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!

[Jussurfin]

She tried prying it only to have the top come off and what came out was------------------ SWEET RELISH!

I think you have this backwards. What went in was SWEET relish. What came out was undoubtedly not so sweet.

[lvn_to_rn]

Well,

I have two. The first is when I was working home health and I was sent out to see an old guy who had open wounds. He lived in a very raggedy trailor house, but as I got out of my car and headed to the door I began to smell this terrible smell as I approached the porch I knocked, trying not to gag. About the time he opened the door I was pucking on his front porch. I apologized, stating I was not feeling very well and went on in. All I can say is OMG!! His house was full of cats. Cats who had probably never been outside. There was not one spot of carpet without crunchy cat poop. There were 5 gallon buckets filled with poop sitting throughout the house. Did I mention it was in the heat of summer? His wall were black, his windows were black, as were his dishes in the dish drainer. Black from fly crap!!!! His furniture and bed were covered in cat poop. All the food in his house was cat food. I treated him and left calling my supervisor, she called APS and I never went back or even asked what happened.

Next was a few years ago working in an Orthopedic office a man came in a wheelchair and had a terrible smell about him. (Have you noticed yet that I don't do well with smells?) I got him in a room and listening to his history, began to unwrap a wound on his lower leg. He started telling me he thought ( oh my god I'm gonna gag thinking about this) he had gotten all the maggots out of it. I dropped that dressing before I got it all the way off, ran out of the room and ran straight to the bathroom and vomitted my guts up, over and over. You could smell him all over the office. I had to beg the X-ray tech to do it for me, and he did, but he was gagging the whole time. I was on the other end of the office standing over the trash and every time I heard him gag, I pucked!!!!

Debbie from Tx.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Yes, rotting flesh definitely does stink terribly, but the maggots were there to help debride the wound. I think the worst smell I experienced was on a man who I don't know when he had a bath the last time. It was when I was a nursing student. I felt bad for the poor guy because he was a diabetic with a low mentality, and his two brothers who he lived with smelled the same way. He was my surgical follow-through for the day. My instructor re-assigned him to me the following day, and another student helped me scrub him clean with a surgical scrub brush until he didn't sting anymore. He was still febrile the day we scrubbed him down, but his doc wanted him discharged anyway, and so he went. I honestly believe he missed the smell, because he kept saying he wanted to go home, and he put the very same clothes back on that he had on him when I first met him. Pewie, pewie, pewie. I thought to myself, It's a wonder he didn't have an infection.

[MultipurposeRN]

During the SAE they claimed that it was caused by a strong cervival contraction at the same time the OB was attempting delivery...that along with it only being a 24 weeker. Only time Iv'e seen or heard of it and hopefully I never will again.

This happened at a small hospital near where I live some years ago. Only it was a woman who had no prenatal care and had actually delivered a dead twin to the baby at home a few days before she came to ER to deliver the other. The remaining infant was so decomposed that the head came off during delivery. Of course, a couple years later the family tried to sue the doctor, claiming it was his fault. Fortunately, the lawsuit never got off the ground which is surprising in today's lawsuit happy climate.

[stevierae]

It had to be TODAY! I had a patient who had a FB up his rectum. Surgeon tried to get it out from below because she did not want to open his belly. It was a glass jar and we could see the gold metal cap when she spread open his rectum. She tried prying it only to have the top come off and what came out was------------------ SWEET RELISH! The place smelled like a hot dog stand. She managed to get the jar out while doing no damage. The guy was very lucky, but some of us are going to have a hard time eating any hot dogs in the future. Mike

This is a God's honest story.

Mike, next time (and, there WILL be a next time!) you have this situation, offer the ER doc or surgeon a Stryker or Hall drill and put a very small drill bit on it.

Drill a hole in the cap, or; if it's a bottle, in some exposed portion of the glass. This will release the vacuum and enable the object to be removed more easily, without spilling all its contents, per rectum.

[stevierae]

I felt bad for the poor guy because he was a diabetic with a low mentality, and his two brothers who he lived with smelled the same way. He was my surgical follow-through for the day. My instructor re-assigned him to me the following day, and another student helped me scrub him clean with a surgical scrub brush until he didn't sting anymore. He was still febrile the day we scrubbed him down, but his doc wanted him discharged anyway, and so he went. I honestly believe he missed the smell, because he kept saying he wanted to go home, and he put the very same clothes back on that he had on him when I first met him. Pewie, pewie, pewie. I thought to myself, It's a wonder he didn't have an infection.

Poor guy. He and his brothers sounds like the "bachelor farmers" of Minnesota Garrison Keillor wrote about in "Lake Woebegon."

He said something to the effect that "The bachelor farmers know that spring has come when they begin to smell themselves."

If you encounter this type of situation again, and have a whirlpool available (sometimes whirlpools are readily available only on burn units) you can put him in there--supervised, of course----to make your mechanical scrubbing job a little easier.

We used to get a lot of junkies and homeless people with body lice and crab lice. Doesn't rreally phaze (faze?) me as much as it used to; have seen it so much by now. Used to really gross me out, particularly the crab lice.

[ErinR]

A very pregnant lady came in through the ER up to OB in a wheelchair. As I bent over to lift the footrest, she puked her big mac on the back of my head.

:Melody:

[Mystery5]

I was a new CNA in the nursing home and feeling very proud of my first step in my chosen career.

A nice littel old man in a wheel chair waved at one of my co-workers (a pretty littel 18 year-old, fresh out of high school sugar and spice type of girl). He said "honey come over here please" as she bent down to talk to him. He moved the blanket covering his legs and SPLAT! he ejaculated right in her face and mouth. I never saw her again and thus my nursing career beagn...........[/QUOTE]

OMG, THAT must take the cake!!!

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

It had to be TODAY! I had a patient who had a FB up his rectum. Surgeon tried to get it out from below because she did not want to open his belly. It was a glass jar and we could see the gold metal cap when she spread open his rectum. She tried prying it only to have the top come off and what came out was------------------ SWEET RELISH! The place smelled like a hot dog stand. She managed to get the jar out while doing no damage. The guy was very lucky, but some of us are going to have a hard time eating any hot dogs in the future. Mike

This is a God's honest story.

You know how therre are little blurbs at the bottom of the page that link to various things mentioned in the posts? There's one for "Hot Dog Express " on my screen. Blarg!

[Jrnalist2RNinOR]

Must be because of that "Sweet Relish" comment in the prev quoted post...

[shihtzulover]

Hmmm...maybe I'm not suited for nursing.

[Phoenix56]

I have an interesting one that my caregiver told me about this morning. She has a friend who's an ER nurse, and she had the following experience:

A young couple came into the ER. He with an injury to his member, and she had a head injury.

As the nurse was taking the patients history, she learned that they were at a restaurant having a wedding anniversary dinner. While they were waiting for their meals, he said to her, "I dare you to get under the table and service me." The loving wife did as was told, and during the process, she had a seizure. That was when she received the head injury. Her husband was stabbing her in the head with a fork to get her to loosen her grip.:roll :chuckle

I am a paramedic and, now, an RN student. Years ago, when I was a fairly new medic I went to a car accident on a country road, auto vs tree. The tree was about 200 yds off the road and the car had crushed it's front end in a major way. I had two pts. Man with pelvic pain and woman with head injuries. The mans pants were unfastened and he was "outside" his underwear. Turns out he had bilat fx of ischial loops. She had contusions to face, but no fx. I am surprised there was no bite marks involved.

And now, I have to go to bed, I am due to work the ambulance at 8 am and it is now almost 130am; been reading the posts instead of sleeping.