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 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! :)

Specializes in EMS, ED, Trauma, CEN, CPEN, TCRN.
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! :)

Not necessarily stupid from your standpoint, but non-emergent from an ER's standpoint. However, your reasoning -- not having the money up front -- is the reason a lot of people come to the ER, and that's the reality. Just pay your ER bill, mkay? ;) Unfortunately I fear it'll be more than $400 ... but what else were you supposed to do? I have no answers for that. The ER is often the court of last resort, but also people's first resort at times....

My husband, before we were married, had an ingrown toenail and no health insurance. We withdrew $600 from savings and went to hunt down a local podiatrist -- I worked in an ER as a tech at the time, I knew it would be super-expensive to go to the ER for it and we'd spend less in the long run by seeing a podiatrist, though we had no clue what it would cost. We found a podiatrist and got in that day. After the podiatrist fixed the ingrown toe issue, he asked my husband if he had insurance. We said no, and the podiatrist considered for a moment, then said, "How does $100 sound?" I could have kissed that guy! And we went back to him again later, after my husband had insurance and another foot issue, because he was so awesome the first time. It all worked out.

I hope you heal well. :)

This isn't silly but stupid! At least once a year, I have to go to the ER to get a new g-button. We can only have 2 a year because of insurance but my son goes through them every 3-4 months. Last time we had to go at 9:00 pm and it was super busy. Lucky, the triage nurses were nice. As soon as the g-button came up from supplies, they called us into a triage room. While I changed it, the doctor did her notes. In and out in 5 minutes, not counting waiting for it to come from supplies.

Not necessarily stupid from your standpoint, but non-emergent from an ER's standpoint. However, your reasoning -- not having the money up front -- is the reason a lot of people come to the ER, and that's the reality. Just pay your ER bill, mkay? ;) Unfortunately I fear it'll be more than $400 ... but what else were you supposed to do? I have no answers for that. The ER is often the court of last resort, but also people's first resort at times....

My husband, before we were married, had an ingrown toenail and no health insurance. We withdrew $600 from savings and went to hunt down a local podiatrist -- I worked in an ER as a tech at the time, I knew it would be super-expensive to go to the ER for it and we'd spend less in the long run by seeing a podiatrist, though we had no clue what it would cost. We found a podiatrist and got in that day. After the podiatrist fixed the ingrown toe issue, he asked my husband if he had insurance. We said no, and the podiatrist considered for a moment, then said, "How does $100 sound?" I could have kissed that guy! And we went back to him again later, after my husband had insurance and another foot issue, because he was so awesome the first time. It all worked out.

I hope you heal well. :)

I wish this had happend for me as it played out for your husband, I waited for the er as a last resort though, I called every podiatrist in town, I called every urgent care and clinic, and all of the family doctors that I could find, sadly it just didn't work out well for me, I was also begining to get very scared because as I would seek peoples opinions they would say it looked so bad thatI really needed to get it taken care of and it was begining to puse as well and I heard that is a very bad sign which is why I was begining to fear the idea of geting gangreen, I believe it was the right call though, the doctor removed my toe nail and gave me a lot of meds for the infections and a lot of pain meds, it did heal quite well. I think if I had to do it over again, I would given the same circumstances :)

Specializes in Emergency Dept, ICU.

I have no problem with people coming in to the ER for what ever the heck they want to, I do have a problem when they don't pay thier bill!

Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.

A few I've collected from my ED buddies recently:

"Evil has my soul." (What, do you perform an MRI to see if the soul is still there?)

"I fell in the shower on Monday and now my head hurts." (It was Thursday night).

"Human bite to member." (Yee-OUCH and I don't have one of those!)

"Today is my last day." (Yet he waited until night time to come to the hospital...)

And an entire family came in s/p body lice infestation....glad I'm a few floors up!

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.

One of my last days in the ER. Had a woman, her sister, and a combined thirteen kids between the two of them (not exaggerating) check all of themselves in. Because they'd had a big family picnic about two weeks ago with someone who was eventually diagnosed with MRSA in a "spider bite."

They just wanted to be "checked out." Even after the Urgent Care NP came out and explained that this was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen in his entire life.

Specializes in PDN; Burn; Phone triage.
I couldn't believe how many people came in with earwax buildup.

Ugghh my husband has some weird condition which causes mass production of earwax. He needs his ears flushed out probably once a month or so. Walgreens walk-in charged $85 to do it so I finally just snatched a 19 gauge (obviously using just the catheter!), a 60 cc syringe, and a kidney basin from work. I haven't ruptured his ear drum...yet...

Specializes in Trauma, Teaching.
Ugghh my husband has some weird condition which causes mass production of earwax. He needs his ears flushed out probably once a month or so. Walgreens walk-in charged $85 to do it so I finally just snatched a 19 gauge (obviously using just the catheter!), a 60 cc syringe, and a kidney basin from work. I haven't ruptured his ear drum...yet...

Just FYI, you can also get liquid earwax softener at the pharmacy, OTC, to use before flushing. I use a 10 or 20 cc syringe, easier to control the pressure and volume that way.

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