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 Pediatric ER.

a mom brought her teenage daughter in the other night with c/c: afraid of the snow (that wasn't even sticking to the ground!). we just had them hang out until it quit snowing (which is never too long here) and sent them home. really, what did they expect us to do? call up god and ask him to change the weather????

:uhoh3:

But as nurses aren't we at his right hand????!!!!!

I am an ob nurse so I had a patient come to the ob triage with a complaint of her water broke. Her husband was with her and he asked me if the swelling in her ankles could be because her water was leaking and was running down into her ankles !!!!!!!:lol2: :uhoh3:

Oh wow. A patient, I am assuming, who never bothered with prenatal care.???

I had a patient today come in with the primary complaint of r knee arthritis, and also told us that she needed some shampoo so that she could wash her hair. When gave her our lovely $50 shampoo, and she said, oh, I can't use that I'm allergic.....WE told her that she could go down the street to the Dollar Store, but we didn't have any other shampoo in the hospital

We had a little girl about 4 years old bring in her puppy and asked if we could fix his leg (he had a tiny cut on his leg)

The puppy got the best dressing you ever saw and the mother got a phone call.

Specializes in pure and simple psych.

re late night sorjouner with the cc of "no relief"...those "interesting" meds that the poor fellow was on (i assume psych medications) may very likely inhibit ejaculation. some even prevent erections. a gentle reminder to talk to his psychiatrist would be in order. it really was a medical problem.

We had a little girl about 4 years old bring in her puppy and asked if we could fix his leg (he had a tiny cut on his leg)

The puppy got the best dressing you ever saw and the mother got a phone call.

Oh, how sweet......

NOT so sweet that Mommy wasn't aware where her child was!!!

Wasn't sure what this patient came in for ... but this is a good one for a ridiculous patient nonetheless. Was in ER as a patient myself and waiting for the results of my CT scan. The nurse came around with pain meds, but I refused the narcs (because they don't agree with me) for just the regular old Advil. From the next curtain over is heard, "Well if she's refusing them and you've already punched them out ... what a waste - I'll have them". And then when the nurse didn't reply ... other patient came over, opened my curtain and held out his hand. :uhoh3:

At 3:30am the other night, I triaged a beautiful, smiling, chunky baby girl. Parents complaint? The baby got upset about something. She cried really really hard--until her face got bright red, and her eyelids even got red. So they rushed her right to the ER!

:lol2:

I think they must have left you jumped on a plane and headed for Sydney. Had similar presentation with mum and 6/12 healthy girl. Mum was crying because the baby had been crying, seems the baby hadn't really got upset before this presentation???? I wish my boys had been like that!

Not sure if this qualifies or not but I'll put it out there. I'm an ICU nurse and we get our share of strange families (although it sounds like you poor guys are weeding out most of them, how do you do it?!!). Anyway had a patient who was in his late 80's, forget the diagnosis but he was one of those poor souls who have been sick for too long and should be allowed to pass peacefully but the family can't let go. Anyway he codes about 8:00 one night and we do our thing wishing we didn't have to. The ER doc calls the code after about 20-30 minutes (by the way the family is right there, we have open visiting hours and were trying to see how having families present at codes would work). The son jumps in the room and starts doing chest compressions, screaming "don't leave us, you can do it" and I'll be damned if he didn't bring the guy back. He died about noon the next day anyway but man.

Also thought this might be funny. During nursing school I did a brief rotation in an ER in a seedy part of town known for seeing all the drug addicts and prostitutes. The nurse I was following was straight out of the 60's and just not quite right, funny as crap though. Apparently she was a little offended by the reputation of the hospital in the community. She wanted to see what my view was on the place so she started to ask me: "If you were having heart problems what hospital would you go to?" I mentioned the local hospital known for having the best cardiologists. This line of questioning went on "pediatrics?", "ortho?" etc etc. Finally she said "if you were a crack whore who had OD'd where would you go?" I of course stated the place we were standing. She got miffed and started to tell me how this was a wrong perception and tell me all the wonderful departments they had that could rival any other hospital in town etc etc. About that time we passed a bed with a disheveled lady on it and I happened to ask what she was here for. "Crack whore that OD'd last night" After saying it she just turned and walked away. I ended up following someone else the rest of the day.

Specializes in ER.

Sometimes you just have to go with the craziness. LOL

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