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!)
I was a Student Nurse giving a confused elderly woman a bath.Her mouth was very nasty with dried white stuff all in it.I gave her good mouth care and was leaning in to clean good and she spit.I had my mouth open and it went right in.I ran to the restroom and vomited and kept cleaning my mouth.Needless to say,I learned to keep my mouth shut and keep better distance from that lesson.I still about vomit to this day 15 years later about this.
Oh I quickly learned the hard way to keep my mouth shut when I'm within 3 feet of a patient, nose breathing only. That's actually one of the tips I would pass onto a newbie. Did she spit on purpose?
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.
This is still the most disturbing story in the thread for me.
When I worked in a nursing home an elderly woman had diahhrroea, she did it all in the beed, it even had carrots in it!I went in to dress her in the morning and found her like it, totally naked and covered in faeces from her belly to her legs. I smell kept making me retch. Anyway I washed her down. I then left the smelly, dripping sheets in the laundry room (thinking the laundry person would do it, it was my second day and I didnt know any better). One of the senior carers told me I had to stand at the sink and scrub the dirty sheets which were covered in poo, which I did. Needless to say I only lasted 2 weeks there!!And now am training to be an RN in peds! (at least they dont do as much poo!)
My first week on the job at a LTC facility, I was walking my hall when I noticed the smell of bm. This is not unusual, but it was very strong! I entered a room to find a middle aged resident had taken off his attends, was covered in what looked like a gallon of stool..... AND HE WAS MASTURBATING USING THE STOOL AS LUBRICANT!!!! It took me an hour to get him and everything else cleaned up, but once I was done, I knew I could handle anything!!
Okay here goes....not as bad as many here, but has disturbed me for years.
A pubecsent boy, big for his age and very strong had very severe autism and was admitted for continual rumination and malnutrition as a result. He was non verbal and very difficult to manage/control, re-direct etc. I had to relieve the sitter for her break one night. As I sat next to his bed, within arm's reach as was required, in the dark, he began to masturbate and continuously ruminate. I guess you had to be there, but the sounds and activity was very disturbing. I prayed for his parents for days and days...
I was on orientation at my current job as a hospice nurse. I decided to do some on-call with my preceptor. At like 1am, We got a call that a patient was having rectal bleeding. She had recently been started on xarelto (don't ask me why someone would start a hospice patient on that). Anyhow, we get to see the patient and the poor thing was literally lying in a pool of blood and was actively dying. Her poor daughter was at the facility. We had the daughter step out of the room and asked for some fresh linens. The facility staff said "oh we were just going to wait until she died to clean her up". I'm sure many of you have smelled the classic GI bleed..as if that smell wasn't gross enough.... Removing the woman's clothing and sheets, hot and dripping wet with blood, stool and huge blood clots. I will never ever ever forget that. The patient lived another 8 hours or so. The only saving grace in this is that the patient was unaware of what was going on and wasn't showing signs of pain.
I was on orientation at my current job as a hospice nurse. I decided to do some on-call with my preceptor. At like 1am, We got a call that a patient was having rectal bleeding. She had recently been started on xarelto (don't ask me why someone would start a hospice patient on that). Anyhow, we get to see the patient and the poor thing was literally lying in a pool of blood and was actively dying. Her poor daughter was at the facility. We had the daughter step out of the room and asked for some fresh linens. The facility staff said "oh we were just going to wait until she died to clean her up". I'm sure many of you have smelled the classic GI bleed..as if that smell wasn't gross enough.... Removing the woman's clothing and sheets, hot and dripping wet with blood, stool and huge blood clots. I will never ever ever forget that. The patient lived another 8 hours or so. The only saving grace in this is that the patient was unaware of what was going on and wasn't showing signs of pain.
Had a pt who had a bowel obstruction. Refused NG tube, getting worse through the evening. She wasn't my patient, but my coworker finally talked her into it. Dropping tubes is my forte', so my coworker got her to accept by telling her there was someone who could do this painlessly. She had me take one of the CNAs in with me because she was a nursing student. I proceeded to drop this tube, when the woman begins erupting the most foul fecal/ gastric smelling fluid I have smelled, looking like Mt. Vesuvius. She then proceeds to code. I get the CNA (I know, I'm evil) to start compressions and this vile fluid spews with each compression. We attempted to suction to drop the ET tube and it just kept flowing. I slowly backed out of the room and let my coworker deal with it.
The most memorable memory I have from my time in the ER is when a known prostitute came in complaining about lower abdominal pain. We thought it was from her many known STDs so we escorted her back to a room and told her to change so the doctor can do a pelvic exam. A few minutes later we go into the room almost being knocked down by the odor coming from her. She assumes the position and I stood behind the doctor assisting. As he opens her up we both almost pass out because as we bring the light closer we see dozens of maggots crawling around in her lady parts. She proceeds to tell us that "business" had been slow and she needed to get off so she stuck canned tuna up her so a dog can lick it out and get her off
The most memorable memory I have from my time in the ER is when a known prostitute came in complaining about lower abdominal pain. We thought it was from her many known STDs so we escorted her back to a room and told her to change so the doctor can do a pelvic exam. A few minutes later we go into the room almost being knocked down by the odor coming from her. She assumes the position and I stood behind the doctor assisting. As he opens her up we both almost pass out because as we bring the light closer we see dozens of maggots crawling around in her lady parts. She proceeds to tell us that "business" had been slow and she needed to get off so she stuck canned tuna up her so a dog can lick it out and get her off
NotAllWhoWandeRN, ASN, RN
791 Posts
With ketchup, please.