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 ?

Im sure the ER staff didn't think it was silly! It may have been obvious to them that it was a KS but what if it wasn't. Those are so painful I wouldn't want to agonize in pain alone not knowing whats going on!

My friend had an ultra sound done to see if she may be developing a KS because she was having back pain. Her Dr. said that he thinks she may be developing one or two and he told her to drink a 40 oz beer the next time she has any pain in that region. I guess something in the beer is supposed to help break them up. She said it worked! Her pain was gone and has not come back since.

Specializes in Med-Surg.
When my mother was sick, we called an ambulance. The ambulance workers, unfortunately, knew her. They told us that they refused to transport her (no traige, no assessment...nothing). They gave us a voucher for a cab, and told us not to call 911 again. Ever. After a few hours of waiting and wondering if we actually needed to go to the ED, we used this voucher and got her to the hospital. She spent 12 hours in the ED, 2 days in ICU, and then she died. Septicemia from a bladder infection that spread...

I don't know if we should give ambulance workers the discretion to decide if a patient should be transported or not. Just my HO...I don't need rebuttals or anything. But just maybe we should leave the REAL triage to the REAL ED workers. They can decide who really needs to be seen.

...chrissy...

I hear ya. A few years ago I got a call in the early am at home from my mom. She tells me her husband is short of breath, CP, cyanotic lips, thready pulse, vomiting..You know, all the text-book S&S of MI. So I tell her to get off the phone with me and call the ambulance, she already knows he is having a heart attack. She does so, stressing how urgent it was to EMT. We had just had a big snow storm, took EMT like 20 minutes to get there. When they did, they told my mom they werent sure if they needed to bring him in, they thought he just had a stomach flu. When she called me back to tell me this, I was like :banghead: Really mom, which stomach flu do you know of that turns you blue and gives you a barely perceptible thready pulse? Needless to say, he was having MI, almost died. Im glad my mom insisted they bring him in anyways...

Specializes in Med-Surg.
I am with you on this one scampi - I hope I never become so jaded that I would snicker at this. I don't care how many people tell me to "get over myself" or that it is how nurses deal with stress. It is tragic and this girl needs help if not a compassionate direct answer at the least.

Signed student, ...with rose colored glasses?

Oh for Gods sakes guys...given some of the utter geniuses we have been made aware of, did you consider that maybe she was responsible for this bestiality? Teenager becoming aware of her body? Peanut butter episode gone too far or something? I mean, maybe the dog is the real victim here! :p

The only intervention I can think of is another round of sex ed along with some counseling...

Specializes in Med-Surg.
Things are a litle different the other side of the pond, in my A+E we are allowed to send patients home from triage, so the ones that come in complaining the the oral abs haven't worked after one day can be sent home, along with those that think constipation for 4 hrs is a medical emergency.

Had a good one last night, someone came in at 4 am and said they hadn't pu'd in the last 4 hrs. reminded pt that it is normal not to pu during the night,

oh and the mother that was concerned that her baby wasn't breathing whilst they were vomiting. assured mother that this was probably a good thing really, baby looked very well.

That happened to me. I was one of the geniuses who thought the UTI would just resolve itself by hydrating and excessive amounts of cranberry juice. After lower back pain developed, went to a clinic, started on po cipro, and not so much as an NSAID. That night, I was in so much pain, (I know, I know, after only 2 doses of ABX), I actually got stuck in the tub for hours, could not move for the life of me. So my bf at the time talked me into going to the ER. Get there, wait 6-7 hours, only to be told, we would have prescribed the same med, same dose, same frequency you are on. Go home. I did, again, nothing for the pain. I decided to tough it out for a few days, went to stay with my at that time MIL, who was an RN. After 2 days of writhing in pain, not eating, she decides enough is enough, and brings me back to a different ER. Another 3 hour wait, but when they got my lab results back, found creat through the roof, bad imbalances on NA and K, very elevated WBC. Turns out, listening to the first ER doctor almost led me into ESRD...

Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.

Wow.. I went to an ER once with 12 hours of urinating tiny amounts, temp of 102-104 deg, bloody/cloudy urine. flank pain, nausea and vomiting. When I told the ER nurse my symptoms and that the urine was bloody, she patted me on the arm and said, "Now Honey, don't you think it might be your period?" I could have killed her. Imagine her surprise when my urine came back 4+ bacteria, TNTC RBC's and my white count was 19. Nothing like a rocking pyleonephritis!!!! my period my butt!!!. Anyway, was given an IM abx, then scripts for PO abx. Went home. Got scripts filled, then proceeded to vomit for 24 hours straight. Called Dr and wound up direct admit to med/surg floor with Pyleonephritis. The funny(?) part was the ER nurse that had been so smug, then found out that I worked up on med/surg and was so smarmy sweet and nicey-nice. I told her not to bother being nice, that she ahd alredy been a @@@@ and being nice now didn't count!!!! LOL

On the whole, tho, I find ER nurses to be knowledgeable and generally pleasant. I do not go to ER often, like 5 times in 54 years!!! SO maybe it would be different if I were a frequent guest! of the 5 times, I was ill enough to be hospitalized 4 times. Thankfully I have never gone by ambulance!

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.
When my mother was sick, we called an ambulance. The ambulance workers, unfortunately, knew her. They told us that they refused to transport her (no traige, no assessment...nothing). They gave us a voucher for a cab, and told us not to call 911 again. Ever. After a few hours of waiting and wondering if we actually needed to go to the ED, we used this voucher and got her to the hospital. She spent 12 hours in the ED, 2 days in ICU, and then she died. Septicemia from a bladder infection that spread...

I don't know if we should give ambulance workers the discretion to decide if a patient should be transported or not. Just my HO...I don't need rebuttals or anything. But just maybe we should leave the REAL triage to the REAL ED workers. They can decide who really needs to be seen.

...chrissy...

There is no such thing as ambulance workers. There are EMTs and Paramedics. They cannot refuse to take someone to the hospital. I'm not sure if you are in another country or something because it sounds like it.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

sep 8, '06 by auto5man

someone has already mentioned it but its happened to me to on more than one occasion. patients who use the ambulance service for a taxicab. they call 911 with a made up complaint and get transported to the er, then leave ama. the pickup location was of course miles away and they simply wanted a ride. the boldest bolt out of the back of the ambulance without even checking in.

most selfish and ridiculous....as the charge nurse i had been called to the triage area to explain to an irate young lady why a particular patient was going back before her (she had checked in first with her chief complaint of hang-nail); it was an older man with known brain cancer and a mental status change/neurological deficit who had checked in after her but gone back for treatment first. she was escalating and accepting none of my explanation of acuity. i got frustrated and said...."look, he's got brain cancer, okay?". she came back with..."well, he's already dead then and you should have seen me first!". i was speechless....that was eleven years ago and i still havn't forgotten it.

this poster hit the nail on the head...

"these trivial complaints are generally not covered by any form of insurance and even medicaid is cracking down on non emergent visits. the patients are usually very angry when they receive a bill for $600.00 in the mail. more and more hospitals are becomming more and more aggressive at collecting on these bills also. the way to treat under educated consumers who utilize a resource for the wrong reasons is to hit them in the pocket book. paying a huge bill will get them to think about visiting their primary care physician first or trying home treatments. people just dont want to think any more. they'd rather go crying to "mommy" aka the "er" than to try to take care of it themselves. we've created a very dependent society."

i for one will be happy when the undereducated and unemployed/receiveing tax-dollar paid for insurance and benefits are penalized in a real way for the er abuses. like coming to the er for tylenol and saying they can't afford it, but they have a pack of cigarettes in their pocket plainly visible. i've said it for years,,,,if the average citizen new what went on in the er on a daily basis, i.e. saw how their tax dollars were being spent, there would be a popular revolt!

stupid people do = job security in the er to a point, stupid people with private insurance that they work for to earn. stupid people without insurance or with tax dollar paid for insurance, on the other hand, are bankrupting the healthcare system. hospitals end up closing from losing money and this is happening all over the country.

regards,

david

see, i agree that there should be some kind of fee for visiting the er. however, because you end up with people not wanting to go because they cant even afford their co-pay, could there not just be some kind of system where if you go for something dumb/non-emergent like a hangnail or a scrip refill, then you need to pay co-pay. if it is actually an emergency, then the co-pay is waived. does anyone think that system could function?

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Ok, so I have to admit to something...when I had to go to the Emergency, I would usually try to hold off til midnight at least. For one, I am a night owl anyways. Ive been twice for pyelonephritis, 2-3 times for KS, and once for dyspnea and chest pain for like 3 days that turned out to be a very very bad panic attack (D/c home with Ativan, God I felt dumb). But in Canada, ER waiting times are so ridiculously long, the only way to get seen in less than 12 hours is to go in at night...

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

I also admit to waiting until late at night. Not because I want to but due to necessity. Next to my last visit, I was having an MI, and the more recent time, as I was trying to dose off after the late news, my throat kept filling up with fluid. I kept trying to clear it to no avail. So after about an hour of unsuccessful attempts, I called 911. I was admitted with an agressive form of bacterial pneumonia.

Specializes in Med-Surg.
i have had kidney stones 3 times, they are no joke.this last time they used toradol which actually worked better than the morphine.:)

you know, after a case of pyelonephritis and 2 bouts of kidney stones, i got a nurse in the er who really seemed to think i was drug seeking. she treated me pretty rudely, gave me a shot of toradol in the deltoid, pretty roughly if i might add. i mean, it helped the pain and all, but if the md from the pyelonephritis hospitalization tells me to hurry to the hospital when i get kidney-area pain, i am going to do it. im sorry, but at 26 i dont want to end up dialysis... end rant...

Specializes in Emergency.

Reminder, this is a vent thread for ER nurses to talk about the folks who should not have come to the ER. Like the guy who showed up last night c/o possible coughing up blood x1 last week, no current complaints.

Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.

I was working Er one night when a girl came in at 3 am with a boil in her arm pit that she had for a week!! BY AMBULANCE!!

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