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 ?

just had 2 people come tonight "I am hungry give me food'

It seems one of them comes every day for the same thing and we stupidly feed him and off he goes until the next day. Why spend money on food ( he lives in a shelter go figure) when you can buy alcohol .

ok, that's a really goog one, gotta tell my er buds. As we er rns all know about 1/3 of our visits are for goofy stuff. Gotta love the dialysis, pulmonary edema patient who needs his Viagra refilled after we have spent thousands of $ diuresing him because he missed his dialysis. Wonder where he was" Using up Viagra? I wonder if it dialyzes out? No wonder he needs refills all the time. Same guy got his own nursing policy at our hospital, no joke, because he came to the ER too much. I also like the other names people have for ailments "vomiking" for vomit. Gotta think of some more.

Specializes in Mental Health and MR/DD.
40 y/o male, winter time...comes to the ER triage nurse wanting to be seen. States, "When I get cold, my nipples get hard"

You have got to be kidding me!!!!!!!:trout:

20 y/o with a "foreign object" in her. Doc did the exam, it was a used

condom!!

just had 2 people come tonight "I am hungry give me food'

It seems one of them comes every day for the same thing and we stupidly feed him and off he goes until the next day. Why spend money on food ( he lives in a shelter go figure) when you can buy alcohol .

And then we wonder why people continue to make choices that are harmful to their health.

Specializes in ER, ICU, L&D, OR.
And then we wonder why people continue to make choices that are harmful to their health.

I dont wonder atall anymore

decided that worrying about things was giving me grey hair

ok, that's a really goog one, gotta tell my er buds. As we er rns all know about 1/3 of our visits are for goofy stuff. Gotta love the dialysis, pulmonary edema patient who needs his Viagra refilled after we have spent thousands of $ diuresing him because he missed his dialysis. Wonder where he was" Using up Viagra? I wonder if it dialyzes out? No wonder he needs refills all the time. Same guy got his own nursing policy at our hospital, no joke, because he came to the ER too much. I also like the other names people have for ailments "vomiking" for vomit. Gotta think of some more.

There's always 'bad bronicals'. Surely someone has come in w/ that!

Savvy

Specializes in Corrections, neurology, dialysis.

I think there is a thread in here somewhere for goofy names for medical conditions. I tried finding it but couldn't. Maybe someone else would have better luck.

20-ish female...

Transported to ED by rescue...

CC...

Cut herself shaving.

Swear.

No One could make this stuff up.

Primary assessment?

Couldn't even find the scratch.

although this is a totally ridiculous reason to come to emergency, i can sort of understand..

the first time i cut myself shaving, i seriously though i'd need stitches or something! it was a decent cut, and what with all the hot water running over it it stung like a bi*ch and just kept bleeding! add to that the water mixing with the blood, making it look like blood was pouring out of me, and you get one very distressed pre-teen!

that said, i was a pre-teen and had the sense to just put a band-aid on it..

We have 5-6 patients that come to the ED by ambulance every single day anywhere from 0nce to 6 times in a day always "overserved" One of them averaged 5 times a day for 7 days straight when she comes in she is hitting and sreaming at the staff demanding food when we don't give her food immediately she flopps on the floor if we give her food she finishes it then says she needs a cigarette then goes out for a cigarette and elopes only to return for the next meal. Usually she comes in with c/o of abdominal pain (hx of pancreatitis)or difficulty breathing (she has COPD) we give her nebulizers and work her up only to have her take off before the results are back. We tried getting her section 35'd and she made such a ruckess in the court the judge threw her out saying don't come back! The other one comes back almost comatose desaturating to 80 when not on a rebreather.She just sobers up enough to stand, then off she goes to get drunk again. Another also comes for the lunch meal then screams and yells after eating that he wants to leave. He is so obnocious the staff lets him go if he can stand.

Specializes in Emergency.

Why do you keep feeding these people? My thought is, if you have money for alcohol or drugs - you have money for food.

Specializes in Peds.

Amen to that... It would be cheaper to for hospitals to hire a couple of PA's and triage all these stupid things to them. Make them wait a few hours, have the PA instruct them on how to deal with the problem themselves and send them packing. The ER is not a restaurant. Insofar as those who use the squad, send the obviously nonemergent cases through to the PA, after several hours.....

If there were mandatory copays UP FRONT for everyone, even those on welfare insurance (medicaid, etc) then this problem would lessen. I personally think medicaid recipients should have to pay copays just like I do. My insurance costs us over $14,000 a year and we have copays from $25-$200 depending on the service on top of that $14,000.

We have a new urgent care center in our town. I love going there as they do not take medicaid so they're not extremely busy and you can see a doctor in a very reasonable time.

Why do you keep feeding these people? My thought is, if you have money for alcohol or drugs - you have money for food.
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