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!

[TDub, MSN, EdD]

WOW, excellent above post! Thank you ; very informative.

I had a patient with Stevens-Johnson once. It must have been a mild case because the pt lived. However, their bed was constantly filling up with what looked like dirty cornflakes. It was the pt's skin flaking off.

[Christie RN2006]

PLease read about TENS -put aside your judgments for a moment-is it possible he had something other then psoriasis? Once you see this you never forget it-it can move fast and it's deadly..And once you do see it it qualifies for this thread-the patient I cared for even had sloughing of her eyes.After her skin peeled off in sheets she was just raw meat.She was an elderly gal and had a reaction to a med.Before she was diagnosed many of my co-workers reacted just like you did---they looked at her flaking and raw body and thought her family had neglected her and that was far from the truth...Could you be mistaken,too? Consider the list of meds linked to TENS-very common in psych and geri populations.....

Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis can start with non-specific symptoms such as cough, aching, headaches, and feverishness. This may be followed by a red rash across the face and the trunk of the body, which can continue to spread to other parts of the body. The rash can form into blisters, and these blisters can form in areas such as the eyes, mouth and lady partsl area. The mucous membranes can become inflamed, and with Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis layers of the skin can also come away with ease and often the skin peels away in sheets. The hair and nails can also come away in some cases, and sufferers can become cold and feverish.

With Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis the most common cause of death is infection, which can enter through the exposed areas. This disease can leave the skin looking as though it has been burned, and areas where skin has flayed away can seep copiously and quickly become infected.

Both Stevens-Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis can start with non-specific symptoms such as:

Coughing

Aching

Headaches

Feverishness

Vomiting

Diarrhoea

This is usually followed by a red rash across the face and the trunk of the body, which can continue to spread to other parts of the body. Blisters then form across the body in places such as the nose, mouth, eyes, and genital areas, and the mucous membrane becomes inflamed. With some people the nails and hair begin to come out as well. In the case of Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis patients, the skin can start to come away in sheets leaving exposed flesh that could be likened to serious burning and is very susceptible to infection. Both of these disease variations are potentially deadly. In drug related cases, the symptoms for both diseases can take one or two weeks to manifest from the first time the patient takes the drug.

Drugs that have been linked to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome include:

NSAIDS (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs),

Allopurinol,

Phenytoin,

Carbamazepine,

Barbiturates,

Anticonvulsants,

Sulfa Antibiotics,

Children's Motrin,

Advil,

Children's Advil,

Cox-2 Inhibitor

In some cases, the condition is caused by a bacterial infection. However, in many cases there is no known cause for the onset of Stevens-Johnson Syndrome or Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. These skin diseases can cause massive pain, suffering and anxiety. People that have taken or are taking medications such as the ones mentioned above are urged to familiarize themselves with the symptoms of SJS (Stevens-Johnson Syndrome) and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis (TEN). This will enable you to seek immediate medical attention should the need arise, and early initiation of treatment can make a big difference to the seriousness of the disease as this can stop any secondary infections. The aim of this website page is to help educate and informed the public about the symptoms, causes and treatment of SJS and TEN, and also to offer advice with regards to possible legal options of those affected by these diseases.

As stated above Stevens-Johnson Syndrome is a potentially deadly skin disease that usually results from a negative drug reaction. Another form of the disease is called Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis, and again this usually results from a drug-related reaction. Both forms of the disease can be deadly as well as very painful and distressing. In most cases, these disorders are caused by a reaction to a drug, and one drug that has come under fire lately is the cox-2 inhibitor Bextra, which is already linked to these disorders.

other drugs that have been linked to Stevens-Johnson Syndrome include:

NSAIDS (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs),

Allopurinol,

Phenytoin,

Carbamazepine,

Barbiturates,

Anticonvulsants,

Sulfa Antibiotics,

Children's Motrin,

Advil,

Children's Advil,

Cox-2 Inhibitor

>>>>>>> I don't mean to hijack the thread-as a nurse with experience in both acute care and LTC I have seen both sides of the fence.I hate how quick we are to bash each other whenever we can.We all have our own unique challenges every day

I seriously think I had a patient with this!! His skin was literally flaking off. He was losing all of his hair and his skin was just peeling off in sheets. He had multiple stage 2-3 wounds all over his body. When I had him, I noticed a red rash all over his arms, chest and abdomen. I told the doc about it and he said that he just thought it was a mild reaction to a med... He also had a fever!

[EmmaG, RN]

PLease read about TENS -put aside your judgments for a moment-is it possible he had something other then psoriasis?

I didn't say he had psoriasis... that was his diagnosis on admission. I probably wasn't clear in my post, but I didn't for a moment believe it was that. Sorry for the confusion, I can see where you'd think so. From the transfer notes, this condition (whatever it was) did not appear rapidly as you describe, but had progressed over a period of time in that it was obvious someone had dropped the ball in getting him the treatment he needed.

But then, we never heard a definitive diagnosis on this case. The attending did not mention either condition in his assessment. If (whatever it was) was due to a not-so-uncommon side effect of psych meds as described, then they were even more lax IMO for not picking up on it. This wasn't someone who'd just come into the system. He was a long term resident and ward of the state.

[tiggerforhim]

WOW, excellent above post! Thank you ; very informative.

I had a patient with Stevens-Johnson once. It must have been a mild case because the pt lived. However, their bed was constantly filling up with what looked like dirty cornflakes. It was the pt's skin flaking off.

I had a patient at a major research facility come in with a very, very, very RARE condition, and I can't remember the name of it, sorry. His skin was bright pink and it flaked off in sheets, not flakes. He had to wear socks as part of his dermatologic treatment and taking off his socks, sheesh. They were full of flakes and chunks. He was peeling like the worst sunburn ever. The weird thing about his condition was that his outer (skin) temperature stayed low, about 95 or 96, but his inner core temp was very high, about 99+. He told me if he wasn't careful he'd give himself a stroke from overheating. He had to do the typical skin condition things - cover up in the sun, not get much exposure, etc. He was there for a second opinion and treatment if possible. He was also one of the nicest patients I'd ever had.

[NurseKatie08, MSN]

Classic Dirty Old Man story--my second day working on a busy adult medicine unit at a large hospital this summer as a student nurse tech. I thought I'd seen my share of crazy things working in Alzheimer's care, but I was wrong. The nurse manager asked me if I could feed a patient for one of the nurses, so I said sure, that's fine. She tells me, he's mostly non-verbal, dementia, etc...so I'm thinking this is nothing I'm not used to. Well, boy was I wrong! I go to feed the guy, and for half the time I'm feeding him, he repeatedly pulls down the covers and plays with himself. And became rather verbal when he said what he wanted to do with me--I'm sure you can use your imagination. So I put the food down, tell him that this sort of behavior is not ok. I then leave the room and let the nurse manager know he was a heck of a lot more verbal than she thought! I still get the creeps every time I remember that story, but its not as bad as the ejaculation one

[EmmaG, RN]

Had a crazy old man who would climb out of his bed and into those of other patients where he'd proceed to have a BM, then return to his own bed. He even got out of restraints (placed for obvious reasons) to do so.

[uraqt2]

I was working acute care and had a pt. who had originally came in with a fx of the femur. He developed numerous other problems (too many to list) but when he developed pneumonia we couldn't figure out why he wasn't responding to tx. Finally one day the pt. coughed up a 6 in. long thick green something that didn't look normal and the smell was something that is indescribable. His wife came to the nurses station to get me and tell me what had happened. Well I placed the specimen in a cup and called the doc to find out if he wanted any labs done. Took the specimen down to lab holding it as far away from me as possible and out of sight trying not to gag all the way down and dropped the specimen off. When lab called with the results it was no wonder why he hadn't responded to tx. The specimen turned out to be a piece of steak that he'd aspirated on. Ok so its not the grosses story on this site but imaging the smell of rotting flesh that has been caught in the bronchial branch for a week covered in phlegm EWWWWW I will never forget that smell. To this day I'll still gag at the thought.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Finally one day the pt. coughed up a 6 in. long thick green something that didn't look normal and the smell was something that is indescribable. The specimen turned out to be a piece of steak that he'd aspirated on. Ok so its not the grosses story on this site but imaging the smell of rotting flesh that has been caught in the bronchial branch for a week covered in phlegm EWWWWW I will never forget that smell. To this day I'll still gag at the thought.

ew! But-very common-I had a youngish guy at our small local community hospital once that came in because he had choked at dinner 2 days previously and felt like "something is caught in my throat" Small SMALL community hospital-the guy had a strong odor of ETOH and a good airway so they admitted him and bronched him late the next afternoon...His breath was AWFUL! The doc said it's always the drinkers eating steak-they forget to chew.I never have drinks at the steakhouse with my dinner now...... OH!! And talking about masturbating! Just today in the LTC another nurse and I went to assist a resident.He has a "telethon" disease (can't tell you more) and he was lying on his back with his right hand down his pants.A cna called us into the room because he "does not look right" Of course he had a funny look on his face! Yup! He was spanking his monkey.We had to put him back in his w/ch because he was supposed to be eating lumch.When we went to pick him up my co-worker said ' I'll take his left side".She's a little stinker....

[rngrad_2006]

When I was in nursing school, we were cleaning a pt who had a foley and as we turned her, her foley tubing got caught on something and came apart, thus flicking urine at me. A lot of areas to hit and where does it go "MY EYE". That is not the only thing ending up in my eye. I was doing a finger stick and the test strips we use are very rigid and it hit against the pts finger and flicked the blood up at me and oh yes it went in "MY EYE" Of all the places on my entire body, don't know why things end up there. I had to go to ER and fill out an incident report. Ridiculous!!!

[EmmaG, RN]

When I was in nursing school, we were cleaning a pt who had a foley and as we turned her, her foley tubing got caught on something and came apart, thus flicking urine at me. A lot of areas to hit and where does it go "MY EYE". That is not the only thing ending up in my eye. I was doing a finger stick and the test strips we use are very rigid and it hit against the pts finger and flicked the blood up at me and oh yes it went in "MY EYE" Of all the places on my entire body, don't know why things end up there. I had to go to ER and fill out an incident report. Ridiculous!!!

I was emptying a foley and even though I ALWAYS look up and away, I felt it splash into my eye. To this day, I have no idea how it managed to do that; must have ricocheted lol. But even worse, the patient had a rip-roaring (multi-organism) UTI. I flush it out with saline and finally get the incident report stuff done (I'm a traveler, and no one seemed to know the protocol). My company tells me to go to the ER. The nurse attaches a damned suction cup to my eyeball and proceeds to empty a liter of saline into it, asking me if I'm having any pain. Not until you started doing THIS!!! OUCH!!

But the topper was the ER doc who came in and asked what happened; when I tell him I splashed urine in my eye, he smirks, then lectures me on how it's no big deal because in survival training, you're taught to flush wounds, eyes, etc., with urine since it's considered sterile.

:stone

[RNontheroad]

I did not witness this first hand, thank God, but I had a fellow nurse tell me about it.

She used to work in a bariatic surgery recovery floor. The patients are very restricted on fluid intake and can only have 40cc of ice chips Q2hrs for the first few days post-op. Well, they have a tendency to be a bit dry and thirsty, due in part to morphine PCA's.

They found one patient licking the condensation off the window. If that isnt bad enough, one crazy lady was drinking her JP drainage. Can you imagine?? She had to have a psych disorder because I would rather die of thirst then consider that an option!

UGGGHHHH! Still makes me cringe.

[island40]

This had me in stitches. Guess I am just a little sick in the mind! I've got one for you though.

I worked a rural ER and had a guy come in with c/o lower abdominal pain and said that he had fallen and felt that he had something in his rectum. Did the exam and was motioned to go into the hall for a "consult" with the doc. The doc just about busted a gut telling me that he had a Frenches mustard container in his rectum and I giggled the whole time I was getting the required tools to remove it. But wait..it gets better! After removal of the foriegn object I went to the desk to get his discharge papers ready and when I went back into the ER he was gone. I started to clean up and gues what? You, know it! He took the Frenches mustard container with him! Must have been a fav!!!!!