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 ?

My moms friend is a nurse and she said once while working in the ER, someone came in with a lightbuld up his butt. Of course the reason he was rushed in is because the buld shattered.

OUCH.

And then there are the stories of gerbils up the butt. I guess some people get off by giving the gerbil a steriod shot, letting it run up a tube that is already up the butt and....

well, you can figure out the rest. :uhoh3:

Ah, gerbiling----a well-known urban legend; usually attributed (falsely) to a very well-known and very handsome movie star who shall go unnamed here. This urban legend's been around since the early '80s.

Read more about it on snopes, or here:

http://www.well.com/user/cynsa/newbutt.html

Oh, while we're on the subject-----has anyone ever seen the episode of "Seinfeld" where Kramer gets the wrong set of vanity license plates, which read "Assman?" And, then, in the end, they find out who the REAL "Assman" is, becuase they have to take George's father......well, you gotta see it--I don't want to give away the ending. I just saw it for the first time the other night, and nearly rolled on the floor laughing. It just rang toooooo true.

Do you have an urgent care clinic, where he can be seen, have a "RapidStrep" throat culture, and be started on antibiotics, if needed?

I don't like to mess with Group A Beta Strep, for ANY reason. Untreated, it can lead to rheumatic fever, and damage the heart valves severely, and also cause glomerulonephrtiss eventually leading to ESRD . People used to get (maybe still do, in poverty stricken areas) rheumatic fever from untreated strep pharyngitis or scarlet fever, (my late mom and her brothers and sisters did, as children, due to poverty and neglect) and all of them ended up with severe valvular heart disease later.

Strep pharyngitis IS horribly painful, (very difficult to swallow) and highly contagious. I wouldn't feel guilty about taking the poor young man to the ER, if there is no after hours or urgent care clinic.

Actually, we do, and we went there first. Of course the first thing they asked for was the insurance info, and informed me that our insurance co. wouldn't pay for the urgent care clinic. If I'd been thinking straight (hey, it was a loong weekend) I'd have just self-paid. But instead I drove to the ER. The doc was kind of rude. Everyone else was nice. After testing for mono (negative) the doc finally ordered a penicillin injection. Never did do a strep screen. Ah, well, it's over now. Insurance balked at first, but paid it.

Specializes in Anesthesia.
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 :)

List of silly things people have come to ER for:

1. Blood Shot eyes ( normal common variety; no pain just redness ); picked him up in the ambulance. The patient walked out and met us at the curb....

2. Shin splints

3. Blisters on feet

Things probably totally unique for military ERs:

Patient driving 2 hours one way for a free bottle of motrin at the ER (didn't want to be seen just wanted the motrin).

God love my older retirees, but they will drive right past 50 other ERs to get to a military hospital. Point in case, I had elderly gentleman drive within a couple of hundred feet of a local ER and come driving up to our military ER with an unconscious wife who was severly hypoglycemic.

I had a guy a few nights ago with sore arms. Now you might think muscle breakdown? fever? odd chest pain? But no....he had been fishing with his Dad that day and came in at 1am because his arms were sore.

No- he didn't take any Motrin beforehand...how ridiculous of you to think that. :D

:angryfire

Actually, we do, and we went there first. Of course the first thing they asked for was the insurance info, and informed me that our insurance co. wouldn't pay for the urgent care clinic. If I'd been thinking straight (hey, it was a loong weekend) I'd have just self-paid. But instead I drove to the ER. The doc was kind of rude. Everyone else was nice. After testing for mono (negative) the doc finally ordered a penicillin injection. Never did do a strep screen. Ah, well, it's over now. Insurance balked at first, but paid it.

After re-reading my post, I think I didn't explain well. Kid has painful throat, fever, and feels really terrible. Is asthmatic and claiming to have trouble breathing. Starts puking. We call the PCP office, but while waiting for them to call back, realize the urgent care clinic closes soon, so we just drive there, where we go through the insurance spiel. So we go to the ER. They seem to focus on the breathing thing, though his O2 is fine. Chest x-ray -- nothing. I'm trying not to TELL them the diagnosis, but suggest it might be strep, and the doc (whose first sentence was "so you don't feel too good huh? welcome to the club") finally looks at his throat, says "it does look pretty hot" and orders the mono test. It's neg. Then orders the penicillin "but I don't think you need it". Within days, 3 other family members who were with us over the holiday weekend are diagnosed with strep (confirmed with test). I apologize for beating this dead horse, but remembering it just makes me mad all over again.

Specializes in NICU.
. Is asthmatic and claiming to have trouble breathing.

You did good.

Specializes in Med-Surg.

Hey, I had one of my family member's go to the ER for constipation. No abdominal pain, no nausea or vomitting just constipated. I told him to take some mag citrate and call it a day. His doctor told him to go to the ER to get "flushed out". He got a bottle of mag citrate from the ER. I'm sure he's now on their list of stupid things people come to the ER for.

Specializes in ICU,ER.

Since I am 33 weeks pregnant, I "get" to do triage a lot these days.... so I am hearing all the complaints. After almost 10 years of being an ER nurse, I've just about heard them all.... until last week. There was a guy whose primary reason for being in the ER at 2am was to get "dried out"....oh yeah, and by the way, could we CLEAN HIS FINGERNAILS for him? I did put that on the triage note, just to give my co-workers a laugh. :)

Specializes in ICU,ER.

Oh, while we're on the subject-----has anyone ever seen the episode of "Seinfeld" where Kramer gets the wrong set of vanity license plates, which read "Assman?" And, then, in the end, they find out who the REAL "Assman" is, becuase they have to take George's father......well, you gotta see it--I don't want to give away the ending. I just saw it for the first time the other night, and nearly rolled on the floor laughing. It just rang toooooo true.

hahaha...."one in a million shot doc....one in a million!!"

Specializes in Med/Surg, ER and ICU!!!.
That will start next week, and I'm wondering how it is going to effect our stupid is as stupid does patient load. People with insurance or private pay will be escorted to the finacial counselor upon being dismissed from the exam room and then the FC will ask them to pay some amount and set up payment arrangements. They will not receive their discharge instructions or prescriptions until they have finished with her. I imagine people that really need to be in the ER for things like lacs, and fxs won't blink twice, but I am hoping that it will at least discourage the repeat visitors we have coming in for stupid things time after time. I am hoping that once they have to face the FC once and get asked how they plan to pay the bill, then they won't want to face that again. Unless they figure out that we have no FC during certain hours and time their complaints to correspond with that time. How long do you think it will take for them to figure THAT out?!?!?! Anyway, it will be interesting to see how it works. All I know is that I wouldn't want the FC job for ANY amount of money! I can't imagine how nasty some of these people are going to get.

JMHO, Pam

In my case, if my son did have a fracture of any sort, right now I would not be able to pay a red penny. I am living paycheck to paycheck with crap for insurance. Would they not let my son have Rx for pain meds if I couldn't pay? Just curious. Texas

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.
in my case, if my son did have a fracture of any sort, right now i would not be able to pay a red penny. i am living paycheck to paycheck with crap for insurance. would they not let my son have rx for pain meds if i couldn't pay? just curious. texas

of course not. the er i worked in has been doing this for a while now. while it has drastically increased the amount of money they collect, no one is required to pay. they are just required to go see someone who asks for money. if they can't pay, they get a "thats ok, we can bill you," and out the door they go with their instructions and any rxs they got.

it doesn't help with those who are really working the system and know the visit costs money and don't care, don't ever intend to pay a dime. but it can be very educational for those who didn't realize just how much that er visit costs. plus, it gets the money from them when they are still thinking about the whole thing, rather than billing them 6 mos later.

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