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

hjwdancer · Nov 23, 2006

++6 month old girl who was RAPED by her step dad.... ended up with a colostomy and cystectomy after incredible surgeries

How do you deal with this and cases like this? Is this a high frequency happening? I feel rage and deep sorrow for this and other cases of abuse and maltreatment but how do you handle this?

I have always wanted to be in the ER but I know I need to prepare for the horrors as well as the accidents and I would appreciate any advice you have for me.

analee23 · Nov 23, 2006

I have to vent too...

6 week old baby (one of triplets) that mom had bashed into something, baby came in as a CPR in progress. Brought the baby back (emergency surgery, but will have permanent brain damage), but mom kept running out of the room to throw up during the code... hopefully out of guilt. Makes me worry about the other kids!

2 y.o. little girl drowned in grandma's pool... mom drove to the ER knowing her daughter was dead as uncle told her via phone... I will never forget that mother's cry. (My first pateint death)

Luckily have only dealt with one or two rape cases.. One that sticks out

4 y.o. little girl raped by older brother, dad didn't want to press charges and didn't want her examined! I wanted to smack him!

OK, enough venting... at least I got to tell those stories... thank you for that.

scrmblr · Nov 23, 2006

And and risk for being cheesy, to quote a line from the song, "Men In Black": Sometimes "We're the first, last, and only line of defense".
For every gross, horrible, heart-wrenching moment you'll be subjected to, there can be just as many "miracle" moments, where you make a difference, save a life, and will impact a families life FOREVER.

:cool: I love that line:chuckle

lozza81 · Nov 24, 2006

I'm so glad that I haven't had to deal with any paeds rape cases, we don't get very many in, we get a few teenagers who've had their drinks spiked and have been sexually assaulted, but thank god no real littlies!

Victoriakem · Nov 24, 2006

One I remember was a repeat offender, who drove drunk yet again & put a guy in Shock Trauma after T-boning him in an intersection. This guy's poor wife (how do you spell co-dependant) showed up with their 9 yr old daughter. She had just gotten back from Florida after her father's funeral to find her Loser on the backboard after the MVC. She said to me "I was worried he would do this while I was gone." The Loser was yelling & cursing & the CT & x-ray staff were unable to get any procedures done because of this. She managed to calm him down to get those finished so he could be taken safely off the backboard. For strictly therapeutic purposes, I put a 14 gauge IV in him & accidently spilled some NS on his head. This same Loser had been in our ED several times, drunk, etc & was loud, abusive & thoroughly obnoxious while waiting for dispo. I just hope he was finally put away for good & his wife & family could move on. And other drivers could be safer on the road & we in our ED would NEVER have to put up with him again.

trgrahek · Nov 24, 2006

decapitation from a boating accident...

Patient · Nov 24, 2006

After reading this thread, my jaw is hanging to the floor. I'm amazed any ER nurse has any patience left for the snot-nose-kid and free-medical-care-seeking-parents that continually use the ER for non-emergent care. God bless you all!

Altra, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2006

decapitation from a boating accident...

Just kinda curious about this one ... decapitation is one of those "injuries inconsistent with life" ... can you elaborate on the circumstances that led to this one being brought to the ER, rather than called at the scene?

porterwoman · Nov 24, 2006

Here you Go I got a Bad One...
I was interning down in the ER when I got a 32 yr old man who came in with a prolapse rectum...
The surgeons had to put a colostomy in...
2 weeks later he came back in with a prolapse colon...
Apparently after we got the scoop... The man was a homosexual... His partner Screwed him so much his rectum prolapsed
then after the surgery... His partner decided to use the colostomy site for his plessures...

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Now, THAT left me speechless....

Rebecca

mlynn · Nov 24, 2006

I wouldn't last one 8 hour shift in an ER. God bless you guys!

Medic/Nurse, BSN, RN · Nov 24, 2006

Thankfully, most of time the shifts in the ED are uneventful.

Still, when I look back over the past 15 years - the last 10 mostly in the ED, I know that of ALL the really BAD stuff I've seen...what I have "seen" in the ED (and some of it BAD) doesn't even break the TOP 50 of the BAD stuff I've seen in the field. Sorry. :eek:

However, some of the other posts on this are pretty bad. I have taken a "time out" and can afford to do so...I really respect those that can keep going, without breaks, for years and years. I know my soul just started feeling too depleted and my husband concluded that I was filled with "rage" this past June...so I'm in a TV Time Out that may be more/less permanent.

And, to one of the other posts that is "amazed" at how we deal with the snot-nose-kid and medical-card-abusers and remain at the bedside...yep, it is tough. But, if it feels good saying it...its probably gonna cost you your job! So we question the affordability of remaining silent. That's all...and it won't change patient behavior.

God Bless you that continue, my prayers are with you all. (From EMS, to ER to the in-patient units that may continue the care for the lucky).

Joe B1 · Nov 24, 2006

I've been at it for awhile but the things that have stuck with me the most are:

19 yo male MVA arrest, one where the vehicle actually caught on fire. Burned so severely that he had escharotomies down his arms, legs and abdomen, though it really wasn't necessary from the knees down as there was nothing but charcoal stumps-needless to say he died.

86 yo lady "cared for" at home by family, found laying in a puddle of feces and urine, nothing but skin and bones, clothes had to be removed in a whirlpool because if we tried to remove them, her skin came with them. Her family let that happen to her!

2 month old anencephalic girl, cardiac arrest from one county over, didn't make it. the parents had brought her in several times for "more severe seizures that usual" so many times. They knew she never stood a chance at birth but loved her desperately and tried their hardest to keep her alive. They were inconsolable when we told them. I've seen lots of children die, but this one stood out.

24 yo girl, husband had beaten her until she literally had no more than 4 square inches of skin in any one place without bruising in some stage of healing. Finally ran out of the house one night, naked in the middle of winter, got to the neighbors house a mile away. It's been 14 years and I've never forgotten her and how pitiful and grateful she was, and the rage I felt toward her husband.

The list goes on and on and on.

Joe