What is your worst visitor story?

sevensonnets · Jan 5, 2018

Many years ago we had a patient whose husband climbed up on the window sill of her room and was threatening to smash the window and jump out from 5 stories up. Security stopped him. Turns out both of them, patient and husband had kidnapped a woman and driven her all over town withdrawing money from ATM's. When she ran out of money they took her out in the woods and killed her.

CelticGoddess, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

Not a worst visitor but it was the worst thing I'd seen happen to a visitor. I had a patient that was always belligerent and would just treat his wife horribly. We had concerns but nobody thought it would escalate to the point it did. He beat her half to death, to the point she was admitted to the hospital. As he was to be DC'd in the am, he left that night in handcuffs.

I used to work in an area with a lot of meth usage and we would have patient sneak out of the hospital to inject into their PIV's or PICCS (and one who injected into her permacath) all the time. Visitors who would pull out syringes from the sharps container. I'm amazed we didn't have more people OD out on the street.

applewhitern, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

Years ago, a visitor cut the trach ties on a brand-new trach, because she thought it was "choking" the patient. Another time a patient's grandmother came to our PICU with a pistol, threatening to shoot all of us, because we "let" her terminally ill grandson die.

MelEpiRN · Jan 5, 2018

Hmmm common theme here? It is absolutely insane the amount of violence we are exposed to. Bless you all.

missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

I love when the 80ish year old patient has his/her significant other spend the night, and that wife/husband sundowns. Nothing makes me call a family quicker than inadvertently increasing my patient load.

Thing is, the family KNOWS they do this. They just feel it's okay to leave them with me.

beekee · Jan 5, 2018

I love when the 80ish year old patient has his/her significant other spend the night, and that wife/husband sundowns. Nothing makes me call a family quicker than inadvertently increasing my patient load.
Thing is, the family KNOWS they do this. They just feel it's okay to leave them with me.

Those are my favorite. I had one spouse/visitor asking where the call light was (for him, not his wife) within 30 seconds of the family leaving. Along with a request for coffee, warm blankets, a snack and help getting to the bathroom. I'm sure you'd be shocked to hear that the family didn't pick up the phone when I called.

Compared to some of these stories, he was pretty good!

missmollie, ADN, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

I'm talking more like the wife/husband starts wondering the hallway, doesn't know where they are, doesn't understand why they are here (for the patient), and thinks it's summer when it's 1 degree outside.

I'd prefer the family that asks for multiple things.

Flatline, BSN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

Had a Gypsy (self-described) family that would routinely visit our hospital due to the patriarchs health. They would steal everything from the chairs to the mounted TVs to the napkin dispensers. It was super odd but when 20-30 family members descend upon a unit there is not much you can do.

Went so far as to unscrew the crappy art from the walls.

Security finally put restrictions to only allow 2 at a time on the premises and always escorted. They would always try to sneak in.

It would be comical if it were not so sad.

Ruby Vee, BSN · Jan 5, 2018

What a fun thread!

There are so many stories . . .

There was the gypsy (self-described) family who stole a portable X-ray machine. Everyone wondered at the time what they could possibly do with that. About the same time, a portable monitor (this was close to 40 years ago, and if a step-down patient needed to be monitored, they'd bring out the ocilliscope which was a black cube about 2 feet on each side and weighed enough that you only transported it on it's cart). It was removed from a patient in a nearby room -- they even took the instruction manual on the cart the monitor sat upon. Again, we wondered what they could possibly do with such a thing.

About six months later, one of our interns was rotating through the hospital across town, Man's Best Hospital. While caring for a MICU patient there, he happened to notice that the portable monitor attached to the patient read "Property of St. Elsewhere Hospital" in 2 inch high letters. He left it there. Years later, my sister-in-law, a radiology tech and I were drinking too much and telling stories. She'd been temping at MBH and the portable X-ray machines that they usually used had various maintenance issues, so she pulled a dusty old machine out of a closet -- and it had foot-high letters stenciled in a prominent position: Property of St. Elsewhere Hospital. The story was that a bunch of gypsies showed up at the hospital and tried to sell a used X-ray machine through the back door. MBH wasn't buying, so they just left it there.

Then there was the guy who was playing golf with one of our anesthesiologists and went down on the golf course. He received very good CPR and was admitted to our ICU comatose after a trip through the cath lab. He came with a woman who claimed to be his SO. She sat by his bedside 24/7, quizzing the nurses about every aspect of his care and if the bedside computer was left logged in, she'd take a walk through his chart. (We had just gotten the bedside computers, and many nurses didn't see the problem with letting the patients loved ones view the chart on their own.) After about a week, the guy wakes up, spots the "SO" sitting by his bed and loudly asked who in the hell she was -- he had never seen her before in his life! Turns out she saw an opportunity to get free meals (the kitchen had been sending guest trays), cable TV and attention.

There are so many more, but my internet link is wonky.

BadwomanM · Jan 5, 2018

Not the worst, but one of the weirdest...

I was 8 months pregnant, comforting a man who's father had just passed in our ICU after being there off and on for several weeks. Put my arm around his shoulders and told him how sorry I was.

He proceeds to hug me tightly and said, 'wow..you're hot..you must really be hotblooded!" I was taken aback to say the least, especially since his father's dead body was in a bed just 2 feet away from us.

Before he left he assured me he would call the ICU to keep in touch with me, and apparently he did call a time or two when I was on maternity leave.

SaltySarcasticSally, LPN, RN · Jan 5, 2018

Wasn't my patient but on my floor. Hospice patient (admitted to Tele for some odd reason) and crazy family. Family got irate patient died...even though patient had been hospice for months. They had to be removed from the hospital but this was after staff (and patients) had to endure their behaviors for 2 hours. We even had to watch the family's toddler because they were too busy being insane and let her run up and down the hall.

Forest2 · Jan 5, 2018

Well, not the worst but certainly memorable. I was working on the top floor of a hospital as a semi-new grad and a patient visitor from a floor below stayed with his friend past visiting hours. Apparently, he has sundowners and got up to our floor after our pts were all sleeping and started yelling down our hall for his wife.
He was yelling, " Where did you people hide my car keys?" And other colorful language not appropriate to repeat. Anyhow he started calling his wife's name and we had a dementia pt with her name who started calling him to come get her cause she was tied up ( restrants r/t pulling out her IV and foley and combative ). Those two were having a hilarious short conversation.
I was really glad to know he couldn't find them. We figured out where he needed to be and escorted him to his friend's room who called his brother to come take him home.
Most pts were gracious about it in the morning though.

This is one for the books . so funny.