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 Emergency.

"That's nuts!" Ha ha!!!

We had a psych pt who used a knife to cut into the side of a coke can to make a sharp tool out of the aluminum to cut his off. It didn't work but did make a huge mess. Still don't get the logic....

Specializes in Trauma/ED, SANE/FNE, LNC.

had a guy come in with sudden onset of blurred vision in his left eye. when the tech took him to the machine to check his visual acuity she picked up his glasses and guess what? The lens in the left side of his glasses was missing!!! He didnt bother checking, he just ran to the ER as fast as he could!

Left with his broken glasses and an ER bill. Think the Insurance company will pay for this visit?

Specializes in CVICU, ER.
had a guy come in with sudden onset of blurred vision in his left eye. when the tech took him to the machine to check his visual acuity she picked up his glasses and guess what? The lens in the left side of his glasses was missing!!! He didnt bother checking, he just ran to the ER as fast as he could!

Left with his broken glasses and an ER bill. Think the Insurance company will pay for this visit?

LOL, bet he felt like a loser. That's what happens when ppl start using the ED as their pcp...

-Constipated girl demanding that we remove the fecal contents and numb her rectum so it don't hurt when she poops

-hang nail

-baby crying and wouldn't stop- turns out his shoes were too tight. Once the shoes were off, he was fine

-pregnancy test

-foreign objects removed from the rectum

I could go on an on....

Specializes in ER, pedsER, SICU, Trauma.
A white kitten brought in to a major trauma center in the middle of the night because it fell off the sofa and hurt its leg. 50 bed busy trauma center with 5 doctors all stopped what they were doing and looked at the kitten walk across the floor.

Once I had a mom and daughter brought by in by EMS after a very mild MVC. EMS handed us a cardboard box and told us the daughter's ferret had also survived the accident. Apparently he had epistaxis at the scene which was now resolved. The ferret had to be babysat in the charge office until dad could come retrieve him. They were all discharged. That might have been the day I decided I could not work anywhere else.

Specializes in OBGYN.

Blue hands. No pain. Turned out the pt had bought a new pair of blue jeans and the dye rubbed off on her hands.

In the ER was a guy who came in saying he had " groin pain" he acted very peculiar and it was hard to get a history and definitive c/c. Said he could only talk to the male doc. So when we finally get him in the back, I try to talk to him and explain to him i work for a fire dept as well and I work with all men and I am very understanding....come to find out, he came to the ER cause he had masterbated earlier in the day and now " can't get it up" for his wife who would be coming home and wanted sex. He said if she found out he had masterbated she would kick him out and divorce him so it was easier to come into the ER and complain something was wrong.

Ohhh some of the crazy 911 calls I had to respond to ( of course in the middle of the night)

1. mosquito bite to tip of member

2. several calls to the casinos for CP... had no pain at all except they had no ride back to Memphis so they took an ambulance and once we arrived at ER, they got out and either walked to their house or caught a ride

3. same call from Memphis Motor Sports Park during NHRA race, c/c CP, got to ER and he removed himself from stretcher and said thanks for the ride. Some Memphis FF/PMs knew him by his first name and said he does it all the time.

4. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina we saw multiple patients from same family who came to ER for " Hurricane flashbacks" and told us their doc from back home said only Oxycontin would help alleviate the flashbacks and it would be easier to give them 60 day supply until they could get back. So i asked which city in LA they were from and they couldn't remember, they were that traumatized. I made up a city, yep thats where they were from, i made up a street name.. would you believe they lived on that same street !

For all the BS that came into the ER, some of them were miraculously healed after a nice 8 and 12 hour theraputic wait :)

Specializes in OR,ICU.

i have had kidney stones 3 times, they are no joke.this last time they used toradol which actually worked better than the morphine.:)

Last Sunday, a 400 lb woman who lives one hour away from the city I work in called an ambulance to take her to the ED. Her complaint? Needed a prescription refill. The doctor I worked with wasn't too happy, and neither were the EMTs that transported her. In her discharge instructions, he asked me to type in "Do NOT come to the Emergency Department for prescription refills". How she got back home, I don't know, and I'm not sure I care.

I've responded to " RX refill " calls a few times and when asked what hospital they wanted to go to i got med com on the radio, put thru to the ER physician at that hospital, explained what i had and let the patient hear for themselves that they would be seen if they had a cc but no refills would be given and that the wait in the ER was over 8 hours. Most of the time they would sign a pt refusal. It kept our unit available for a true emergency ( or another refill call lol ) and it saved the ER time and a bed.

The ED I work in has no such policy. All ambulances, no matter the complaint, are seen right away. Even if there are 50+ patients in the waiting room. It helps when the ambulance brings in an MI or trauma, but it's flipping ridiculous for the minor complaints.

BTW, that has been the only time the doctor asked me to write "Do not come to the ED for prescription refills". There have been so many times I've been tempted to ask the doctor if I should write that in the discharge instructions, but I just keep my mouth shut. After all, I don't want Press Gainey scores to go south.

Specializes in Emergency.

We had a good one just last week. A 55yo F called the ambulance about 2300. When she got to the ED this is what she told anyone who would listen "I had a big fight with my neighbor today and I figured if I was taken away in an ambulance he would feel very bad. I want him to feel very bad. Now I'm sure he does."

We had a good one just last week. A 55yo F called the ambulance about 2300. When she got to the ED this is what she told anyone who would listen "I had a big fight with my neighbor today and I figured if I was taken away in an ambulance he would feel very bad. I want him to feel very bad. Now I'm sure he does."

A good ole 603 aka 51/50 sounds appropriate for this lady :) I bet she would think twice about doing it again ! Sounds as if she meets the criteria for it LOL

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