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 ?

One summer evening at our inner city ER I did the initial intake on a somewhat intoxicated hispanic man who complained, "there is stuff coming out of my stomach." I asked if he was nauseous or vomiting and he said, " No, stuff is coming out of my stomach." I asked if he had a wound and he said "No, stuff is coming out of my stomach. I show you." With that he pulled up his T shirt and pointed to his umbilicus. There he was growing a fine crop of belly button lint. I cleaned this out with an alcohol swab and explained that it came from his shirt. I could see he was not sure he could believe me but offered to let him stay and talk to the MD if he wanted to. He left.

How any male reaches adulthood without encountering belly button lint I do not know. Perhaps he was a recent arrival from sunny climes and had never before worn snug, knited cotton clothing.

and do 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 :)

Pt. X was using his friend's drugs. After he got high for 4 days on them, he wanted the hospital lab to analyze his drugs to see what he had been taking.:uhoh3:

Pt. X was using his friend's drugs. After he got high for 4 days on them, he wanted the hospital lab to analyze his drugs to see what he had been taking.:uhoh3:

LOL Oh my god, that is classic. Poor dumbsh$t probably has no clue that this is NOT okay.

Let's see.....

1. Man comes in with insect bite on side of neck. Says he was cleaning up some brush in the yard and felt something bite him. Wants to know what it was.....:rolleyes:

2. Mom and two (adult) daughters come in within an hour of each other. Mom fell, one daughter "springed her back" trying to lift mom onto the couch, the second daughter "springed" her wrist attempting CPR on mom. Mom is complaining of sore chest. :uhoh3: We nicknamed them Larry, Moe and Curly...

3. Not really funny but kind of odd....Mom, who is a first year nursing student, brings her child into ER. Child is athsmatic, wheezing, blue lips, sat-ing 82%...we start the child on a breathing tx and are scrambling to get a vein when the mom asks if she can start the IV and, Oh, by the way, if there are any more "skills" to be done, can she do them? because it will look good in her lab skills book.......:stone

4. And finally.....We get a call over the scanner one night that EMS is bringing in a 16 yo boy with scrotal lesion....EMS comes rolling in about 20 min later with pale boy on a stretcher, mom is hovering around like a hummingbird on crack...EMS takes the boy to CP 6, our "only for big codes" room. Well, naturally, as with every major event, auxillary staff start filing into the room to see if they will be needed with the "code". About 3 min later, there is a mass exodus from the room. A few minutes later, I asked a friend of mine from EMS what the deal was with CP 6, he said, "body lice"....:uhoh21: :uhoh3:

My favorite--a woman brought her elderly father in because his hands turned blue. Cyanotic? No, the color was kind of royal blue and ended at the wrist. I took an alcohol wipe and wiped away a streak of the blue color. Diagnosis: new blue gloves! The patient, his daughter and I all had a good laugh. (By the way, he never made it all the way into ER thank goodness!)

Too many too list. There's pt's with ridiculous complaints every day. :rolleyes:

I once had a patient come in by blue light ambulance because she was home alone and scared of the dark. Mind you she was elderly in her 80's.

Or there was one who came in as she thought she was miscarrying, once the test revealed she was not pregnant she went home saying that she will take analgesia for her tummy ache.

One of my classics was the woman that 20 year old that called the squad, and was transported to the ER with the complaint of her feet were cold. Now mind you it was 20 below outside with windchills of 50 to 60 below.

The police had raided a crack house. In the refrigerator they found what they thought was a human fetus. They brought it to the ER. It was an oyster.

Sitting here feeling a bit depressed and this just cheered me up lol

Specializes in Inpatient Acute Rehab.

We had a lady several nights ago bring her daughter in for an earache (was infected). She then proceeded to tell them that she also wanted to be seen.... for chapped lips!!!! GO BUY SOME CHAPSTICK LADY!!!!

Gum stuck in long blond (bleached) hair. The doctor wrote a recommendation on an order sheet to a cosmetologist.

That's to funny Must have been really blond ! best dumb blond joke I have heard in awhile .Why didn't she just use ice It takes gum right out.

The pregancy test was good too.

What's really funny is my husband a chrioprator and his Pt's will ask for a pregancy test all the time. He has the staff do at least 5 a week.

I noticed at all a dollar they had pregancy test for a buck.

Oh I guess another interesting thing I saw in the ER was a homeless man with a really bad infection in his toes. When I helped him take off his shoes I knew it was going to be bad cause his sock was soaked in puss or icky stuff like that. With my gloves on (thank GOD) I took off his sock and much to my surprise, MAGGOTS everywhere all over the wounds. I had never heard of such a thing. I bought had a fit. I said to the guy, "Do you know you have worms in your wound?" He said, "I do?" "Yah, it looks pretty sore and dirty.

I learned later that the maggots actually do a good job of cleaning away the dead tissue and debris. Interesting. And YUcky.

Thanks for listening,. Curleysue :rotfl:

I can relate to this one Had a old guy come into lens crafters and said his glasses were bothering him They were filty litterally when he removed them his nose pad had broke and the metal part was sticking into the nose badly infected .and the longest magot was comming out .Tons of pus with it I was so distracted watching the worm riggle there. Luckly since I also worked in nursing at this time nothing was a shock to me. I just handed the man a mirror and said quitlety .Your nose is very infected you might want to have that looked at and handed him a tissue .He took a look and saw the worm and just pulled out the longest magot. I have ever seen Well I soaked the lenses and frame in Etoh for an 1 hr and then ultarsound them sodered a new pad on Handed his glasses back and he told me he was off to see his Dr. After that he came once a week and got his glasses cleaned.

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