What is the weirdest thing someone has been admitted to the hospital for?

[SweetsRN522]

I am in the mood to read some reasons that patients were admitted to the hospital. Working on a general medical surgical unit, I see a little bit of everything. I often see patients admitted for strange conditions and I thought we could all compare stories and get a few chuckles. Ok so I will start I have a toss up between internal hemorrhoids and constipation x 2 days(no bloating, no abdominal discomfort they just said that they felt they should poop everyday and were concerned). Nursing can be happy, sad, humorous and stressful so with that being said let the stories begin.

[SweetsRN522]

COME ON PEOPLE lets keep this thread moving along. More stories!!

[ChristineN, BSN, RN]

about a year ago a patient was admitted into the the hospital for nearly a month because he was "awaiting guardianship" from the courts. We literally had him in his own street clothes during the day that we would send down to laundry, no IV access, just hanging out in his room for almost a month.

Doctors ok no assessments needed to be done. Vitals checked PRN. Only had a few morning meds.

NO reason he needed to be there and doctors saw it too, just nothing we could do.

ugh....

He only stayed for a month, you got off lucky. The 3 big guardianship cases I've seen at my hospital have been there for anywhere from 6 months to 1 year. Meanwhile for most of their stay they medically were ready for LTC or even a group home (for those independent but not mentally able).

As for dumb admissions, let's see

Frequent flyer would could in claiming priapism, but ER docs and RN's wouldn't verify. One time I refused to take report until they looked at his member as it was his 3 time with priapism that month. And he was 16

Had a peds pt 1 year old the other week that the hospitalist accepted, coming in for accidently taking grandma's bp pills. The problem is the outside facility didn't see a need to check a BP on the child, so who knows if the child even warranted transfer

[dr.lecter]

... and what is wrong with the doctors that actually admit these people

Exactly!

[BraeRN]

Young lady in her 20s admitted for tonsillitis and she had a dilaudid PCA.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Was the girlfriend a nursing student? Practicing foleys?

Nope...just kinky.

[Chixie]

Admitted for bedrest... My charge nurse challenged this but was beaten down

and one from a G.P, patient admitted to us (an ortho/trauma ward)as paracetamol was not controlling her back pain (scans showed nothing) so he wanted us to admit her, change her pain meds to a stronger one, just in case she had a reaction. She lived with her husband and had a large family living near by.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

The family said they didn't have insurance and they would be paying in cash(no insurance okay needed). Pretty expensive two day vacation...imagine if he stayed 1-2 weeks like the daughter wanted? I am actually willing to bet when they got the bill they sent photo copies of the guys insurance card. Not to be judgmental...but they were a shady group of people, especially the daughter(like I said a hospital is NOT a hotel or babysitting service, which was how the daughter was treating us/the hospital). The hospital was really full and this guy was taking up a bed when we had MUCH sicker patients that needed to be admitted stay in the ED for over a day waiting for a bed...problem is first come first serve..he was in and admitted before the sicker patients came into the ED...it was just atrocious.

Well, that falls on the administration of the hospital. Apparently the tail was wagging the dog in that scenario. That would never fly where I work.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Priapism. [not my patient].

We had that one too, and it was before all these ED drugs came on the market. He wasn't my patient, so I didn't ever hear how that condition came to be and how it was resolved.

[allthesmallthings]

I am in the mood to read some reasons that patients were admitted to the hospital. Working on a general medical surgical unit, I see a little bit of everything. I often see patients admitted for strange conditions and I thought we could all compare stories and get a few chuckles. Ok so I will start I have a toss up between internal hemorrhoids and constipation x 2 days(no bloating, no abdominal discomfort they just said that they felt they should poop everyday and were concerned). Nursing can be happy, sad, humorous and stressful so with that being said let the stories begin.

What kind of MD admits for constipation x 2 days?? Seriously, with the $ it requires to hospitalize someone??

On the subject of constipation, and while we're talking about weirdness, I knew an aide who "got sick" in the middle of a shift and refused to work. Her illness? COnstipation. Don't know how long she'd had it (a few days?) but apparently, the middle of shift seemed a good time to her to declare "emergency constipation" and state that she was unfit for work. (Don't ask me why your BM's are necessary to Pt care. She was an ICU aide, btw - admittedly, I don't work ICU, but maybe they have "emergency constipation" there?? jk, probably not)

[allthesmallthings]

Pt. came direct to O.R. from E.D. with frozen gerbil in colon. Exploratory laparotomy for removal or gerbil. Good times.....

Good lord. Have never heard of such a thing. Why???

You'd think the gerbil would thaw out after a while...it's fairly warm in the colon, yes?

[allthesmallthings]

Had a prison female c/o lady partsl pain. Found a galss brown full beer bottle that had been there for at least 4 days per patient. Sent to hospital ED where admitted for surgery. Ended up septic and in ICU for 10 days.

Did I mention the patient told me there was a holiday coming up and they wanted to celebrate.

Maybe I'm ignorant, but I thought it was just men who stuff things up into their lower regions.

[Chixie]

Maybe I'm ignorant, but I thought it was just men who stuff things up into their lower regions.

Nope it seems that this has crossed the gender barrier