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 ?

Specializes in Med-Surg.
Also had a lady who drank a fleet enema. She cut off the tip and put a straw in it. She still pooped though..

Oh Ew. Wonder what the fleet tastes like though...is it weird that I automatically thought of that lol?

Specializes in ER.

A lady that is a FF herself brought her 11 year old to the ER complaining of knee pain. Dx with growing pains. The lady asked "Can you give him the "extra strength" Percocet so he has something to take for pain? The doctor explained that they do not give out narcotics in that strength to little kids, in fact very rarely to they prescribe narcotics to kids. She continues to try "Wellc can you give him regular Percocet for his pain? Or the extra strength Norcos?" The doctor explained that Motrin would be the best thing to take for him, and if it was really bad he could alternate between Motrin and Tylenol. One thing is for sure, the lady was drug seeking and using her son to try and get some narcotics.

Specializes in ER.
Had a guy come in, said he had a fever of 99 degrees F, but what really made him come in was that he was having bad dreams.

LOL @ bad dreams. Did they want a doctor's note to miss work? Or did he seriously think you could make them go away?

Love it.

Bister. On the thumb. He wanted a band-aid.

A woman came running in to our ER and started stating in a excited tone "I think my daughter broker her leg" several times. I was ready to run out the the car with a wheel chair when the girl came skipping (kid you not) into the ER, no tears, smile on her face. Apperantly a broken legs looks like a 3 cm surface scratch we treated with Neosporin and a bandaid. The women still had us do a complete x-ray of the leg. She banged it against a metal pipe (at least that was the story).

Funny thing is most of these stories end up with the parent asking for Narcotics but this one didnt. She seriously thought it might be broke.

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

Had a girl come in the other night with a tooth ache. No big deal, I get it...the likelihood of getting an oral surgeon on a Sunday morning is nil, but we can give ABX and pain control. Tooth aches hurt like hell, I get that.

So, I start a line, infuse clinda, etc. She gets 5-325 Norco. Doc tells her he'll write a scrip for Norco and let her go if she's going to see her dentist/oral surgeon on Monday, but that she should take Motrin 600 regularly for additional pain control and swelling.

Before we discharge her, her mom, who is with her, asks the doc to write a once order for Motrin 600 before they leave so she doesn't have to stop at a drug store.

So, she got a dose of NSAID for a couple hundred bucks to her insurance that she could have gotten by making a five minute stop for several doses at $8 or $9 .

My story:

My ex (who is a idiot may I add) was convinced my daughter (who was 3 at the time ) had ringworm. Her socks were on too tight and left a red mark for x2 days. He thought it was because I had dogs. OMG if you google ringworm it looks nothing like a sock mark.

Rushed her to the er, against my advice.

Another time, he was convinced she was having a reaction from her shots, no fever, a stuffy nose (that was there before her shots). That was a er trip too. OMG.

Even if it was ring worm, that's no reason to go to the ED.

Had a girl come in the other night with a tooth ache. No big deal I get it...the likelihood of getting an oral surgeon on a Sunday morning is nil, but we can give ABX and pain control. Tooth aches hurt like hell, I get that. So, I start a line, infuse clinda, etc. She gets 5-325 Norco. Doc tells her he'll write a scrip for Norco and let her go if she's going to see her dentist/oral surgeon on Monday, but that she should take Motrin 600 regularly for additional pain control and swelling. Before we discharge her, her mom, who is with her, asks the doc to write a once order for Motrin 600 before they leave so she doesn't have to stop at a drug store. So, she got a dose of NSAID for a couple hundred bucks to her insurance that she could have gotten by making a five minute stop for several doses at $8 or $9 .[/quote']

The docs around here seem to always write scripts for Motrin so that the insurance covers it. That way the patients can pay 8-9 dollars OTC or have the option to pay 3-5 dollar copay at the pharmacy. Why is this bad?

The docs around here seem to always write scripts for Motrin so that the insurance covers it. That way the patients can pay 8-9 dollars OTC or have the option to pay 3-5 dollar copay at the pharmacy. Why is this bad?

They write scripts so Medicaid will pay for the Motrin. No copay.

frequent flyers go to ER (free) for treatment, food, phone, ride home.. And then rx for OTC for free so they don't have to use cigg money for meds

Specializes in Pediatric/Adolescent, Med-Surg.

They write scripts so Medicaid will pay for the Motrin. No copay.

frequent flyers go to ER (free) for treatment, food, phone, ride home.. And then rx for OTC for free so they don't have to use cigg money for meds

I have even had docs give pts a Rx for condoms, supposedly if you have a script you can get them for free with Medicaid

Specializes in ER.

Keep in mind this is a MTF (military treatment facility) so we have our own ambulance personnel etc. Ambulance personnel are ED techs.

A call comes in, it's a lady calling complaining of pain in her foot. When the ambulance arrives they discover she also has her 2 kids, so they come with the 2 kids. We're slammed so off to the waiting room she goes. She throws a huge hissy fit, blah blah blah. Bring her back. She's had the pain for 2 days. 10/10 pain. She can walk, no limp, no fall, no twist, nothing dropped on it etc. Tells dr it's worse than labor pains. Order an X-ray...her kids are running a muck in their half of the room (split to hold 2 pts) I felt sorry for the person next to her! X-ray is perfectly normal. Dr says nothing looks to be wrong. She goes on about how it hurts so bad yada yada. He says "well I'll give you Motrin 800. Go home & ice it." Then she goes "but I have my kids. I need something to ease the pain so I can function to help them." Trying to be fair & give her the benefit of the doubt he says he'll put in for Tylenol #3. She goes "That doesn't help me. I need a shot of fentanyl 50mcgs now and Percocet to take at home. That's what works for me." He said he could not do that as she had her kids a & b it wasn't warranted in the least bit. I suppose it was a last ditch effort or something but she finally says "Can you at least give me perks (her word usage!) to take at home? I snort them rather than take them by mouth this way it doesn't affect me & make me high."

Uhhhhh! So she got nothing! Her husband (her sponsor) got a call & family services was given a call. This is still a WHAT THE ACTUAL EFF!

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