What was the MOST ridiculous thing a patient came to the ER for?

And did you have to treat them?

I am just curious. Your stories always seem to either crack me up or shake my head in amazement.

Thanks for sharing ?

Specializes in ED.

My most favorite was the mother who wanted her child checked because they drove through Cleveland and a child in a suburb of Cleveland had menningitis. They did not stop in Cleveland, did not know the child but they did drive through there.

Specializes in ER, ICU.

"fiberoptic cysts"

I had a guy who had some form of dementia where everytime he closed his eyes, he thought robots would perform abdominal surgery on him. So the guy hadn't slept in days and if he drifted off to sleep he'd wake up screaming. It was INSANE!

Not really ridiculous...but crazy.

Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
i was the nurse on duty at a ltc facility. one of my staff was filing papers. she scratched her finger on the staple. one drop blood.

she filled out incident report, went to the er and called off for the next 2 days.

true story, i am still shaking my head........

yikes! ... and i went to work with buddy wrapped broken fingers (psych) when i could have taken, oh, say a month or so, off?!

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

gets better and better.......

--dentures in the rectum.......surgery, temp colostomy

--GULDENS spicy brown mustard jar up the, you guessed it,.....another surgery consult

--a harmonica, assorted bottles, jars, and i just now remembered TIC TACS!!!

I COULD GO ON AND ON..............

LOL!!! When my sister was little (like 3-4), she was obssessed with sticking things up her nose....Tic Tacs, peas, Trix, Cheerios....you name it she stuck it up her nose. I remember many a trip to the Dr.'s office to have things removed. She would get them stuck up there but good...:lol2:

Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
lol!!! when my sister was little (like 3-4), she was obssessed with sticking things up her nose....tic tacs, peas, trix, cheerios....you name it she stuck it up her nose. i remember many a trip to the dr.'s office to have things removed. she would get them stuck up there but good...:lol2:

while we're on the subject of things getting stuck, i have a submission for the weirdest or dumbest category... when i was eight and a tomboy, i fell out of a tree i had been climbing and sustained a fx of my elbow. it was casted in the er and i was absolutely crushed:crying2: to find out i couldn't take showers for the duration. fast forward about five weeks and as we were being led into the sanctuary from the sunday school rooms, a friend slipped me some m & m s and just then, our teacher who was elderly and very firm reminded us that there was to be no eating or gum chewing during the service.

caught! ... no pockets either...:idea: i slipped them down the inner arm of my cast :eek: and promptly forgot about them. when i did remember, i was afraid to tell my mom what i'd done because i knew i'd end up in the er again. a week later, the smell was awful and i did end up back in the er, where my cast was removed. when the staff and my parents discovered melted gross stinky m & m s and not something worse, they all began to laugh... hard. i was recasted and sent home. my parents were so relieved that it was only a pile of melted chocolate, that i never was punished.

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

Specializes in ER/Trauma.

"My legs hurt"

"How long have they been hurting?"

"Since now, D-uh!"

"What were you doing earlier today?"

"I walked from TheOtherTown over here"

"You walked 10 miles by yourself?!"

"Yeah. Now my legs are killing me!"

Young adult female.

At 0435 in the morning.

You know what was even better?

The ED doc ordered blood work (BMP, CK, CK-MB) on her before discharging her.... :banghead:

Specializes in Aged Care - Trauma - Emergency.

When working in a children's Emergency Department a VERY distressed father came in with his baby. He was concerned about a 'abnormal' mark which was on the baby. I then had to explain that birth marks were perfectly normal...........

Cheers

MurseDan

Now really. Do you expect anything else from Nursing Home nurses. Granted there are a few that really love their work and really love the elderly.

All the rest Ive met are losers who cant cut it working anything else.

Ok I find this extrememly offensive!! Nursing homes in this day and age are more than a lot of hosptals. Do you know how many Residents we get from hospitals with decubs to the bone because no one bothered to turn them while they were restrained? Or the ted hose literally imbeded in their skin because they weren't removed at night or even days at a time. These are by no means isolated incidents and unfortunately are becoming the norm.

Just like anything else in this world there are good and bad whether it is hospitals, nursing homes, nurses, doctors everything. People like you give people who truely love their postitions a really bad name!

Specializes in LTC.
Now really. Do you expect anything else from Nursing Home nurses. Granted there are a few that really love their work and really love the elderly.

All the rest Ive met are losers who cant cut it working anything else.

I too find this extremely offensive! LTC is VERY hard work..VERY frustrating..but extremely rewarding. Sure, there's a few nurses who probably don't care, but I've not met them yet. I love my residents, and work very hard to make sure they have the best care and love we can give them.

Specializes in Psych.
According to EMTALA, you can refuse to treat things that are not considered emergencies. The trick is, though, it has to be determined through a medical exam that it is not an emergency. Triage does not count. so you've got to get the person back there for the exam, and since they're back there, might as well treat them.

After patients walk in or come by EMS we have an offload area/room right next to triage. We call a doc in for an RME (rapid medical exam). Usually they do 3 or 4 of these at once. They order basic stuff and decide if the patient is stable enough to go back into the waiting room pending labs/tests or needs immediate bedding. The hangnail guy would have been discharged immediately with our RME. Someone with abdominal pain, for example who is stable would be given a vomit bag, told to go the waiting room and not eat or drink anything and wait for tests. Lab, etc would then go out into the waiting room and grab them, bring them in for draws, etc. then back out the the waiting room. We have patients who never see the inside of the ER. Its fairly efficient. We have an RN and security stationed in the waiting room to keep an eye on people.

After patients walk in or come by EMS we have an offload area/room right next to triage. We call a doc in for an RME (rapid medical exam). Usually they do 3 or 4 of these at once. They order basic stuff and decide if the patient is stable enough to go back into the waiting room pending labs/tests or needs immediate bedding. The hangnail guy would have been discharged immediately with our RME. Someone with abdominal pain, for example who is stable would be given a vomit bag, told to go the waiting room and not eat or drink anything and wait for tests. Lab, etc would then go out into the waiting room and grab them, bring them in for draws, etc. then back out the the waiting room. We have patients who never see the inside of the ER. Its fairly efficient. We have an RN and security stationed in the waiting room to keep an eye on people.

That sounds like a GREAT system!:yeah::yeah:

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