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

Specialties Emergency Nursing Q/A

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 ?

Another nurse in my pod had a patient who was brought in by the patient's parents because.....wait for it.....

when the patient doesn't wear the patient's glasses, the patient's vision is blurry.

OMG! And people (Do I really mean nursing students?), wonder why we tend to be just a BIT tetchy!

Specializes in Emergency, Critical Care Transport.

Two nights ago I was looking through what we had in the waiting room, saw one and immediately thought of this thread.

One word:

"Hiccups."

Specializes in ER / ICU.

Last week I heard, "my member has been shrinking for the past 7 years".

Specializes in ortho, hospice volunteer, psych,.
last week i heard, "my member has been shrinking for the past 7 years".

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2: :eek: :eek: :eek: :D :d :D :yawn:

Two nights ago I was looking through what we had in the waiting room, saw one and immediately thought of this thread.

One word:

"Hiccups."

It's quite possible that the person had intractable hiccups, which can make the person unable to eat or talk.

I had one the other night:

Toe pain X 2 years.

I asked the pt what made it an emergency on this night since this has been going on for 2 years.

His reply: "I want someone to clip my toenails".

I asked "do you not have a toenail clipper at home?"

His reply "I do but want somebody else to do it for me".

Me: Quickly left the room.

Specializes in future OB/L&D nurse(I hope) or hospice.
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.

I have unfortunately been to the ER several times with kidney stones since I was 17. I have had over 20 lithotripsies, ureteroscopies, and even a nephrostomy tube placed immediately after a ureteroscopy because my kidney was swelling and they were affraid I was going into kidney failure. I was totally awake when they placed the nephostomy tube because I guess they didn't have time to put me under again.. They were literally running from post-op to the radiology dept to do the procedure. Kidney stones are the worst pain immaginable and you should never feel bad for goint to the ER when in that much pain.

We get patients all the time that come in for stupid ^&$$. We send them straight to Triage if possible. They figure if they call the ambulance they will get seen quicker, but in my hospital, we try to send their asses straight to triage, esp. if it is a hangnail or crap like that. We get people who want prescriptions all the time. We get people who want to check in to get band aids. We get people who want pregnancy tests, or the results of their STD panels. We get regulars who come in all the time for the same damn thing repeatedly. We get patients who were sent over from their doctors office, but they don't know what for. We get homeless people who want a meal and a cot. All this crap monopolizes and clogs the system, and we are required to treat these people. If we turn them away, we are just being mean.

Specializes in Peds ER.

"Wart on finger"

yup. to the ER for a wart.

Triage Level: Green

Treatment: "Yup that's a wart." Discharge.

Total time in room: 5 minutes. Total time in ER: 6 hours.:yeah:

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
"Wart on finger"

yup. to the ER for a wart.

Triage Level: Green

Treatment: "Yup that's a wart." Discharge.

Total time in room: 5 minutes. Total time in ER: 6 hours.:yeah:

Sounds familiar...had a pt who was here for CC "toothpick in finger." As it turns out, he had a piece of a tooth pick in his finger several mos ago. Aunt "squeezed" the toothpick out. Since they it has been bothering him, and he felt he should come in...again, several mos after the original toothpick "injury" (No swelling, redness, increased pain, etc.) Turns out that he had a wart on/near the spot of this infamous toothpick injury. Told to try an OTC wart remover and followup with dermatologist.

I know this isn't an ER visit but we have an answering service at our office for when we are closed. They always ask the patients if it is an emergency and I am surprised at what people consider to be emergent. Appointment cancellations are not emergencies!

I'm just a student but on my ER rotation last week an elderly man came in at 4 AM because he hadn't pooped since

4 PM. :confused:

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