What is the worst meal you have ever seen served to a Patient?

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I have come across bouncing jelly. No word of a lie, the darn stuff bounced at least twice when you threw it on the floor - it was uncuttable. Asparagus for breakfast (Ewwww).:p

One poor chp in ICU, due for D/C to ward that day little appetite but what did the kitchen in it's infinite send him? On a white plate was a white piece of fish in white sauce and neatly arranged at the side was a..... wait for it ...... serve of spagetti bolognaise!!! There are some smells in this universe that God never meant to combine - fish and Spag Bol are two of them!!!!:rolleyes:

The winner though happened during my training. Little old lady on a 20 grm Protien diet. Renal failure - badly fitting dentures and the kitchen sent her a, well the only term appropriate is "leathered", steak. Black and so tough it fought back. :smokin:

The RN muttered under her breath - offered it to the patient so we could say that we had done so - then taped that sucker to the plate. When the dietitian came up later in the day she held up the plate vertically with this black piece of hard leather curling around the tape. To this day I do not know it that bit of steak had curled through drying or it was trying to escape. It had the desired effect - the meals got better.

:D

Specializes in Oncology, Cardiology, ER, L/D.

Yuck! I think I am going to print these out and tape them to my fridge as a weight loss incentive! Still grossing out over the pureed liver. EWWWW!:eek:

At one hospital all six of my patients were sent hot but raw eggs. The first patient I cracked it over the bowl. The rest I exploded in the microwave.

Another place served a stew with raw unpeeled carrots and potatos. Somehow the meat was cooked.

I actually have cared for patients who like pureed meat over mashed potatos. They say it is better than gravy. These folks with no teeth like baby food jars of squash too!

We once got a orangey-purple jelly in a styrofoam cup...we held a contest of who could identify it (even with taste tests)...people suggested pureed squash, pudding, congealed grease....kitchen finally identified it as sodium-free gluten-free vegan gravy (I guess that is one way to limit the number of special diets catered to)

Specializes in Peds, Pre and post op.

When I was in the hospital when I was 15 I got some turkey, mashed pototoesand GREEN gravy covering the whole thing. Good thing for me some friends stopped by and brought me some french fries and a jumbo shake, which were yummy , but then the nurse gave me an insulin shot (IM not diabetic either) and told me now maybe I was gong to be diabetic (I was in the hosp for asthma, the increase in blood glucoase was caused by a combo of predinose and jumbo shake & fries, guess I shoulda had the green gravy)

while working in a ltc the kitchen pm staff decided that since they ran out of turkey they served warm pickle and pemento loaf between white bread with turkey gravey white rice (ran out of potatoes) raw carrots mmmmmmmmm refused to serve this meal and called the admistrator who called the diatician who came in and a new meal cooked and seved.

I once had a a very confused patitient to whom I delivered a Hamberger.

Later I came back and it was untouched which was really weird becuse I could swear I had seen him eating it. Anyway I asked him if he was hungry and he said he was hungry but that our food was S*** and that he had called and complained to the kitchen. This same guy had called 911 and told them we were trying to sell his kidneys to Russia so It dident surprize me. I took the tray out and put it on the cart.

A few minutes later someone from the kitchen came up with a new hanberger and took the old tray off the cart. I found out later that the dietition had sent him up so she could take a look at it and figure out what went wrong.

Has anyone guessed what happened next?

I get a call from the dietion who is very angry at me. The patient had taken out the meat and replaced it with a neatly patted out peice of S***.

All I could say was I know I saw him eating it!

Specializes in Peds, Pre and post op.

Man and I thought McDonalds food was bad!

That is the most disgusting thing I have ever heard!! :p Was he eating it before or after he said the food was s***?

before he just ate the patty then replaced it with his own creation. I have allot of these stories used to work nuro/med surg and got all the crazies

Pureed fish sticks with a dollop of tartar sauce on top.

Pureed red velvet cake (looked like GI bleed barf in a bowl).

One place I worked (very small) had a visiting RD who insisted they use this diet/recipe system that made the puree be formed so they could serve it on a plate, the idea being that puree is a texture, not a consistancy... it looked like poops on the plate.

She made us get orders for a liquid diet if someone needed it thinner.

If I ever have to be on a puree diet I am going to be one of those stubborn LOLs who ONLY eats ice cream and pudding.

How do you feel about pureed Rice Krispi treats? Looked and had the consistency of glue-God only knows how it tasted!!! :(

Pizza stratta. It is alternating layers of bread baked with tomato sauce (never enough), cheese (? type), too much pureed, and I mean pureed beef (of course not in the description). It is vile. Smells ok, but when you bite into it you get a squirt of warm gritty soft sand-like material that is the beef that rolls around in your mouth and gets ground into the contours of your teeth for hours. Even a toothbrush doesn't get it all.

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