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 ?

I'm still reading the newest posts on this thread. So good! So here's a couple:

- Guy comes in, said he'd heard on the news that some people were getting sick because of the Red Tide, and he wanted to get checked out. Was he having any symptoms? "Well, my throat feels kind of dry sometimes."

- Post-tubal, took 2 negative home pregnancy tests, came in asking for ultrasound "because I had a tubal pregnancy before, so maybe it's up high like under my rib or something, and that's why it's not showing up on the pregnancy tests at home, but maybe they can find it on the ultrasound." Uh-huh.

- mid-20's, P1G0, had "chest pain" (indicates left breast, even described it as being "more in here than inside my heart") single incident lasting about one second, happened at 0630 this morning, presents to ER at 0930, in a hurry because she has an appt with OB at 10:30. *sigh*

Night shift, during a level 2 snow emergency at 0200 a patient comes in with chapped lips. I imagine everyone is pictures some gorey picture of this guys lips bleeding out, but sadly no, they were your typical chapped lips.

Specializes in Peds, Ortho, ER.

Here's a good one... We received a transfer request from another hospital for an evaluation of possible "bird flu." The reason the provider was concerned, "The pt had a fever and had a pet parakeet in his house."

Specializes in Emergency.

37 y/o female came in by squad. c/o "anxiety" after witnessing minor mva.

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
37 y/o female came in by squad. c/o "anxiety" after witnessing minor mva.

LOL! Wow, that is ridiculous. I should introduce her to some of my soldier patients with PTSD for a dose of "perspective."

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.

Had this one pop up in triage the other night... father with 5 day old infant, brought in by EMS for c/o "had a booger in her nose earlier that was removed with bulb suction and needs to be checked out now". To top it off, it was now 4:30a.m., when I asked the dad if baby had any episodes of DIB, he said "no, after we cleaned her nose she was fine but my wife made me come and said to have a full workup". this was baby # 3, so NOT new parents.. but per dad, mom had c-section and was having a rough recovery, so i'm guessing mom just wanted to sleep that night lol

Argh, I hate those people. I was in the ER with a bleeding stomach ulcer once, and when I finally got in, the guy in the bed next door was complaining that he'd lost his appetite and wasn't interested in life anymore. The worst part was that he was singing and farting really loudly the whole time I was chucking up blood and waiting. I hated that guy. And now that I think of it, what kind of depressed person sings to themselves??

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.

Both of these in the past week or so...

1. "Hangnail" Of course it was causing 10/10 throbbing pain. However, it ended up being a paronychia (albeit a fairly minor one). To top it off, the pt asked for bus passes for both her and her granddaughter that came with her.

2. "Mark on arm" Pt stated that she remembers itching her wrist in the middle of the night. Now there is a raised mark there with a small scab in the middle. Per the pt, it was draining "clear pus." She wanted it checked out because "It does not look like ringworm, but I just wanted to make sure." Now I know that as a nurse I can't diagnose, but as an ex-boy scout I diagnosed it the moment I saw it as a....mosquito bite! What ticks me off most about it is that we sent her home with a prescription.

Specializes in ER, Outpatient,.

My favorite USED To BE . . .

A 57 year old man at the ED via EMS after drinking with his buddies for about 7 hrs. When he arrives on the streatcher I ask what is the problem? He gets up and walks to the ED bed where he lays down and states "my knee is broken." "well sir that is very serious, can you tell me what happened?" I asked. "Well" he replies "I hurt it really bad." "OK sir, and when did this happen?" "When I was 26." hahaha so basically this guy was sitting there getting drunk, not doing anything remotly physical and decided his knee was broken. So he called an ambulance and went to the ER for a check up. Bless the IHS. Millions of Americans with no health care i love knowing that my tax dollars pay for this.

BUT . . . my now favorite #1 storey . . .

Man comes into ER and fills out intake slip. Chief complaint reads "I am really hungover." "I need a note for work." hahahahah

Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.

Had a funny one last night... "I'm cold, crazy, and need some love" HAHA

:p :redbeathe

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
Had a funny one last night... "I'm cold, crazy, and need some love" HAHA

:p :redbeathe

Thank you for being my nurse!

I went into the ER for a ingrown toenail, it was 3 weeks old, it was infected, I couldn't walk on it, and I didn't have health insurance nor $400 that the free clinic wanted in order to take care of it and no one would bill, and all the other specialist needed money and even if I could come up with the money they wouldn't be able to see me for 5 more days from the day that I needed it done and couldn't wait anymore. This was about 2 weeks ago haha, I am not a nurse but I would like to be one, I didn't think it was a stupid reason to go to the ER though, in fact, a lot of people recomended it. oh and I will have health insurance in a couple of days, yay! :)

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