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

Here is my most gross, yucky, disgusting nursing story! Nurses Humor Article

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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! :D

One time in the OR, I scrubbed for an Ex-Lap case. The patient is a young male in his early 20s and has been suffering stomach pains since he was a child (so long, imagine that pain...:(). When the patient was opened up, the surgeons found out that the patient has adhesive band formations on his intestines. So they had to bring out the whole intestine. After doing adhesiolysis, they were returning the whole intestine back. Unfortunately, it won't fit (as opposed to what our teacher said that it would easily coil back after stretching and would fit easily when returned). So they had to milk the feces out of the intestine starting from the ascending tract (where as we all know the feces ain't in its solid form yet). While milking, there were loud farting sounds. After the incision has been closed and the linens were removed, a pool of liquid stool was there. Erm...I think it was green...

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.

Okay, this isn't exactly a 'nursing' gross story, and I've never posted on here anything icky that my autistic son has done, but this one just takes the frickin' cake, and I've gotta tell someone about it, or a lot of someones that understands poop.

Please understand I'm not ridiculing him or inviting ridicule of him, I just need to vent!!!

We just got finished with supper a little while ago, and being the allnurses addict I am, I ran downstairs to my computer to log on and check what was posted.

While he was unattended :idea:, he took himself to the potty, which in itself is good since it's progress.

He also pooped in the potty, which is progress, but apparently he decided that was boring, and since I was still on the computer, he proceeded to smear most of his very large soft brown BM all over the wall, the heat register, the floor, the toilet, the cabinets and himself.

He's made messes like this before, but this seemed to take the cake.

I'm not done cleaning it yet, but I had to come take a deep breath and calm down. :uhoh3:

sorry that happened to you--somehow it almost makes it harder to deal with when you are at home vs. at work. hope things all got cleaned up and back to normal :)

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Grace90,

A nurse I used to know had twin daughters. She had to take a quick shower. Those girls cleaned out there diapers and painted the whole kitchen brown including the pots and pans in the cabinets beneath the center island.

You have my sympathies!

Mine doesn't even compare to these, but I almost yakked none the less-

When I was a student nurse I had a patient, really nice guy in his 20s who unfortunately had suffered a CVA... needed assistance ambulating to the bathroom. He was having diarrhea, so I was helping him up quite frequently. It had been awhile since his last trip to the bathroom, so I went in and decided to see if he needed help. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He kind of gave me a blank look, stood himself up, stuck his hand in his butt crack and dug around, and then proceeded to stick that very hand on my shoulder!!!:eek:

Thank God there was no noticeable poo on his hand, but it was still quite disgusting. Spent the rest of the day making sure not to touch that part of my uniform...

MY FIRST DAY OF HOSPITAL CLINICAL AND I WAS TO GIVE A SOAPSUDS ENEMA... WELL I BROUGHT IN A BEDSIDE COMMODE THE 36 YEAR OLD INSISTED ON MAKING IT TO THE BATHROOM... AND THE GREAT NURSE I WAS I WALKED BEHIND HER. WHEN SHE LET IT GO MY NICE WHITE SHOES WERE BROWN AND MY PANTS WERE NOT MUCH BETTER.. I HAD TO GET SCRUBS FROM O.B. AND IT TOOK ABOUT A HALF HOUR TO CLEAN MY SHOES THAT STILL SMELLED ALL DAY TILL I GOT HOME THREW THEM OUT WENT AND BOUGHT A NEW PAIR. LOL, MY INSTRUCTOR STATED, " NOW WE WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN, WILL WE".. LESSON LEARNED !! :balloons:

Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.

My grossest, well, probably also the saddest ever was something I saw today. I'm a student nurse tech on a medical floor...we've got a patient who is end stage renal, refusing HD, and was recently made Comfort Measures Only, on hospice, etc. This patient also has a femur that was broken a few months back, that she also refused treatment for. Said femur has now begun to protrude through her skin at the knee. Yeah. Needless to say, I almost passed out when I was helping the nurse change the wet-to-dry dressing covering the knee. I can't imagine the pain she must be in--it's just awful! For her sake, I do hope she passes soon. :scrying:

Specializes in Neuro.

Oh wow, these stories all have gotten me ready to start NS in 16 days!! I can only hope and pray that I don't get to experience most of these...horror stories!!

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...........

That is so freakin' nasty!! But funny! Sure I would think different if I was the poor girl. Did he have any relation to Hugh Heffner? hahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:uhoh3:

Specializes in RN CRRN.
Oh wow, these stories all have gotten me ready to start NS in 16 days!! I can only hope and pray that I don't get to experience most of these...horror stories!!

you will and it won't take long.....unfortunately....good luck!!! Take notes on your nursing school experiences they are golden!!!

Specializes in Cardiac Care, ICU.
Hmmm...could that dead kitty be her pet she forgot she had? :uhoh3:

OMG! That is w/o a doubt the single most disgusting thing I have ever heard.

Specializes in ICU, telemetry, LTAC.

New stroke patient, no gag reflex. Discovered this by giving him one tiny 1-cc ice chip and seeing him turn purple momentarily. Okay, it's NPO for you mister! Well everyone has mouth and nasal secretions, only if you can't swallow they just go right on down into your lungs. He'd cough and up they'd go, and back down again. Hm. So I spent a LOT of time on mouth care. My favorite thing to use is sterile water on gauze, just run my hand around in the mouth. The patient seemed to like it too. Every now and then I'd go "fishing" with a yankauer just in case there was something I couldn't reach and he hated that.

So the second day I get report. Mouth care may or may not have been done but one of the nurses said "he's got something hanging down in the back of his mouth." Hm. Well his lungs certainly sounded coorificer than the night before and I was getting a fair amount of secretions out of his mouth with the wet gauze. So I got the respiratory tech to help with deep suction (I'm comfortable with doing it down a trach or ET tube, not so comfy with the nose route) and I went after whatever was there with a yankauer, and we got some results but nothing that gave the poor fella any relief. Oh, yes and his breath was atrocious by this time.

Finally I got my penlight out and looked in his mouth. The dried secretions were in a solid band of matter that ran from the back of the tongue to the very back of the roof of the mouth. I'd just been sliding around it with the suction catheters. No amount of suction applied directly would do it either. Gloves and wet gauze were required, and I had to yank it out of the mouth, then pull it like string cheese after the one end came loose.

Ever seen a garden snail? After getting the whole thing out, that is what it looked like on the gauze. The nurse I was working with came in to see me bent over by the bed trying not to vomit. So the fella got more mouth care from then on, as his secretions seemed determined to want to form that thing. I know, it's not poop, but respiratory secretions are my yucky thing.

Specializes in ortho/neuro/general surgery.
I know, it's not poop, but respiratory secretions are my yucky thing.

:monkeydance::barf02::yeahthat::eek::barf01::lol2: