, but even I know that.

[bevtag]

gag! That makes me vomit in my mouth just a little...

[anon456, BSN, RN]

I'm still in nursing school but I had a good one last week. I'm sure I'll have more stories with time .. . . there was a pt in ER who had very decreased LOC and a fever. I put the suppository in, and diarrhea came back out all over my hand before I had the thing pushed in fully.

We had a pt. with hepatic encephalopathy who was also going through ETOH withdrawl. He was quite out of his mind and hallucinating, cursing, etc. He had reportedly not gone BM in a good long while and was given a stool softener during the night shift. Of course, I was there when he started to stool. Let me tell you it was foul. And of course in his confusion the poor guy was smearing it all over himself, his hair, the bed, and then us as we tried to get him cleaned up. I grabbed an isolation gown and mask from another pt's room and the CNA thought that was a great idea and did the same. So although we didn't come in contact with the poo directly, it was still a hard job. And sad.

And I still want to be a nurse. LOL!

[anon456, BSN, RN]

When I did m OB rotation for nursing school, a classmate told of a client in labor who had come in with a house-arrest ankle bracelet on. Her partner/father of the baby also had one on his ankle. Obviously they had permission to come out of house arrest for the birth of the baby. Well, after baby was born it too got a security ankle bracelet as part of the security system. My friend thought they should all put their feet together for a family picture!!