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 ?

um, had he really cut off his member or was she just a little kooky?

Here is my UTI experience and what's so messed up about our healthcare system. AT work, started to feel it coming on. I had one in the past and knew what it was right away. Got off work and called my PCP and asked him to call something in for me. Oh, hell no, can't do that...gotta see you....(jesus C.....I AM an ICU nurse...it's not like i'm diagnosing a heart condition and asking you to call in some Cardizem or something..) No available appt. until Tues. (4 days away)...Now that's some good preventative medicine...How far will this infection travel by tuesday? It's 4:30. Can barely pee by then. So I head over to a doc in the box. (never been to one before, hell, have paid for insurance for 17 years and barely used it) Doc in the box says I need a referral or my insurance won't cover it. WHAT?? They call my PCP, he say NO...haven't seen her for it, she needs to make appt here or go to ER. GO TO ER?? Good use of insurance. Doc in the box says insurance won't pay for this ER visit either. I call my PCP personally from doc in the box. I told the office nurse my dilemma, can't pee, lots of pain, gotta work in AM. I told her I was 6 blocks away and would be in shortly and will sit in the waiting room and be last appointment of the day, if necessary, to be seen. I was sooooo pissed. Nurse comes back on the phone and snottily says, fine, just come in. Can you believe this crap? If I would have been on welfare...NO PROBLEM...ala carte service...free of charge. Changed PCP's.

That is just a horrible story. I, having had UTIs while pregnant, feel your pain. I totally believe you--my daughter has had similar experiences with her health insurance surrounding being seen for a UTI. I can remember taking her to the drugstore--she was in too much pain, crying, etc. to drive--and getting her that stuff that helps--a little bit--with the symptoms of a UTI until she could be seen and get a C&S and the proper antibiotic--which is usually Septra, Amoxicillin or some cephalosporin.

I know through Kaiser, the local HMO, if you say you are in pain--and they are SUPPOSED to ask--you must get a same day appointment. If they do not offer you one, you can call membership services and THEY will get it for you--and then counsel the person who would not work you in.

I go to the VA for my health care these days--sadly, if you have pain, you must go to the ER. The system is just too overburdened--there are not enough slots for a same day appointment-no one's fault.

Specializes in Clinical Research, Outpt Women's Health.

Get a new pcp - when i worked as an office nurse we would just send you to the lab for a stat UA, and as soon as you did that we would call in an RX for you to start, and change it later based on culture results if needed. No appt. needed - no need to be miserable. That snotty "nurse" should have advocated for you with the provider. I wonder if she was really a nurse - she certainly has no compassion.

I can think of two right off...

One young man came in with the complaint that he couldn't get an erection. Wanted Viagra.

Young lady brought in by EMS with c/o broken artificial nail.

NOT really sure what people are thinking.

Young man- broken nose- hysterical wife- "I told you that you were going to kill yourself with those Num Chuks" (Had to be air-lifted to nearest trauma unit)

We first thought the wife was hysterical... she was just laughing so hard she was crying.

She stopped crying/laughing when the helicopter took off.

He kept yelling at her: "thnut up, thnitch"

The above is hilarious. For every 50 or so stupid complaints we see an interaction like this that we recount for a long time.

My favorite was drunk guy returned to the farm after being downtown and tripped and impaled himself (abdomen) on a fence post. He called his dog and got him to bark to wake up momma. Momma was trying to get the post out of the ground whole so they could put it back in the ground never mind wondering if there was cow dookie on said post in the boys belly. Amazingly he didn't damage anything significant other than his pride. Gotta love some of the ridiculous freak accidents. :chuckle

Another good one on of our clinic NP's husband got hit by a car when we transferred him fromt the ambulance stretcher i asked his meds and allergies he replied no meds and Dodge trucks. :rotfl:

Here's another one...

20 y/o "Buffy" type sorority girl at an area university, comes in with the c/o "A bump down there and its tender", hx present x 2 mos.

External exam by the doc reveals nothing unusual or abnormal, as he palpates around she suddenly says "that's IT!"

He palpates again. "this?" he asked, with a slight flitter with his finger to make sure he was correct (never mind the WAY that happened)..

"yes, that" was the answer

He sat back, removed his gloves, took a deep breath, and said with every amount of composure he could muster...

"that's your privy parts. That's SUPPOSED to be there."

All I could think was...God bless her, some poor guy finally found it.

:rotfl:

Specializes in medsurg, urgent care, peds.

While working as an ER Tech we had a pt come to the ER via ambulance for.... A sore throat!

Also had a guy present with 3rd degree burns on the back of his legs due to jumping through a fire at a party b/c his friends did it! Good thing they didn't jump from a bridge!

A group of 15-16 yos brought in their 13 yo old friend who was extremely intoxicated! They were afraid he was poisoned or something, however we just kept him comfortable while he puked.

Here's another one...

20 y/o "Buffy" type sorority girl at an area university, comes in with the c/o "A bump down there and its tender", hx present x 2 mos.

External exam by the doc reveals nothing unusual or abnormal, as he palpates around she suddenly says "that's IT!"

He palpates again. "this?" he asked, with a slight flitter with his finger to make sure he was correct (never mind the WAY that happened)..

"yes, that" was the answer

He sat back, removed his gloves, took a deep breath, and said with every amount of composure he could muster...

"that's your privy parts. That's SUPPOSED to be there."

All I could think was...God bless her, some poor guy finally found it.

:rotfl:

OMG! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: I believe that's the funniest story I've ever heard.

I had to go the ER one night for something that seems a little ridiculous.

One night, while I was asleep, and I turned over in my bed, my thumb caught a loose piece of wood on the head board of my bed.

That small piece of wood got jammmed up my fingernail about halfway.

Oh, God, help me, I was miserable.

My thumb started to ache and throb.

I was supposed to work the next day, and this was about 1 or 2am.

I thought, now, this is ridculous, I've got to get some sleep. I lay back down and tried to go back to sleep, but I could NOT sleep.

I knew I would not get any relief until I got that wood splinter out of my fingernail, so I got up and went to the emergency room.

They had to give me about 4 to 5 shots of local anesthetic in my thumb to get it dead, in order to pull it out.

I had a thumb for a couple of days that looked like it had been hit with a hammer, but oh, did it feel better!

Oh, yeah, I called in and explained to my DON and I got to stay home that day!

And I got rid of that particular bedroom set, too.

:rotfl:

ok, I'll tell on myself but.... at least I did have the excuse of being extremely young and naive. I had my son very young and was a single mom. When he was about 4 yrs. old (he's 28 now), he came to me saying "mama, somethings wrong with my weewee. It's too big." Well, I look and his poor "weewee" was swollen horribly, it looked like his fist instead of a member! Horrified, I throw him in the car and make a mad dash to the hospital, just imaging the whole way that it was going to explode or something. By the way, all this time he's not c/o of pain, just getting scared because of my panic. I rush in the ED, finally get seen.......then the Doc, trying very hard to keep a straight face but failing miserably tells me that it's just a chigger. Not being a boy myself and not having a husband, I didn't know that it sometimes affects little boys like that. I felt like a total idiot, wanted to crawl out the door.

P.S. by the way, for anyone not acquainted with the chigger, it is a teeny, tiny little insect that burrows into your skin, very irritating to your skin and itches worse than anything you can imagine, but not dangerous.

ok, I'll tell on myself but.... at least I did have the excuse of being extremely young and naive. I had my son very young and was a single mom. When he was about 4 yrs. old (he's 28 now), he came to me saying "mama, somethings wrong with my weewee. It's too big." Well, I look and his poor "weewee" was swollen horribly, it looked like his fist instead of a member! Horrified, I throw him in the car and make a mad dash to the hospital, just imaging the whole way that it was going to explode or something. By the way, all this time he's not c/o of pain, just getting scared because of my panic. I rush in the ED, finally get seen.......then the Doc, trying very hard to keep a straight face but failing miserably tells me that it's just a chigger. Not being a boy myself and not having a husband, I didn't know that it sometimes affects little boys like that. I felt like a total idiot, wanted to crawl out the door.

P.S. by the way, for anyone not acquainted with the chigger, it is a teeny, tiny little insect that burrows into your skin, very irritating to your skin and itches worse than anything you can imagine, but not dangerous.

Yes, but there is a serious condition which causes swelling in young boy's memberes that can cause permanent damage...I've treated a case or two in very young infants (

OK, some of you know that my husband and I have finally completed our adoption from Poland and now have two 14 month old baby girls at home. We have a very good friend of ours from England who has been staying at our house and taking care of the fur-kitties, house stuff, etc., and generally being a great help. Well, on Dec 23, when we had my family's Christmas celebration (since we had to fly to Warsaw on Christmas day) our good friend breaks out a bottle of Chopin Vodka (did I mention I am not a huge drinker? If not, this is the exception which proves the rule...) All the adult raise their glasses and give their best wishes for a safe journey and return for us. That was a third of the bottle.

The remaining two-thirds of the bottle sat between my DH, me, and our friend Tony -- only to be downed one shot after another. Well, my DH, being sensible, said 'goodnite' at a reasonable hour leaving my English drinking buddy and me to finish the bottle...which we did...and oh my...I don't think I've ever been that drunk before. Falling down drunk. Have-to-do-something-important-by-the-front-door drunk, and running into a marble mantlepiece.

WELL, that mantlepiece left quite an impression on my ample behind. Three days later, when we're at the Embassy in Warsaw, I suddenly can't bear weight on my right side. My leg was just buckling and I'm thinking, crap, sacrum fx or small pelvic fx or acetabulum fx (yes, I hit the floor that hard). The doc in Poland was so, so nice. After he talked to me about follow up care and what to do on the next day's 10 hour flight (lots of fluids, valium, diclofenac, walk around the airplane (prescription for 'laps' every half hour). He didn't even lecture me about my incredible inebriation, but he did get a good laugh at what my story was. And yes, he was perfectly professional, even cracking up when I told him there was something important that had to be taken care of RIGHT THEN.

So not exactly an ER story, but this was Poland's version of urgent care, and it was stupid on my part. My rear end is healing nicely now and I only get a muscle twinge when I'm sitting too long and have to run after the little ones. :p

Specializes in er, pediatric er.
I think one of the most rediculous was for a pregnancy test. Min cost of $500.00 for the ER visit when they could have bought one at Walmart for like $7! Or even have one done free at the health dept ... I'm sure that bill didn't get paid anyway.

I work at pediatric ed and we have teenagers that come in for pregnancy tests all the time!! So frustrating!!!

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