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 Trauma, Teaching.

called an amublance to bring him to then hospital, because the pharmacy wouldn't fill a narc scrip (he'd maxed out).

Specializes in ED.

I'm precepting in the ER and worked in triage yesterday.

Girl in her early 20s comes in and says she has SEVERE abdominal pain. We call her back to triage and she says her pain is a "12 out of 10". We ask her the 'when was your LMP' type questions and if she has had a BM, etc. Her LMP was January 12 and this is 2/7 mind you.

We send her back out the waiting room where she immediately gets on the waiting room phone and chats it up for over 20 minutes laughing and carrying on for the whole room and us to hear. We call her back again for a UA and she acts all annoyed at us, gives us the specimen and goes back out to use the phone and calls 4-5 more people. She laughs with a few and yells at another one. :rollseyes:

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I'm precepting in the ER and worked in triage yesterday.

Girl in her early 20s comes in and says she has SEVERE abdominal pain. We call her back to triage and she says her pain is a "12 out of 10". We ask her the 'when was your LMP' type questions and if she has had a BM, etc. Her LMP was January 12 and this is 2/7 mind you.

We send her back out the waiting room where she immediately gets on the waiting room phone and chats it up for over 20 minutes laughing and carrying on for the whole room and us to hear. We call her back again for a UA and she acts all annoyed at us, gives us the specimen and goes back out to use the phone and calls 4-5 more people. She laughs with a few and yells at another one. :rollseyes:

:uhoh3::confused::rolleyes:Yes, that stinks.

I've been to the ER twice, once for what I now realize was a stupid reason and once for a really serious reason. After reading these I'm amused but scared to ever go back to the ER!

Stupid reason: I was 19 and living alone in a small apartment in San Francisco. I had had a head cold for days and my ear started hurting worse and worse. I had never had an ear infection before and didn't even know what it felt like. I thought something was seriously wrong so after taking Tylenol and waiting it out for most of the day I went to the ER down the street - acute otitis media, luckily the nurses and ER doc were super nice to me. It was a kind of rough, inner city hospital and I think I was probably one of their more pleasant patients. Sent home with antibiotics and pain meds after a short wait.

Good reason: Age 21 and had just delivered my son a few months previously; was watching TV with my husband and had had nagging abd pain all day that I thought was just gas. Took pain meds and waited it out; took Pepcid, nothing worked. Something felt "not right" so I called my dad and he took me to the ER at 11 PM while my husband stayed home w/ the newborn. My gallbladder was necrotic. :crying2: Emergency surgery. Worse than labor pains.

The police had raided a crack house. In the refrigerator they found what they thought was a human fetus. They brought it to the ER. It was an oyster.

The police of all of them!! Hilarious.

Specializes in Emergency nursing.
Some turkey came in to triage complaining that his inner thighs had been chafing for two weeks. This was 1am. It was just too painful to bear.

Liposuction or diaper rash cream- we don't provide either one, so I don't know what he ended up doing.

I think we work at the same ER. That patient showed up here a few weeks ago. :uhoh3:

Stupid reason: I was 19 and living alone in a small apartment in San Francisco. I had had a head cold for days and my ear started hurting worse and worse. I had never had an ear infection before and didn't even know what it felt like. I thought something was seriously wrong so after taking Tylenol and waiting it out for most of the day I went to the ER down the street - acute otitis media, luckily the nurses and ER doc were super nice to me. It was a kind of rough, inner city hospital and I think I was probably one of their more pleasant patients. Sent home with antibiotics and pain meds after a short wait.

That's not a stupid reason. If you think you're really sick, you should be seen, and otitis media can be fatal if untreated. At one time, it often was. :(

Specializes in ICU, ER, Hemodialysis.

Pt came into er via ems from nursing home. Reason....family wanted er to give antibiotics for uti. Pt came in and we did a UA per doctor's order. Yep, pt had UTI. MD prescribed antibiotic and sent back to nursing home. Family later called and asked if her mother had arrived to er yet. I told her yes and she has already gone back to the nsg home. Pt's daughter asked if we gave her any antibiotics. I stated no. We checked to see if she had a UTI and she does, so she was prescribed antibiotics and sent back to the nursing home.

Specializes in Emergency.

We've had 2 recently that were ridiculous.

The first was a pt via EMS sent by nursing home because pt is refusing to take meds for 1 day. This was a 98 yo female, alert and appropriate with very mild dementia. I called the nursing home to ask why they thought this was an appropriate reason to send a pt to the ED. The nurse started rambling on about how the pt won't take her meds. I asked her what she thought we could do about this. I asked her if she thought I should tie the pt down and force meds down her throat. The woman is 98! If she doesn't want her meds, let her be!!

The other was also a nursing home pt brought via ambulance for bradycardia. The nursing home reported that her HR was 48. After speaking to her nurse at the nursing home I discovered that the pts baseline HR is about 55. and she took the pt's pulse after giving the pt her morning does of dig (I did mention that you're supposed to get the pulse BEFORE you give the dig, not after, and it's supposed to be be an apical pulse, to which she replied "What?"). The nurse also told me that she was concerned because the pt was tired when she woke her up. REALLY???!!! I have to wonder where they find some of these nurses that work in nursing homes. Nothing against nurses who work in nursing hones, Needless to say, we sent her back to the nursing home.

Specializes in emergency nursing.

I had a guy come in a couple months ago with a "bad taste in his mouth" He had eaten beef jerky and said that it left a bad taste in his mouth and was wondering if he could be poisoned? Of course the fact that he was drinking his mountain dew and smoking had no effect!

Back pain X 6 years.....

Specializes in Emergency.

I was going to say mosquito bite, because "it hurt", but I think pregnancy test beats that LOL

+ Join the Discussion