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 ?

We get this one more often than you would think:

-Patient comes in, diagnosed with a mild infection of some sort (usually mild UTI or sinusitis), is given Rx for antibiotics and sent home.

-Next day (or 2) patient returns to ER, same exact symptoms, states they are "no better". When asked about antibiotics that were prescribed, patient states that they didn't get antibiotics. :confused: I'm still trying to figure out what these patients expect us to do: voodoo? a rain dance? magic wand?

One of the saddest things was this: 17-year-old kid walks into the ER, says he walked there because his mom went to the family shelter with his younger siblings. Turns out, kid can't stay at family shelter because he is too old (age limit for kids at the shelter is 12). However, Child Protective Services can't provide a place for the kid because, the way things work in THIS state (I'm in The South), he is considered an adult at age 17. Can't go to "regular" homeless shelter, because you have to be 18 to go to that shelter. I guess the kid couldn't think of anywhere else to go except the ER. We let him hang in the lobby for the night while the charge nurse worked with hospital social work to get the kid a place.

OMG that is so sad :crying2: I hope they where able to find him a home .

The night of the midwest snowstorm of 2011, my ER had a patient call the ambulance for toe pain x3 weeks. The EMS crew had to drive to the middle of the country in snow 3 ft high to pick him up... then when he got here he said "I was just bored because my cable went out so I figured I'd come here and watch yours." Then, obviously, we couldn't get him a ride home so he got round the clock meals, warm blankets and free cable for the next 2 days until we could get him home. :)

What's your room charge, like, $500 a day or what? Awfully expensive cable. Hope he ended up in jail. :devil:

At the time, I was living in the storm's path (my town got more snow in that storm than we usually got in a whole season) and there was a story on the news about parades of pregnant women checking into motels in case they went into labor during this time.

A woman came in because she stepped on a thumb tack. The 0.25 cm thumb tacks.

Same here. However it was a man....who came in by EMS.

Nursing is my second career. My first was as a flight attendant for a big airline. One night over the bond, we hit some air, and I came off the floor, and the middle of my foot landed on a bottle top from a liter water. I heard a pop, and it was decided to take me to the local hospital in Brighton, England upon arrival. My foot was fine, but what really got me was the decor of the ER. It seems that in an effort to raise funds, the walls in the ER waiting room are up for advertising rent.

Care to guess who advertises on those walls???

Malpractice attorneys.....sheesh.

I started volunteering a few hours/week at one of the major trauma hospitals as a nursing student looking for some additional exposure, contacts, and applying for a paid student position in October.

Wednesday night a patient came in via ambulance because she thought she had a UTI. Also had someone call the ER at 8pm asking if she could bring her child in for a sports physical.

Specializes in LTC.
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 doubt they thought ur were silly. Kidney stones are no joke.

acne....

A woman came in with a zit in her ear and was afraid it would pop and "go to her brain"

Headache due to argument with husband

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
A woman came in with a zit in her ear and was afraid it would pop and "go to her brain"
:lol2::lol2::lol2:

:smackingf

A woman came in with a zit in her ear and was afraid it would pop and "go to her brain"

OMG that sounds like a fiend of mine . I think she must have been on her head as a baby sometimes ?

:smackingf

OMG that sounds like a fiend of mine . I think she must have been on her head as a baby sometimes ?

Same friend also thinks I should get an eye transplant ? I keep telling here they do not do that one yet ?:lol2: But I will be first in line for that and the size 6 body transplant when that one comes out :lol2:

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