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 ?

[Jsnap1]

-child vomited once, now sitting on mom's lap eating chips and drinking coke

ahhhh gotta love those smart parents...a little deductive reasoning can go a long way! lol

[Jsnap1]

...and then you have people like my grandmother, age 86, and pretty peppy for her age who have a VERY off day. Forgetting what she had for lunch, who came to visit her earlier, falls of a chair when she was trying to fix the blinds and ends up cutting her leg and it wont stop bleeding, her BP was like 159/115, she maybe weights 95 lbs soaking wet. It was all I could do to convince her to go to the ER, because she didn't want to "bother" the ER nurses. I was like NANA GET IN THE CAR, THEY WILL BE GREATFUL TO HAVE AN ACTUALY PATIENT WHO SHOULD BE THERE....

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

Yes, EMS professionals love wasting their time bringing idiots in, instead of sitting at a relaxing post or in their ambulance. C'mon... Second, they are legally obligated to bring a patient in if the patient insists believe me they would would rather leave them at home, its a waste of time and paperwork for them. Again-they do not have a choice, so blame the patient taht insists on coming in for the idiotic reason, not the EMT or paramedic that are doing what they legally have to.

I can relate to this one. I lost many nights of sleep going after the time wasters.

[itsnowornever, BSN, RN]

During preceptorship we had a lady come in because the top of her foot was hurting her and she was complaining of throat pain...unrelated issues, we all swore up and down she was just "making sure her insurance worked"....turns out hgb was 6 and she had mono. We delivered the news and told her she was going to need a transfusion and get admitted to figure out the cause of the hgb...she said, I kid you not, "I just have to go home and eat dinner then it will be better"....ummm...NO! Her next excuse was, "I'll come back tomorrow". Now, keep in mind I am student, and I was trying to explain why she had to stay there, so I thought to myself, "Put on your nursing panties and DO NOT let her leave"...so I gave her the absolute worst situation that could happen if she leaves, she could have a heart attack or stroke and die. This scared her daughter enough to say her mom wouldnt leave, but it wasn't enough for mom, so my nurse walked in and said "If you leave and die, you can't sue us. The form you are about to sign says that you have no legal action if you die". Then and only then did she consent, stay and get her blood. SERIOUSLY????? That was probably one of the most ridiculous things I've seen.

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

I've worked as a Nurse Tech in the ER for 2 years now (I graduate in May with my BSN, yay!) and I have seen crazy and ridiculous stuff. Some to note are...

A guy came in who cut off his member, with scissors. Said "God told him to do it." Let's just say I've never looked at a member the same. :chuckle

Another guy came in with a Dove shampoo bottle in his butt, and when him and his girlfriend couldn't get it out, they decided to try a wire coat hanger. Apparently they didn't get the memo that there are toys made specifically for that area if that is what you are into!

People come in for crazy stuff all the time. It gets exhausting after a while. It's actually sad how many people are so uneducated in how to give basic care to themselves.

Soo weird but I also work in a detroit ER and had a guy a few months ago cut off his member with scissors too! Also because god told him to.... then he threw it in a field to feed the rats.. eww

God doesn't seem to like detroit men these days lol

Sent from my SPH-D700 using allnurses.com

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

ROFL!!!!

BWA HAHAHA. That must've been one helluva oyster lol, and I bet the cheese looked like the virgin mary too! Haha

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[TheCoppertop]

Lol 2 come to mind.One a guy around 30 who checked in as chest pain, then told the doc he was really there because he just found out that a place he worked at 10 years ago, was found to contain asbestos and he wanted to get checked.Best triage sign-in ever though was "Eating carpet". A 3 yr old boy with PICA and a hilariously apropos name (damn you HIPAA) ate some carpet fibers. We female nurses guffawed like hell at that CC and figure he'll someday be very popular with the ladies.

[Christy1019, ASN, RN]

I don't know about the rest of you, but one of the biggest problem we have in my ED is the nursing homes. They send pts over for the most ridiculous things sometimes, and I often find the people who work there to be completely incompetent. Here is a recent example:

Local nursing home sends pt to us for a fever. On their paperwork it states the pts temp= 105.1. Upon arrival I do a rectal temp which is 106.3. I immediately look through the med sheets from the home to see what time Tylenol was given. Now I look and look and look and cannot find ANY documentation that Tylenol was given at all. I give the pt ibuprofen, put her on a cooling blanket and call the home. The conversation went like this:

Me: I'm calling to find out what time you gave Tylenol.

Nurse @ the home: I didn't give her any.

Me: Come again?

Nurse: I didn't give her any.

Me: You do understand that a temperature that high in an elderly pt can cause seizures and can be life-threatening, right?

Nurse: I guess.

Me: You guess?! I'm sorry I'm have some difficulty understanding this situation. I see on your paperwork that the pt had a temp of 105.1, which is why you sent her to us (keep in my that they called a private ambulance which normally takes about 60 minutes to arrive, not a regular ambulance). The pt has a prn Tylenol order which specifically says to give for temp >101. and the last time I checked, 105.1 is greater than 101. So now the pt has a temp of 105.1, a life threatening problem in anyone, but especially an 86 year old woman. I would very much appreciate it if you would enlighten me as to why you did not give this woman Tylenol.

Nurse: Well we didn't want to mask anything by bringing her temp down.

WHAT???!!! Sometimes I really wonder about these nursing homes. What ever happened to basic nursing care?

My next question for her would be "may I please speak with your supervisor? Or would you like to explain to her why she will be getting a report of negligent/unsafe care practices of her staff? "

Ughhh

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[wildlaurel]

I had a lady take an ambulance to our ED at 2 am once because she didn't get her piece of fruit before bedtime...because nobody was home to give her "care and comfort." I wanted to give her a fruit cup and send her home - the EDP wanted to work her up for a CVA!

[chansen]

The sheer number of young female "abdominal pains" that arrive by medic and then elope when their urine HCG comes back positive never ceases to amaze me. Hooray for 911 pregnancy tests they never have any intention paying. And people complain that a more socialized healthcare insurance system would cost tax payers too much. If only they knew how many people are abusing the ED on a daily basis. . .

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

Just for fun information:

Here's some interesting stuff about Coke being used as a contraceptive. Great urband legends page at snopes.com.

snopes.com: Coca-Cola Spermicide

We have our share of pregnant pts using EMSA like a taxi service. It's usually the case of either someone being 1-2cm, the contractions hurt but they can't wait for their BF or whoever to get off work to take them to the hospital or the pt is 1-2cm, the cxt are starting to hurt and they call an ambulance. The ambulance pulls up front and drops off pt, followed by a carload of people who could have taken her to the hospital.

This always bothers me.

Well just to let you know, I had my baby 13 months ago. I went into labor at 3am, was getting contraction pains every 2 minutes or so, but was only 3cm when I got to the hospital. My fiance was out of town for the day and I was alone at home, no one I knew to drive me. I drove myself to the hospital and got grief by the secretary, the nurses, and the doctor when I told them how I got there, was told I should have called the ambulance...lol...

[uRNmyway, ASN, RN]

:banghead: Too many people need an anatomy lesson.... :o

Now with 20 year olds not knowing about the privy parts, and others not knowing about the urethra...remind me again why they are removing sex ed from school?

Lets not forget about the 12 year old mentioned in a previous post who got pregnant because the other Darwin candidate she was messing around with told her to use Cling Wrap...

Let not teach them about sex ed...lets let them figure it out on their own. Then end up with more dumb visits to ER, more children having children...ugh...end rant lol