What is the scariest thing that has happened to you while working as a nurse?

[caffeineRx]

Any stories?

What is the scariest thing that you have had happen? Or perhaps the most stressful?

Maybe it wasn't stressful to you, but normally considered a very high stress situation.

Please do tell your stories. I'm curious. :paw:

[sharpeimom]

when i worked in the state mental hospital, it was shift change, and i had just received report from the off-going nurse. one of our long term patients had been reported on as being in stable condition -- or as the nurse said, "he's still a potted plant."

i walked the length of the corrider and did a quick informal nose count, greeted patients, and did rapid assessments.

i had spoken to the patient mentioned above, at the beginning of my rounds and he seemed as he usually was. as i came out of the dayroom, i heard a crash and a thump, then a very loud alarm sounded. the two psych aides ran as did i, just in time to find our patient, who had smashed a "shatterproof" window, out on a wide ledge and just standing there. covered with blood and shattered glass, he was totally unresponsive.

finally the two aides plus three security officers (all of whom were big muscular guys)

got in back inside. meanwhile, i was responsible for everyone else...

phew!

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

[EarthChild1130]

Hmm...I dunno anymore LOL...I've been tackled on the unit a couple of times...been choked by a towel...urine and feces thrown down the hall at me...hmm...

There was one guy who was not so mentally ILL as very developmentally delayed, but he was quite violent when he didn't get what he wanted, so he was a placement issue. He got angry one night and just hopped over the nurses' desk and started swinging...his arms plus anything he could get his hands on. He was HUGE...built like an OX...and he demolished the station before we managed to get him under control.

When I worked as a tech on a forensic evaluation unit, we served decaf coffee after supper until 9. One guy came up to the station (this one was enclosed with shatter-proof glass) and asked for coffee, at 10. I said no...he said nothing. A few minutes later, a chair came hurtling through the air toward the glass, which thankfully held.

Another time, on the same unit, we took admission report for a fellow who very calmly walked onto the unit, down to his room, and then barricaded himself in the room and proceeded to trash his room in an attempt to break out through the window...we had to go in and get him out by taking the door off its hinges, and the whole time I could hear him on the other side yelling 'Come get me you mother*******!!' The guy in line in front of me looked back and said 'You ready babe?' and removed the door...we rushed him, did a take down, and once he was under control, I looked around...it looked like a giant hamster chewed up all the wood in the room.

[RN1982]

The other night I helped care for a patient who was hemorrhaging after an elective surgery. I've never seen so much blood before. She was too unstable to get back to OR and we kept dumping products in. We had five RNs working on this patient plus the trauma staff. She ended up coding and dying.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

I was caring for a frequent flyer at our community hospital several years ago-her son got into some kind of altercation with a cousin and shot and killed him.At one point the cops thought this guy would try to get to the hospital to see his mom. They locked us down and surrounded the unit. The situation evolved into a stand off-the guy ended up killing himself. I remember being almost weak kneed at times. I have seen my share of violent patients,visitors-malfunctioning equipment,limbs popping off, post op incisions dehisce and eviscerate,visitors and co-workers code,etc. and I'm good-but if I think I'm in danger,forget it...

[sharpeimom]

the other night i helped care for a patient who was hemorrhaging after an elective surgery. i've never seen so much blood before. she was too unstable to get back to or and we kept dumping products in. we had five rns working on this patient plus the trauma staff. she ended up coding and dying.

that great a bleedout and that much blood is terrifying! my first job after passing the nclex was in ortho and i had a patient who had just come down post laminectomy and my precepter had just gone for a quick break. i was checking her vitals, placing icebags, getting her settled, checking her iv, etc. when she suddenly began to bleed from every orifice. i stopped just short of complete panic and pressed the bell and yelled for help. my precepter grabbed the resident and got a blood order in the works. when it arrived on the floor, i signed for it, checked to be sure it was the correct blood, my precepter double checked me... suddenly, i realized i had only hung blood once as a student with my instructor doing most of it and i just blanked out and couldn't remember what to do next. she talked me through it but it really shook me up.:imbar

oh, the patient had an ulcer hx that she "didn't share because i didn't think it mattered."

kathy

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

[mcknis]

In my short span as a nurse (just over a year), I have dealt with several active GI bleeding pts, codes, RRTs, kicked several times as well as swung at, had urine and feces thrown at me, and dealing with traumas in the ER. A trauma, code, or good RRT always get the adrenaline flowin for some action! I live for adrenaline, so scariest things don't really scare me as much as they do excite me.

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

My scariest experience ever happened when I was on vacation.

I, my Mom and 2 other ladies went on a trip to Cuba.

My Mother was in the early to mid stages of Alzheimer's at the time. The first night there I woke up about 1:15 to find the room empty. She had wandered out of the room. (I later determined that the door opening was what woke me up).

Utter panic. I threw on my housecoat and went out in the corrider. After a few minutes I realized I needed help. So I banged on the door of my friends' room. One went looking, one went back to my room to man it and I went to the front desk for help. I get to the front desk and say "My Mother has Alzheimer's, and has wandered out of the room and I can't find her". This lovely young girl looks at me and say "Qe?" (sorry I don't speak Spanish, so that's probably spelt wrong".

I think to myself "Oh F*** - my Mothers wandered out of the hotel room in a huge place with pools and ocean and English is NOT the primary language!".

so I take a deep breath because I knew I couldn't lose it yet.

Me: My Mother

Receptionist: Your Mommacito.

Me: Yes. She get mixed up at night time.

Recp: Yes.

Me: She go out of room.

Recp; Yes

Me; I can't find her.

Recp - takes a few seconds. Light comes on - she understands. Oh!

She gets on phone and calls security (I assume). Talks a bit and asks me what my Mom looks like. At that point my little naughtly inside voice says "Its the barefoot lady in nothing but a nightgown wandering the halls". But I just describe her. The bartender from the all night bar comes over, because I guess he could tell something was up. The receptionist tells him (In Spanish) and he tells me not to worry, they will find her.

I go back to my room to wait. A couple of minutes later my friend comes back with Mom in tow. I was never so relieved in my life! My friend found her walking up and down the hallway, trying every door to see if she could get in - looking for her bedroom, I presume!

I run back down, let the receptionist and bartender know we found her. They were both so happy they hugged.

Went back up and we all went back to bed.

But you better believe me - that doorway was locked, had the luggage rack in front of it, plus all our suitcases and an extra stool for the rest of the trip!

Whole thing probably only took about 15 minutes, but it was the longest, scariest 15 minutes of my life!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i was very young and pretty fresh off the farm when i worked in a large, inner city teaching hospital in new england. we had a patient with sbe admitted for hickman placement for home antibiotics. it was back in the days when hickmans were still very new and a very big deal. so the guy got his hickman placed, and wanted pain medication. i gave him what was ordered and he wanted more. i got an order and gave him more. he wanted more yet . . . the light was beginning to dawn. gee, i wonder how he got bacterial endocarditis in the first place?! when no more narcotics were forthcoming, he decided to go home ama.

i in my infinite wisdom and immaturity, got it into my head that it would be the worst thing in the world for a drug seeker to go home with a brand new hickman. i followed him onto the elevator and down to the lobby, nattering at him the whole way about returning to the unit, proper care of the hickman, etc. when we got to the lobby, the patient -- who was about 7 feet tall and 6 feet wide -- hit the stop button on the elevator and then turned on me. he grabbed me by my upper arms and liften me up so my feet were dangling a foot or so off the ground, and then slammed me into the wall of the elevator. with his face about a millimeter from mine, he said "i'm gonna go home and shoot up. not your business. do we have a problem?"

with my mouth so dry i couldn't speak, i silently shook my head no. no problem. i just wanted to escape with my life!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

it was a long, slow night shift -- strangely enough, the night that daylight savings time ends. just when you get to 0300 and dayshift is just four hours away, you fall back to 0200 again. my colleague and i got to talking about new cars -- seems we each had one. since it was slow, our co-workers were happy to watch our patients so we could go out into the parking lot and show each other our new cars. we went down the back elevator and happened to pass by an isolated visitor's bathroom -- that hospital was constructed in octagons, and bathrooms were always around the corner and behind something. the door was shut, but as we passed by, we noticed something wet running out from under the door.

the lights in that corridor were turned way down, and all we could see was the shiney liquid that spread farther and farther from the doorway even as we watched. ever the chicken, i suggested we go get security and was halfway to the security station when i heard my friend start to scream . . . . seems an elderly man had chosen our bathroom as a place to shoot himself in the head. his note said he didn't want to distress his family by having them find his body.

i was pretty distressed, and i'm not the one who actually opened the bathroom door and found the body.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

i was working in an icu on the west coast, and caring for a patient with multi-system organ failure. we all agreed -- nothing was keeping him alive except the machines. he had an ancient living will, but it was fairly clear. he didn't want to be kept alive with machines. his son was contacted and arrangements were made for him to come in for one last visit before we pulled the plug.

but it seems there was a complication. the patient was a convicted murderer with a life sentence, and to pull the plug would be to shorten the life sentence. therefore, we were prohibited by law from pulling the plug.

the son was allowed his last visit anyway, a visit complicated by the fact that the son was also a prisoner with a life sentence and was accompanied by four guards. he walked with a weird, hitching gait which i attributed to the ankle shackles. the guards were friendly, and we developed a cordial relationship over the course of the weekend. the son was polite and respectful -- some of our visitors today could take notes. i got over the nervousness about the prisoner in shackles and the guards with guns.

i was standing with my back to the doorway, trying to force a dose of metamucil down the ng tube and concetrating totally on the task at hand, when i was tackled from behind. i hit the ground, the air forced out of my lungs by the weight on top of me, and could hear a scuffle behind me. than what seemed like an enormous, homemade machete hit the ground just inches from my face followed by the son with three guards on top of him. two other guards (son had four, dad had two) piled on . . . seems as if son had brought a homemade machete with the intent to shorten dad's life sentence.

i have to admit that it took me days to stop shaking . . . .

[Pepper The Cat, BSN, RN]

Man Ruby - you could write a book!

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

and, for my 3000th post . . . .

i was charge that night, and the evening supervisor came up and instructed me to move patient johnson into a different room. all of my rooms were full. "you've got to switch them around then," she said. "johnson is here because her husband beat her up, and we got a tip that he's planning to come back and kill her. we have to hide her." i didn't think it was a very good idea to put another patient in harm's way, but my arguments fell on deaf ears, and we moved johnson and put a harmless little old lady in her place.

towards the end of my shift, when my rn and lpn were in the break room taping report and the nas were attempting to sneak out the back door, i heard shouting coming from johnson's former room. then i heard the little old lady shrieking as if she were being murdered. which probably was an accurate assessment of the situation . . . .

seems that mr. johnson had come back to finish the job that he'd started on his wife and wasn't thrilled when we'd pulled a switcheroo. he had the old lady by the throat asking where his wife was. fortunately the little old lady didn't know. but i did. i had the presence of mind to call security before i rushed off to save my patient . . . or maybe i was just delaying rushing off to save my patient in the hopes that someone might intervene and save me from having to intervene. at any rate, events become blurred in my memory. i remember starting off down that hall, which seemed endless, and then the elevator door sliding open to reveal an elevator full of cops and security. mr. johnson took the little old lady hostage, we were trying to evacuate the other patients and the hospital went on lockdown. there was some negotiation and some struggle and it ended without shots being fired or anyone being killed . . . . but it was close.

my friend tells me of a similar situation where she was in the icu taking care of a patient whose husband had tried to kill her, and he started shooting at her from the parking lot. "i hit the floor," she said. "i know i should have thrown myself over my patient or something, but all i could think of it was that she married him and i hadn't asked for this." i don't blame her in the least!