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 ?

Had a frequent flier come in the other day, unfortunately, only having been in the er for 2 months, i did not know he was a frequent flier, ugg. He comes in swearing he is having a stroke, and playing quite the part- not moving R side at all, only moving L side of face, had the expressive dysphagia going and all, i thought it was a little odd that he had no medical history or vision changes at all, no HTN, nothing, but being a small community hospital, we don't see a lot of strokes, so i was buying it, right until the doc came in and asked him if he could'nt move, how did he walk through the triage area, sign all the papers out front, etc. His story quickly fell apart from there, he became beliggerant, screaming that he was having a stroke and needed immedient treatment with dilaudid. After about an hour, bloodwork and ct done and still no dilaudid, he abruptly got up, told us all to go F ourselves, that we neglected him by not giving him the

"proper treatment for his distress with dilaudid" and stormed out. Apparently, someone must have told him that stroke pts are seen immediently, unfortunately he was not aware that dilaudid is not the treatment for it, i'm sure he'll be in with a new story soon

Tampon "lost" for two days. One of the few times I almost blew chow from the smell. :chair: :chuckle

I actually know someone who had this happen to them. She was about 15 years old at the time and was at home alone with her dad because her mom was out of town for the weekend. (That was actually the most embarrassing part to her.) She was afraid he'd be mad but he wasn't, and took her to the ER and the doctor removed it with a hemostat. Maybe we're talking about the same person.

A few years ago, one of my technicians said her grandfather had severe chest pain one night and went to the ER (Grandma wanted to call an ambulance but he wouldn't let her) and they admitted him to the cardiac care unit overnight and came in the next morning to tell him that he had indigestion. :mad: They were all so embarrassed and apologized to everyone for wasting their time, and the rest of us pharmacy staff said the exact opposite was true.

Our hospital doesn't get very many "foreign body in the rectum" cases but the city where I used to live seemed to get that almost daily.

Hmmm, I'm surprised no one has mentioned these yet:

Stubbed toe

Hey, watch it! I went to the ER 3 1/2 weeks ago with exactly this!

I stubbed it on a corner in my house (wasn't watching where I was going) and later decided to mow the lawn even though my toe hurt, and when I put my old lawnmower shoes on, something bent that shouldn't have.

Yes, I had a broken bone.

And I'm also very aware that a large number of ER visits could be prevented by wearing shoes to mow the lawn. Not flip-flops, not sandals or bare feet, but SHOES.

I'm sure everyone has about the same story. But just about two weeks ago we had a person call the ambulance to bring them to the ER for a broken fingernail, now I am not talking about I ripped the nail out of the cuticle thing. I mean literally had broke a fake fingernail. I know it can be painful but come on, a ride in the ambulance and then an ER visit. Man they just kill me sometimes... Then wonder why it takes so long to be seen. I have many, maney more

Holy smokes! How do some people keep themselves alive???????

Before my grandmother went to a nursing home, she was calling EMS fairly regularly with legitimate complaints and had no other way to get to the hospital. She expressed concern to my parents that maybe one day they would tell her that they weren't going to take her there any more.:rolleyes: They had wondered themselves if that would ever happen and I assured them that it wouldn't, and that's what EMS is for. Heavens, my dad ought to know, he was a firefighter for 35 years!

An aside: After this incident, I asked my dad what the dumbest call he ever had was, and he really couldn't think of anything in particular. Late one evening when I was in college, I was talking on the phone to a friend and happened to notice flames shoot up from an apartment balcony across the street. I got off the phone with my friend and called 911, and it turned out the guys across the street decided to barbecue chicken at 10 pm! I felt like a total doofus and apologized to the FFs for wasting their time, and they assured me they didn't feel that way and the guys invited me in for dinner. I declined, but all I could think about was, what if something really terrible happened and they couldn't get there in time because of my call?

My dad said not to worry about it.

Specializes in ICU, ED, Transport, Home Care, Mgmnt.

Blue legs. 17yo female had just been discharged by small community hosp ED, couldn't find anything wrong. She had her Dad bring her in to us because she was feling so bad. 45 min drive. I looked at her legs, yep, blue ankles to crotch. I asked a few questions then took out an alcohol swab and swiped her leg, blue wipes off, hmmmmm. She swore she didn't have any new jeans! She still wanted to be checked out, she still felt bad! I wonder how much those two ED visits cost Dad. I wonder if Dad ever got a clue about his kid???

I just thought of another story.

When I was in junior high, in the late 1970s, someone came out with "tanning pills" which were basically beta carotene and would turn your skin slightly orange if you took them as directed.

One girl decided to expedite the process and swallowed half the bottle. The next morning, she woke up orange from head to toe, including her palms, soles, and whites of eyes, and her parents shoved her into the car and floored it to the nearest ER.

When they walked in, the personnel knew exactly what she had done, and told her not to do it again.

Those pills were withdrawn from the market soon afterwards.

I remember those! People were overdosing on those. Someone had said that the basic ingredients were equivalent to tomato sauce (nope, can't remeber who "someone" was). I think the makers were insinuating that they were harmless. Nevertheless, it was pulled from the market.

I remember some interesting tanning products in the late 70's to mid-80's, when it was very vogue to have the deepest, darkest tan you could possibly get. Not that I tanned all that often (I burn anyhow, auburn hair and fair skin), and the tanning I did do I totally regret now. I suppose it could have been worse.

I'm rambling, sorry. :)

Beta carotene (a precursor of vitamin A) is NOT non-toxic in that it's very poisonous if you get too much of it. If you know anything about Arctic exploration, you would be aware of all the explorers who died of vitamin A poisoning after eating polar bear liver, which the Inuits knew to be poisonous and did not even feed it to their dogs, and were known to starve rather than eat it. I guess a standard "serving" contains about a year's RDA of vitamin A, enough to be toxic.

I know a dark-skinned black guy who has joked about going to a spray-on tan place to get his skin lightened.:jester: I know someone else, a very fair-skinned blonde, who did that before going to a wedding and it looked awful. It only works for certain skin tones.

ME two nights ago my daughter fell and smashed her face on the tiles in our bathroom and bit her lip it bled and swelled up so bad I was sure she was going to need stitches....well after two hours we find out nope no stitches :mad:

Specializes in ER, CCU/ICU, Trauma, Hospice.
Gee, let's see:

-broken acrylic nail

-child vomited once, now sitting on mom's lap eating chips and drinking coke

-laceration too tiny to be seen by the naked eye ("it was bleeding just a minute ago" as patient squeezes the alleged laceration trying to make it bleed again)

-totally well, but needing a work excuse for a sick day sometime last week

-child sleeping all day (up all night crying the night before)

-prescription refill (could be anything from bp meds to oxycontin)

-viagra request

-mosquito bite (yup, just a plain old mosquito bite with no allergic reaction or infection)

-child "lethargic" (mom's words) as kid is running up and down the hall and, you guessed it, eating chips and drinking coke

Definitely the mosuito bite...pt anxious abput West Nile. Just happened last night. Also requested (check this out) Vicodin for the itch. They got a blood draw and told "bubye", You'll get the results of your blood test in about 3 days. Then they wanted a food voucher and a cab ride for 50 miles away. (Homeless).

Specializes in ER, CCU/ICU, Trauma, Hospice.
Someone has already mentioned it but its happened to me to on more than one occasion. Patients who use the ambulance service for a taxicab. They call 911 with a made up complaint and get transported to the ER, then leave AMA. The pickup location was of course miles away and they simply wanted a ride. The boldest bolt out of the back of the ambulance without even checking in.

Most selfish and ridiculous....As the charge nurse I had been called to the triage area to explain to an irate young lady why a particular patient was going back before her (she had checked in first with her chief complaint of hang-nail); it was an older man with known brain cancer and a mental status change/neurological deficit who had checked in after her but gone back for treatment first. She was escalating and accepting none of my explanation of acuity. I got frustrated and said...."look, he's got brain cancer, okay?". She came back with..."well, he's already dead then and you should have seen me FIRST!". I was speechless....That was eleven years ago and I still havn't forgotten it.

This poster hit the nail on the head...

"These trivial complaints are generally not covered by any form of insurance and even medicaid is cracking down on non emergent visits. The patients are usually very angry when they receive a bill for $600.00 in the mail. More and more hospitals are becomming more and more aggressive at collecting on these bills also. The way to treat under educated consumers who utilize a resource for the wrong reasons is to hit them in the pocket book. Paying a huge bill will get them to think about visiting their primary care physician first or trying home treatments. People just dont want to think any more. They'd rather go crying to "Mommy" aka the "ER" than to try to take care of it themselves. We've created a very dependent society."

I for one will be happy when the undereducated and unemployed/receiveing tax-dollar paid for insurance and benefits are penalized in a real way for the ER abuses. Like coming to the ER for tylenol and saying they can't afford it, but they have a pack of cigarettes in their pocket plainly visible. I've said it for years,,,,if the average citizen new what went on in the ER on a DAILY basis, i.e. saw how their tax dollars were being spent, there would be a popular revolt!

Stupid people do = job security in the ER to a point, stupid people with private insurance that they work for to earn. Stupid people without insurance or with tax dollar paid for insurance, on the other hand, are bankrupting the healthcare system. Hospitals end up closing from losing money and this is happening all over the country.

Regards,

David

I had another last week that called EMS for chronic back pain (yes frequent flier). Took the radio call and stated she was triage appropriate. EMT gave me report and girl was on the pay phone calling for a ride to the other hospital since we were on a 5 hour wait for fast-track and main-er. She never did get seen and the other hospital wait times were just like our that night...

Definitely the mosuito bite...pt anxious abput West Nile. Just happened last night. Also requested (check this out) Vicodin for the itch. They got a blood draw and told "bubye", You'll get the results of your blood test in about 3 days. Then they wanted a food voucher and a cab ride for 50 miles away. (Homeless).

Can't tell you how many people we have had come in for mosquito bites, the fact that they ate spinach. No symtoms just want to be checked: :rolleyes:

+ Join the Discussion