What was the WORST thing a patient has been brought to ER for?

Specialties Emergency

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Let's have some stories about those traumas that you talk about for days in you ER's!

bump :)

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It's amazing how many people don't know that this is a possibility (a baby getting caught between a bed and the wall...sorry, I forgot to quote the OP)2. All of the beds in my parent's house are against a wall like that (it was built in 1918), and with my neices, and my daughter, the first day they could flip over was the last day they were in the bed by themselves, when they visited. After that they slept in a playpen and we "lufted" the bottom just a little only for naps and checked on them often.

Dr. Michael Baden (whom I'm sure everyone is familiar with) said there is a 25% chance when sleeping with a baby that the baby will die as a result of a rollover death. There was one stupid woman who had not only lost her twins after coming home drunk and getting in bed with them, but she had lost two other children to the same stupid mistake.

I wouldn't call the deaths of four children accidental.

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Specializes in Neuroscience, ED.

This thread made me remember something. I only got to page 5, but it is late and I need to go to bed. Tomorrow is my first day working in the emergency department as a new grad.

When I was doing pediatric clinical in nursing school, my class mate had a patient: a 2 year old girl (small for her age) who had been raped so violently it ruptured her bladder (she was in under a jane doe and "parents" were not allowed to visit)

My class mate could not handle it - even seeing the child. So I went in to take care of that child since the patient I had was a baby who was sleeping. I was very gentle to her and after about 15 minutes got her to smile and it was an amazing site. I hoped that she was too young to remember what had happened to her (when she gets older)

My class mate got in a lot of trouble with our professor for not taking care of patient.

I realized that despite this horrific event, I could handle it and *wanted* to take care of patient.

Anyway, that was even before I decided to be an ED RN, I am hoping I can handle it.

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I collect old medical books, and have a gynecology textbook that was published in 1908. In that book is a pencil drawing, reproduced from a photograph, of the perineal area of an 8-month-old rape victim.

Everybody thinks people never did that sort of thing back then, and things like this prove that isn't true.

:scrying:

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Some of the worst: 18 month female with visible boot marks to her face in full arrest. Mom and boyfriend when asked about multiple bruising stated "She's learning to walk, she falls a lot."

6 month male, full arrest, copious amount of vomitus in airway, not registering a rectal temp, but warm extremities (??) Mom found to have wrapped blanket around chest and abdomen tightly to "stop crying"..then used electric blanket to try and warm him up after realizes what she had done.

15 yr old male, stolen car on prom night followed by police chase and one emergent open chest (to no avail)

18yr male vs van on interstate. Off psych meds. LaForte 20 (I exagerate, but you get it) Chest cavity mush.

30 something male..explosion. 3rd degree burns over 80%. A&O for the 30 minute ride in. Last words, "I'm getting sleepy"

It's a wonder we ALL aren't medicated heavily

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Specializes in Medical.
My class mate got in a lot of trouble with our professor for not taking care of patient.

I think that was really harsh - there are situations that are really hard to be involved with, and I think your classmate did well to identify that she couldn't cope with the admitting problem of this particularly child. For all your professor knew, she had a personal event that made this more traumatic, but even that aside there are things that are too full on for everyone to be involved with. I think this is especially the case for students, who don't have the clinical or (often) life experience to be able to handle the horrendous.

Good on you, though - not only for stepping in but also for recognising an area that you could work within. I hope your grad year goes swimminigly :)

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Some of the worst: 18 month female with visible boot marks to her face in full arrest. Mom and boyfriend when asked about multiple bruising stated "She's learning to walk, she falls a lot."

It wasn't so many years ago that parents - often from educated, well-to-do families - would bring kids in with injuries like this, and medical personnel believed their stories, because after all, who would do things like this to a child?

:saint: for all the innocent victims.

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18 month old raped by bf...had a tear from her lady parts to her rectum that her mother had sewn up with a needle and thread at home...

bilateral above knee amputations while pushing stalled car off road ...happened twice this year

12 month baby drowned while in hot tub with intoxicated parents

divorced dad had to work late, ex-wife called and said if he was late picking up 6 year old son wouldn't get to see him .. instead of going home to get his car picked up child in work van with no passenger seat only had to drive a mile home ...hit by drunk and son killed

28 y o groom pushed into pool by his brother/best man 2 hours after his wedding...c3 vent dep quad.

2 brothers 18 & 21... 21 y o getting married...went out drinking...21 y o too drunk to drive, gives keys to 18 yo drunk brother...hit a power pole which falls on car and sets it on fire..21 yo legs pinned burns to death while screaming for help...18 yo comes in with arm burns and singed hair after trying to pull brother from car...parents drive by accident on way to hospital...see 21 yo still in car...arrive at hospital and mother asks "what do i say to my son who just killed his brother" went to jail for vehicular homicide

its in the memory of those we cannot save that we save the ones we can.

21 yo shot in head on christmas eve while drinking and parents out of town ..last thing he says before he goes unconscious is "tell my folks i love them and it was an accident"... in the or the surgeon literally scoops out a handful of brain and closes him up...3 days later he wakes up, extubated ...gives me a big hug when i visit and says "you did a great job" some movement problems with one arm ...talks to kids about drinking and gun safety.

16 yo drowns at ny eve party at local ymca...resus for an hour...no deficits... going to college this year

20 y o gsw to left ventricle trying to stop a car jacking ...open chest within 6 min of arriving by car at back door...thoracic surgeon between cases drinking coffee at trauma desk when he arrived ..sewed up heart in er and off to icu stable

8 y o drowns at church picnic...resus for 2 hours ...no deficit

13 yo on vacation at beach impaled by glass from coffee table...8 in shard goes in though buttocks, into pelvis and severs gluteal artery...loses liter of blood in the first minute ...bleeding controlled by mother /er nurse at scene...survives 25 min wait for ems. trauma surgeon said would have bled to death in another 2 minutes ...c

on christmas i'm walking back from l & d pushing a w/c ..i see a visitor with a group of family members walking to the icu who looks like he's not feeling well. i say are you ok?? "i'm fine just a little dizzy"...he looks gray...i put him in w/c and say i'm taking you with me ...amid protesting from him and family i whip him into a cardiac room where he arrests before i get him on the bed. resus 45 min...shock 9 times...that was 15 years ago...every year on christmas day he calls the er and tells whoever answers the phone..."15 years ago your staff saved my life and i want them to know i appreciate it, i've had another great year with my family...i believe in miracles and so should you...you can make miracles happen...god bless you and have a merry christmas"

it's hard work. bad things happen to good people. and one person can make a difference.

thanks for posting those stories. they are wonderful to hear something good can come out of something bad. is there a thread of this?

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Specializes in Family Practice Clinic.

3 year old came home from Dads house, Mom noted blood on panties while getting ready for bath. Large amount of blood out of lady parts. Sent to Childrens hospital. She cringed when our doctor (male) walked in the room, wouldn't let him touch her, I had to move her so he could check her.

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Specializes in ER/Nuero/PHN/LTC/Skilled/Alzheimer's.

Older male pt, comes in via EMS with c/o vomitting blood. Had eaten spaghetti that night. That was mixed in to the emesis. I couldn't eat Italian for a month.

50 yr old construction worker came in with EMS doing compressions. Was Purple from the neck up. Autopsy showed a massive clot. He was dead as soon as he hit the ground.

18 yr old found in his car behind his work not breathing, no idea how long he had been down. We got a rhythm back, UDS positive for methadone, speed and cocaine. Did decorticate posturing for the whole two hours we had him. His father just cried and cried over his bedside pleading with him to wake up. He coded three more times in that two hours and then died at the medical center we transferred him to.

Had a mom on the spinal floor with multiple fractures and compressions after getting high and drunk then ramming her truck into a telephone pole. Her 14 yr old son was in the truckbed, hit the telephone pole headfirst, no brain activity, coded all night long. We could hear the overhead pages for Code blue on his ward and knew it was him. All the while his drunk mother was crying for pain meds and saying she would press charges on us for letting her hurt. Took all my patience not to go show her real pain. After she was released from rehab and was awaiting trial for his death, she was in another accident while drunk, hit a woman in a parked car. The other driver barely lived and all the mother could say was that she was now an alcoholic after her son's death (which she caused by drinking in the first place).

3year old with cerebral palsy and dehyrdated telling me he loved Paula Dean cooking show two hours before he coded from K+ imbalance.

80 yr old man walks in with complaint of feeling a little funny in the chest, was in full Vfib and was completely alert and oriented. Would not let us move him in the stretcher, wanted to get up and move himself. :bowingpur

I can see why a lot of nurses end up with substance abuse problems. It's extremely hard to have a front row seat to so much suffering and trauma and not be affected adversely by it.

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Specializes in ED.

Not the most gruesome by any means, but one we still talk about...

Young man comes in with a 5-6 in. knife blade in his head (temporal area) up to the hilt. Awake and talking. Not sure what ultimately happened to him, but it was trippy to see this guy sitting up and talking with a knife handle sticking out of his skull.

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Specializes in Medical, Pediatric and ER.

One of the worst was when a girl was driving impaired on drugs and did not even see the man on the motorcycle infront of her. The man on the motorcycle was about 1-2 miles away from home when struck from behind. The man flipped over her car rolled in the road and was then struck by an innocent vehicle behind the initial vehicle. The man on the motorcycle was brought to our morgue, the motorcycle was sittng UPRIGHT in the front (engine part) of the vehicle about 2 feet, and yes, I had to take blood from the girl for the police officers and tell the family in the family waiting that the man was dead. It is really hard not to pass judgement on these people.

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