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 ?

As a matter of fact, in the wee hours of Monday morning, I woke up with severe pain on my left side front and back and radiating down my groin. I also had alot of pressure to urinate but when I tried could only void a very small amount. Also had vomiting and nausea.

Well, the pain would not subside. Any Tylenol I tried to take for it was vomited up.

Finally after 3 hours of this, I dragged my aching body to the car and drove down to the ER at 4:30 in the morning. I could not understand what could be causing the pain and was, understandably, afraid.

There was blood in my urine and they did a catscan, but the nurses had already figured out I had a kidney stone ("doing the kidney stone dance").

They put an IV in me for fluid and pain medicine and when I was awake enough let me go home with vicodin and suppositories for nausea and vomiting. Doc instructed me to see a urologist in the next couple days.

I hope the ER staff didn't think me coming down with a KS was silly. I live alone and just have myself to depend on. They sure did help me out - the pain was unbearable.

Just a little anecdotal story.

Are you serious? A kidney stone is a valid reason to go to the ER...no one would think you silly. A hangnail, or pregnancy test is bulls@#* :uhoh3:

lmao:rotfl: :chuckle

Gee, let's see:

-broken acrylic nail

-child vomited once, now sitting on mom's lap eating chips and drinking coke

-laceration too tiny to be seen by the naked eye ("it was bleeding just a minute ago" as patient squeezes the alleged laceration trying to make it bleed again)

-totally well, but needing a work excuse for a sick day sometime last week

-child sleeping all day (up all night crying the night before)

-prescription refill (could be anything from bp meds to oxycontin)

-viagra request

-mosquito bite (yup, just a plain old mosquito bite with no allergic reaction or infection)

-child "lethargic" (mom's words) as kid is running up and down the hall and, you guessed it, eating chips and drinking coke

I know right??? lol:rolleyes:

why would they bring that to the ER, if anything thats a jog for the ME
These stories are so funny...I can't beleive the things people go into the ER for! But I get upset because while these people are being triaged and examined for things that sometimes don't even warrant a doctor's visit (i.e. the girl with gum in her hair), there are sick people having to wait! I took my 18 y/o son into the ER at 1 AM with severe vomiting due to food poisoning...he's a type 1 diabetic, and couldn't keep anything down, and being a stubborn "adult", he didn't want to tell Mom...his best friend and girlfriend finally came and woke me up. I could tell by his breathing and the ketones on his breath that he was going DKA. There were 5 people already in the triage rooms, and only one of them should have been there, and we had to wait till they were done before they could even get him through triage. And when they finally got him into the actual room, it took several minutes to get a nurse in there, much less a doctor. Finally, they did his exam, checked his sugar (just read HIGH), did labs, and got him hooked up to IV's, and he ended up spending 3 days in ICU. I know that he would have ended up there no matter what, and that's his own fault for being Mr. Macho and not telling me as soon as his symptoms started, but I was stressed out watching my son suffer and seeing people in the triage rooms for the sniffles and a cough!!! OK, just needed to vent a bit....keep the stories coming!!!

Terre:p

yeah but isnt it protocol to take the more severe cases first? i guess if they were already in the room then its too late... but if they are in the waiting room you should definately be pushed ahead right???

Specializes in M/S, Foot Care, Rehab.
This was more of a patient education problem, but still...I worked nights on a head injury floor in a large pediatric hospital for 10 years. Our night time admits were house overflow.

Over and over again we'd get normal infant admits...kids would look great, hydrated, healthy, etc. Problem? You know that jerky, nerves- not- quite- connected movement that infants make when they stretch or yawn? People were assuming their kid was having a seizure. And they'd bring the child in at 1 am and insist that he/she should be admitted. We'd explain to the Parents what the ER already explained. When the sun came up then the pediatric neuro would explain it again and send the kid home.

I'm one of these "crazy" moms (now an ER nurse) who brought in their kid for seizures for two long months before getting a diagnosis... I heard it all from several lousy docs "oh, it's been 5 years since you've had a baby, don't you remember they jerk???" "oh his eyes are just rolling back in his head because he's light-sensitive..." and this was the best one when he had a diaper full of blood after being on the ketogenic diet for several months "you're probably just feeding him lots of red jello, bring the diaper in and let me look at it". What wonderful satisfaction I got when she opened that diaper and went pale and quickly admitted my son.

Yes, we do get lots of ridiculous reasons for visits, but let's all take our patients as seriously as we can..........

Specializes in ER.

40yo male out jogging and called ambulance for SOB.

NO it wasn't an MI, just SOB :roll

just when I thought I'd read and heard it all -

A 37 yo male called 911 the other night because he'd accidentally stepped on and broke his reading glasses. Fortunately, the crew refused transport on that one.

Can not forget the drug seekers that come in and tell you flat out that they are allergic to everything, except...NARCOTICS (BIG SHOCKER!!!)

My favorite is "I'm allergic to Tylenol, but I can take Percocet."

Specializes in Hospitalist.

Let's see...the kid who's mother brought him for razor burn because his work insisted that he shave daily. I tried to find a new triage category for that one...like a 6- totally stupid complaint - could be seen next year!! We had about 20 people in the waiting room at that time. He had quite the wait.

The young "pregnant" woman who came in with lady partsl bleeding. She couldn't figure out how she got pregnant because she used the patch. I ran a UCG on her and it was negative. She said "I don't understand that. I used all 5 tests in the box and they were all positive." I told her pregnancy tests usually come 2 to a box. You guessed it...she was using an ovulation predictor and was getting her period. That is why people should have to pass a test to be allowed to reproduce.

The malodourous lady partsl discharge x 2 weeks. Yeah, well, when you forget to remove your tampon, that's what happens. PS: I got a great tip from one of our docs. He uses sterile gloves when he goes tampon fishing. That way he just pulls the glove off over the tampon and ties it in a quick knot. Completely contains the smell. Exam gloves are too short.

Then I had the guy who was bitten by a water mocassin. He didn't want to kill the snake so he picked it up with a rake to try to move it to the woods. The snake is now totally p*ssed off and scared so the guy drops the snake. Now the snake is even more mad, so the guy tries to pick the snake up and whammo...he gets envenomated. I told him "If your name is not Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and you are not getting paid millions of dollars to pick up the snake, leave it alone!"

Thanks for a great thread. I LMAO!

Specializes in Hospitalist.

I forgot the 30 year old that came in by EMS at 0300 hours for constipation x 3 hours! I didn't know you could be constipated after 3 hours, but what do I know? He didn't really want to come to the hospital, he just wanted the medics to give him a laxative! (Hello, ever heard of the drugstore!!!???) EMS brought him in (none too happy at being dragged out of their beds for this). The doc asked me what we should do. I told him to give the guy a gallon of Go-lytely to go and tell him to drink a cup every 10 minutes until it was all gone. I guarantee he won't be back anytime soon.

Specializes in ER, NICU, NSY and some other stuff.

Middle aged female pt who swallowed a bug Thurs night. Thinks she can still feel the bug in her throat Sat just after midnight because her throat feels a little irritated.

A OD of Viagra

(i'm not making this up)

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