What was the MOST BIZARRE thing a pt has been brought to ER for (and lived to tell)?

twotrees2 · Nov 30, 2006

i've told this story before, but it's a good one.

my friend was a brand new er intern. the desk faced the sliding glass doors to the parking lot, and he was sitting there chatting with the nurses. it was a dark, stormy night -- no really! thunder and lightning, raining sideways 'cause of the wind. as he looked out the door, a stroke of lightning lit up the parking lot, and he saw the most bizarre sight -- a man approaching the er carrying a limp woman in his arms, and with what looked like an axe blade sticking out of his head.

it was an axe.

seems that it was a poor, rural area, and many of the locals still heated with wood. the guy had been splitting wood before the storm started, hoping to have enough wood in the house to last through the night. as he was splitting wood, the axe head flew off the handle and struck him in the head. (that's one explanation -- the other is that he was practicing throwing an axe and it hit something hard, flew back and hit him in the head. i was never sure which one was the truth.) anyway, the poor guy now has an axe blade embedded in his head.

he went into the kitchen where his wife was, hoping to ask her to drive him to the er. she took one look at him, complete with axe blade and blood, shrieked and fainted. he couldn't leave her there like that, so he picked her up, carried her out to the car, and drove them both to the er.

turns out the blade was embedded right between to two lobes of the brain, and miraculously didn't hit anything vital. the blade was surgically removed, and the guy went home, reasonably intact. his wife was fine, too.

so al told me, anyway, and he's not known for making stuff up!

i hate to laugh but cant help it - man that is one wonderful hubby worrying about wifey when he is that seriously injured - where can i find me one lol. kinda one of those sweet tell the grandkids stories " i remeber when grandpa near killed himself but worried about me cause i fainted ..................." lol.

twotrees2 · Nov 30, 2006

Fish hooks!!!!!!!!!!!!!...OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!...Our ED took out 84 fish hooks out from June 1st thru August 31st. We are located in one of the most famous salmon fisheries in the U.S. and we have been keeping track for years. I think our record (so far) has been around 150 in one summer. We call it "combat fishing" and HIGHLY recommend ballistic lenses in glasses and a cap at a minimum for protection. We have two cut-outs, a male and a female figure, and we put the hooks on the as we remove them. Lots of comments on them.

oh my lol - had my share of these on the patient end lol - ex boyfriends twin nephews - one hooked his brothers ear! rolfmao - and i myself got 2 in my feet - the second one was in my cousins kiddie pool - i guess my cousin had been fishing before we arrived for our swim date hahaha.

he also stuck a hoe in my brothers head ( thank god missed his brain - not to deep lol) while we were digging for water -

digging snow tunnels my cousin stuck a shovel through my upper lip all the way through to the gums - still have a nasty scar there ( so when someone asks is the tunnel coming through i tell my kids do NOT look down to see hahaha )- roflmao - man did we give our folks some tough times. we really do love our cousin lol.

also had a bike pedal go through my leg calf down to bone - was fine till we got to hospital and freaked out, as told my dad i could not go in cause the sign say no shoes no service, and of course i had no shoes on - lol dad said he thought theyd make an exception as i was being carried -

head ran over with a runner sled- all was fine ( babysitter knew i was cut open but it did not bleed so she did not figure it warranted calling mom and dad home yet ( young too lol) well my wonderful brother decided he had to "go to the bathroom" and be-lined to my head to tell me i had a HUGE hole in my head whereby i panicked and of course it started bleeding profusely -

and finally, but not all that has ever been, of our crazy er visits - nasty bully's picking on my brother ( how dare they, only i could do THAT) well - i turned on them and protected my brother - they decided theyd cont the fight with me - threw rocks and my head - hit by my eye - enough blood you'd have thought my eye was gone -i walked slowly home yelling to them id get their asses and they ran like heck to thier mom who showed up a few min later to guide me home - it was getting hard to see with all the blood lol - matter fact my mother did think it was gone and the bad boys mom was kissing butt to not have a lawsuit ( we will pay any bill blah blah) - couldn't get it stopped - got to ER it was not such a big deal only small scar with that one lol. ok so i was quite the tomboy lol. and a tad on accident prone - never a broken bone ( unless you count toes which i dont cause ya cant do anything about em anyhow lol)

i will say being a nurse has kept ER visits to a minimum for my boys - rare visit due to i keep steristrips etc around and fix up myself. even fixed up thier friends - one who was thrilled as i di such a good job it left no scar ( she was gonna be a model when she grew up and was quite vane about her looks) lol - love to tell my dad who wonders why i wasted my education to work only casual call and not make lots of money- Hey its saved me from a lot of ER and doc visits lolol.

twotrees2 · Nov 30, 2006

sorry lizviz, not a funny thing,, BUT, isn't that like something from a Airplane movie or sick comedy like that! Feel a saddo for having a giggle, poor guy!!

in my opinion its ok to have a giggle - my hubby doesnt get it - thinks im cold hearted - but if we dont giggle we would do nothing but cry and fret - the humour needed in the medical field is quite strange so I'm told but honestly we aren't laughing at the people so much ( well maybe some lol that are truly idiots haha) as the situation and the amazement of how someone can lack so much common sense for some of these things :)

Balder_LPN, LPN · Nov 30, 2006

he also stuck a hoe in my brothers head ( thank god missed his brain - not to deep lol)

I did that to my brother one time. He wouldn't get out of my pedal care. Hey, IT WAS MY CAR!

My mom came out, saw the blood pulsing from his scalp and picked him up, running in cirlces around the yard and shrieking. This woke up my dad, a cop working graveyard. He had his car parked at the front of the driveway in case he was called out. We drove to the hospital with my mom screaming and hitting him because he wouldn't turn on his lights and siren so we didn't have to stop at the red lights on the 5 minute drive to the ER.

That was my first ride in the back of a cop car. Though as it turned out my brother would be the one to spend so much of his time there when we got older.

twotrees2 · Nov 30, 2006

hat was my first ride in the back of a cop car. Though as it turned out my brother would be the one to spend so much of his time there when we got older.

my brother too - maybe the bump didnt hurt their brains but got their common sense got injured lol. dont feel to bad- i fed my brother a bunch of baby asprin ( we were 2 and 3 at the time - and he nearly died - eeks- dang things kids do!!)

Ruby Vee, BSN · Nov 30, 2006

ok so i was quite the tomboy lol. and a tad on accident prone - never a broken bone ( unless you count toes which i dont cause ya cant do anything about em anyhow lol)

which reminds me -- my father had quite a temper when we were kids, and 5am and 5pm milking only seemed to exacerbate it. one morning our best milker, elsie was being particularly recalcitrant. she switched dad in the face with her manure-encrusted tail more than once, tipped over the bucket (we lived without electricity, but that's another topic) and stepped on my sister. when elsie kicked dad, he lost his temper and hauled off and kicked her back! my sister and i stood there, awed and amazed, while my father hopped around on one leg, cursing the cow, her ancestors, her future descendants and everything else under the sun! then, wisely, we ran and hid until he calmed down. dad's middle toe is crooked to this day. a cow's leg is tougher than a human's foot!

sqky · Nov 30, 2006

We had a 17 y/o male walk into the ER, a tactless nurse commented "he walks like he has something stuck up his butt"....... he heard her.

The sad thing is he did..... not by his choice. He and some friends had been out partying in the boonies (124 miles from our hospital), got drunk, walked down over the hill, fell down (he stated he had some difficulty getting up, but attributed it to being drunk). He got back up walked to the fire and one of his buddies hit his butt jokingly for falling down. Blood spattered all over.

When he fell he had inpaled himself on a small tree, when he stood up it broke off. They bypassed 2 closer hospitals to come to ours. He stated he was not having any pain.

In the end...no pun intended, the tree had ented his rectum, passed through his abdomen and had pierced into his chest cavity. His first surgery lasted 17 hours, I got to watch some if it and later cared for him on the nursing unit. His hospitalization was 5 months following the first surgery and had to have 5 more over a 2 year period.

allnurses Guide · Nov 30, 2006

I read some of these to my 17 y.o. and my dh last night . . . . . they both turned a bit green.

I don't think they knew what I did at work . . . . :uhoh3:

steph

Jarnaes · Dec 1, 2006

Have lots of crazy Iraq stories...

One day we had a young soldier come it with "minor" shrapnel injuries from an IED. He walked into the ER section, talking about "hey-feel this piece of metal in my chest". X-ray showed a piece of shrapnel, pt was taken to the OR, once he was open we saw that the shrapnel was tamponading the subclavian... He's one lucky guy.

Ohmygosh · Dec 1, 2006

:rotfl:

I was working ER years ago when a very high society lady came in for a pelvic exam. I gave her a gown and asked her to undress and left the room to let the doc know she was ready for him.
He came in and we put her in the stirrups. Low and behold a green stamp was stuck to hair in her peri area. The doc winked at me, took the stamp off and continued the exam. It was all I could do not to laugh.
After she left he said he should have asked her if her green stamp book was filled.
(for you who are to young to remember, green stamps used to be given out at stores, you would collect them to turn them in for items in a catalog)

I do remember green stamps all too well .... something very similar to this actually happened to my sister on her very first gyno visit when she was a teenager --The nurse asked her for a urine sample -- she went into the restroom and got the sample but there was no tissue in the restroom, so she reaches into her purse andpulls out some kleenex tissues -- she didnt know the green stamps were attached to her "area" until she was in the stirrups-- the Dr pulled back the sheet and began to laugh histerically -- the nurse also began to laugh and both left the room in stitches. My poor sister didnt know what was happening-- it was her very first visit to the gyno -- she was clueless - finally the nurse composed herself and came back into the room and removed the green stamps and held them up toward my sister and said "the Dr. said to say he is sorry but he doesn't accept green-stamps for payment" ---This was over 30 years ago now --But I still chuckle a little to myself everytime I go to the gyno!

rsh3rn · Dec 1, 2006

butane bottle in the rectum, could have been an explosive situation. that and the grntleman who decided to remove his member because it hurt to pee

AfloydRN, BSN, RN · Dec 4, 2006

MAn WALKES into ER triage desk holding towel on his head. States he had an accident on the jobsite( man drove himself in) I ask him to sit down so I can see what the problem is as he is profusely bleeding from somewhere. As he takes the towel off, the entire top of his head ,down to the skull, is stuck to the towel and comes right off. He was hit in the head w/ the CRANE! This poor man had no clue. He went up to the OR for neurosurgery and lived to tell the story. The other patient I will never forget, also walked in to triage, and C/O HA. After much encouragement told us he is a roofer and had an itch on his head and forgot he was holding a nail gun and ouch! He aslo went directly to the OR and missed all viable parts by milimeters. God was looking out for him that day for sure.