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!)
Specializes in Acute Care - Adult, Med Surg, Neuro.
Back in my CNA days, me and co-worker had a patient on a Sit to Stand lift. We had sat her on the toilet, and then after giving her some time, we lifted her back up to clean her bottom. My co-worker was operating the Sit to Stand. The bathroom was small, so I was crunched in the back. I bent over and went in to wipe the patient's bottom. Suddenly the patient let out a huge fart, except liquid stool shot projectile out of her bottom. I jumped out of the way just in time, otherwise my face, hair, arms, and upper torso would have been coated in liquid BM. Instead, the entire back wall of the bathroom and toilet was coated and dripping with diarrhea. This was a nursing home on 2nd shift, so we had to clean it up (house keeping had left for the day).
It was a horrible task, but I will never forget how grateful I was to have dodged that bullet.
Well as a NICU nurse we don't get to witness many of the lovely things that have been described...but I have one that not only is the grossest thing that has ever happened but also the thing that to this day gives me nightmares. So, if you decide to read on youv'e been warned
The NICU team was called by L&D for a 24 week gestation delivery. The woman had walked in with her bag bulging and the babies feet were included. Well the labor had gone to far to consider a C/S so the OB resident was going to deliver the baby vag. Well as we all stand there waiting to do our thing (the mother wanted everthing done) the mom pushes and the OB pulls, out came the baby and was put on the warmer. The baby looked very strange even took me and the Neo a second to figure out what was wrong, because it was so unbelivable....
The baby had been decapitated...all that we got was the body and the brain stem. The head had to be delivered by C/S. To this day I can not even imagine what those parents must have gone through. It was like being in a horror film. Needless to say I have never seen the OB resident again.
Oh.my.god. I'm completely speechless. I want to be a l&d nurse but I wouldn't be able to hold back the tears on that one.
Tonight, I had a pt with most of the skin on his right arm and side scraped off. Lots of muscle exposed. Moral of the story: don't motorcycle shirtless. At least he had a helmet on. He'll live.
A few weeks ago I had a kid with a suspected hot appy puke spaghetti all over my feet. Dunno the outcome on that one.
Two months ago during a code, I intubated an older woman who must have never gone to a dentist in her life. The four teeth she had were yellow or black and her gums were red and receding. She came in for an unrelated issue and didn't survive being coded.
Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
nitenite said:
Tonight, I had a pt with most of the skin on his right arm and side scraped off. Lots of muscle exposed. Moral of the story: don't motorcycle shirtless. At least he had a helmet on. He'll live.
A few weeks ago I had a kid with a suspected hot appy puke spaghetti all over my feet. Dunno the outcome on that one.
Two months ago during a code, I intubated an older woman who must have never gone to a dentist in her life. The four teeth she had were yellow or black and her gums were red and receding. She came in for an unrelated issue and didn't survive being coded.
They say that your dental health is an indicator of your overall health.. ?
Specializes in Critical Care, ED, Cath lab, CTPAC,Trauma.
Christy1019 said:
They say that your dental health is an indicator of your overall health.. ?
I think it is a shame that dental coverage is so minimal, not on medicare and cost prohibitive. The elderly can barely afford their medicines let alone dental work and dentures.
Two months ago during a code, I intubated an older woman who must have never gone to a dentist in her life. The four teeth she had were yellow or black and her gums were red and receding. She came in for an unrelated issue and didn't survive being coded.
I think, left over from it being considered normal aging to lose your dentition, and/or it is cosmetic.
I think it is a shame that dental coverage is so minimal, not on medicare and cost prohibitive. The elderly can barely afford their medicines let alone dental work and dentures.
I just remembered this one from over a year ago. Really minor, but it made me cringe at the time.
I needed to get a weight on a Pomeranian that had come into the clinic, so put her on the small scale. She was trying to jump off, so I put my hands around her to encourage her to stay still. I felt something wet and squishy, and realized I had just put my finger on one of her enormous eyes that were bulging out of her tiny face. Those small breeds with shallow eye sockets make me nervous. Poor things often get corneal injuries or have their eyes pop out after a blow to the head. The dog showed no reaction, but I jerked my hand away and felt pretty grossed out. Eyeballs getting touched or injured are one of the things that can nauseate me the most.
I figure one of my first patient deaths was a little traumatizing. The patient was a DNR and actively dying. Terrible lung sounds. I managed to be in the room with him as he was taking his last breaths. Almost immediately after expiring, blood poured out of his mouth and nose (maybe more orifices, I don't remember). I haven't seen that happen since. But, I was very glad his family wasn't there to experience it. We cleaned him up and his family arrived not too long after. I know that people are sad missing the final moments of their loved ones, but I am glad his family missed that particularly gruesome event..
Specializes in NICU, Acute Rehab, Med/Surg, Quality.
Taking a patient to the bathroom for a sitz bath (back in the 80's) after she had hemorrhoid surgery and being S*** on. Looking down to see my white shoes and pants covered in loose stool.
Mine had to be my first week at the hospital. I was on tele on the night ahift and at 2am the monitor tech calls me to tell me one of my pts took off their heart monitor. I went in the room and it was a horror show. There was poop EVERYWHERE!!! It was on the toilet seat, in the shower, trailing to the bed. The pt was covered in poop and laying in his bed like nothing happened. To make matters worse he was a flaky man. His skin was so dry. It took me at least 2 hiurs to wash him and the bed. I had housekeeping clean the bathroom.
Leonca
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