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 ?

Specializes in Emergency.

A guy came in last night because he ate a piece of moldy bread. Wasn't having any symptoms, just "wanted to get checked out".

YIKES.

Specializes in ER Tech,Internal Med, Family Practice.

I worked as an ER tech on a military base and during one night shift i swear it was a night for stupid ppl..one guy came in with pains in his butt cuz he and some friends decided to see if he could hold a firecracker in his butt..the look on his 1sgt face was priceless

5) Male patient came in, when asked what the problem was he said " I be disappearing and sh**)..almost turned away and back around and said "where'd you go?" Psych eval to say the least... :chuckle

omg ROFL

I am not a latina, but i found it insulting....

I am latina and found it hilarious.

:yeah:

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.

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