What's your craziest story of the ER

jeannet83 · Nov 21, 2003

Did I spell that right? Hey, have any of you run across this one?

The other night I was in triage and I had a nicely dressed lady come in to ambulatory triage. I asked her what brought her here to the ER tonight. She whispered back something which I could not understand. I asked her to repeat herself. Again, quiet whisperings from the patient that I can't hear. This time, I got close to the patient and said, "I am sorry Ma'am, I did not hear you". This time I hear it: "I have a cockroach in my ear!"

Whoo boy! Was this true? Got her back to one of our last available rooms and yes indeedy, there was a cockroach still moving about in her right ear! Our ER docs couldn't get the roach out so we had to call ENT to remove it. Although the patient was somewhat freaked out, I thought she handled it better that I would have!! :eek:

As to the previous comment of "immaturity" of posters in relating stories: Try dealing with these situations without talking about it- one could go crazy!

Thank goodness there are folks who can deal with these hard situations! We all have our different talents no matter what they be.

Jeanne:)

Erin RN · Nov 21, 2003

How about the "stupidest" story..

Two 30 something males up driving in the woods, run across a baby rattle snake. Apparently thought it would be cool to bring it home so one picked it up as he was getting in the truck, it bit him, he flung it across the seat at his friend and it bit his friend..they came to the ER..we used all the anti venom in our city. Had to have medstar go across the mtns to get more. The one guy did Okay the other ended up coming back to the hospital after he was discharged was in the ICU and lost part of his arm..apparently baby rattlers can't control their venom output so they just spill everything they have got into you.

Now for the stupid part. (as if the above isn't enough!!)..the EMTs actually brought the snake to the ER in a coffee can, the one said we have the snake want to see it?? Of course we are all thinking it is dead, right?? Heck no!! He takes the lid off the coffee can and the snake "jumps" out lands on the floor and takes off...eventually the ER Doc found it and killed it. The EMTs were actually fired.

The Doc that I was on with said when he was working in AZ or maybe it was new mexico a pt was brought in with a Gila monster actually still attached to him..apparently they have the strongest jaws ..he said they finally got it off they guy and then it took off in their ER...Glad I wasn't there for that!! Erin

kwagner_51 · Nov 22, 2003

I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU to all ER Nurses. That is the rotation I am dreading the most! I am a first yr student and won't have that rotation until my last semester. All I can say is, I admire you from the bottom of my heart, and I DO NOT want your job.

I am an EMT B and got out before anything bad happened. I KNOW I can't handle the Trauma that comes in your doors 24/7.

I had a pleasant experience the last time I went to the ER. I told the triage nurse that my son had a spinter under his fingernail. I really didn't think it was an emergency, but I also didn't want it to get infected. I asked her if he really needed to see the Dr. or could I wait until The office opened on Monday.

I also told her that I was a SN and that this was the second time he had done this. I told her that I didn't want to waste her valuable time. I got to leave. I didn't take Jake to the dr. but I did call his office. The splinter came out on its own about 3 weeks later.

Again, I just wanted to say THANKS!! I admire you so much for your ability to handle everything that comes your way. I can also say that you are stronger than I am. And that is OK.

Take care and God Bless each and every one of you!

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Nov 22, 2003

Due to ow census i was sent to the ER last night. I helped a nurse with an assessment of a 4'10" 310 lb. woman. When i lifted a skin fold i saw these little skinny short black hair things (oh yes i definately had gloves on). I'm thinking it was hair or peeled skin, i touch one and it MOVED. It was some sort of nest of black worms living in her skin folds. I know what maggots look like and these weren't maggots.

lmd32 · Nov 22, 2003

I'm not an ER nurse but a nurse where I work collects stories of local candidates for the Darwin Awards. My favorite is the front page picture of the guy with a bandage over an eye and the caption "I feel so stupid!". I guess he and his buddy were drinking and thought it would be fun to shoot a gasoline can off each other's head with a bow and arrow. Apparently his buddy had the poorer aim.

debo_lpnER · Nov 22, 2003

My friend and co worker Misty and I took care of a possible OD that came by EMS, after doing the whole lavage and narcan thing her ekg showed lots of changes compared to her last visit. Well we not only had an OD but some big tombstoning to boot.

Well as you know that charcoal can do wonders for their bowels. It was dripping so bad off the stretcher that we just brought a second one into the trauma room so we could move her to a clean bed. Before we could even get her up off the bed there was a loud BOOM. Projectile diarrhea hurdling at the both of us. We are diving into different directions just as that black spray goes by. It was so close that we began to laugh. Everything from that point just kept us laughing.

The ER was so full we already had 2 stretchers in the hall and one in the hall in a WC. We changed this woman's brief 3 times before getting her off the stretcher. As she amb to the other ST her brief sounded like it had fireworks going off. The families in the other rooms stated that we must really love our jobs because we sounded like we were having such a great time at it.

Misty gets gagged by BM, so while we are laughing :chuckle our heads off, she has to take little breaks to puke. :roll

RNanne · Nov 22, 2003

The story of the guy with the bow and arrow reminds me. We had a guy come in from hunting. He was taking a poo sitting on and over a log. As he was sitting there, picture it. Some hunter took the vision for a deer and shot the guy in the butt. I am laughing as I write it.:roll :roll :chuckle

debo_lpnER · Nov 22, 2003

I work with a really funny Er doc. He loves to call us "Nurse" and for us to call him "Doctor". The pt just love him. He gives us a hard time when we tell him not to give so much pain med. He warns us to not let the "milk of human kindness" dry up in us as some have. He will also say "Well nurse, I like to think of myself as the hurting man's friend" Our reply is "You mean Dr. Feelgood"

We had one of our frequent flyers- somehow this idiot ran over herself with the car. You know when you want good pain meds sometimes your accidents have to escalate.:roll Well when I went in the with the DOCTOR ... he goes right into his spill ... Miss you have been through a tramatic experience ... it's a wonder you are alive. ( I was waiting to hear some type of soap opera music) I just wanted you to know I am here to meet your pain needs. (OMG - I'm going to have to kill him - I know that he has a big script coming). He continues to tell her how lucky she is.( All she had was a little road rash. I wanted to say .. hey idiot .. people can't stop cars with their bodies.) He tells her that he is here for the next 2 days and if she anything more for pain to call him. That he is here to meet her pain needs. Oh and she is weepy and saying "You are the best doctor ever" He just sucks that up.

Well she does get a pretty good script and I give the dc orders and she and her family leaves. So then I think I'll teach Dr. Feelgood a lesson.

I waited about 30 minutes, and I went and said "Doctor , you remember that pt ... well she wanted to know if she started hurting at 2am could she call here and talk to you ... I told her no ... then she wanted your home number" :eek: "Now nurse you know you can't give that out" I told him I knew that ... that I didn't even know his home # , then I reminded him that he said " Now I am here to meet your pain needs." Then I told him since I didn't know his home # that I had to give her his cell #.

He got a little excited then ... studdering a bit ... now nurse .. that really didn't happen did it. Yeah ... you said to call anytime. you did say I'm here to meet your pain needs. I let this go on for an hour or two before I finally told him that I didn't give his # out.

we all got a good laugh and he did tone it down ... for a little while that is.

Deb :chuckle

Uptoherern, RN · Nov 26, 2003

I work in a college town, so you can imagine the stupid things we see. some that come to mind are:

college guys at a halloween party..........decide it'd be cool to see the carved pumpkin with fire coming out of it. so they pour everclear liquor into the pumpkin (something like 3000% alcohol). Then they set it on the Kitchen counter (good place),and one kid lights it on fire.....................had 2nd/3rd degree burns on right side of neck,head and right arm. got transferred to the county burn unit. I asked him if he wanted me to call his parents (in another state). He says "no....it's just another day....."

16 yr old male comes in with dad. doesn't seem to want to tell me what the problem is in triage. I finally figure out that he had been messing around with one of those travel toothbrushes, you know, the ones with the clear plastic part that snaps over the brush? Well, the clear plastic part got stuck where the sun don't shine. ER doc couldn't get it out, ended up calling surgeon on call to get him to or to remove it.

reminds me of the older guy...............got a vibrator stuck up his rectum and couldn't get it out. Now what would you do? GOSH! Get ANOTHER vibrator and try to get the first one out!!:chuckle Well..........didn't work. ended up going to emergency surgery for perforarated bowel.

Actually had a guy come into the ER last night. Cheif complaint: I smoked pot, and now I feel dizzy. Don't you just want to make them sit on the floor instead of taking up a bed?

Had a woman come in in labor............no ob/gyn, no prenatal care. just "passing thru town". our lovey gay doc is sitting on a stool between the lady's legs. One of the er nurses who used to do ob/gyn asks " how many centimeters is she?" He looks at us and laughs " I have no idea!!!" she takes over the stool and delivers the baby. He thought it was funny.

oh boy,,,,,,,,,,,,I am sure I could think of more, but have to get up in am for 12 hours of the above.

LilgirlRN, ADN, RN · Nov 26, 2003

Had a guy come in with rubber ball stuck in his rectum. It had been on a chain of balls that are pulled out with orgasm (as I have no prostate gland, I couldn't really tell ya). But anyway, I was working with a male nurse that night who was taking care of this patient. He came to me and asked me if I would start his IV that he just didn't want to be aroudn the guy. So I go in, put the tourniquet on and what comes out of my mouth? "Open and close your hand like you're squeezing a rubber ball." lol :)

J. B. · Nov 26, 2003

I know this is probably a post that belongs in the funny section but this is the most craziest I ve experienced.

First back ground . While in nursing scholl at least as a male I was subject to some ...lest say hard felt encouragement to quit because some instructors I came in contact with flet I just wasnt RN material.

Anyway there was this one instructor in particular that for some reason felt she had the market on knowing who would make good male RN and she had this nack for (again) grinding out the best in ones (performance) in order to advance the male student in the nursing program. Unfortunatly she was also one of the most beautiful knock out looking young ladies I had ever the pleasure of knowing.

Well durining my tenure as a student and while I was begining my ER rotation I hurt my ankle skiing one spring break and returned to school in a splint cast and crutches. I was able to word of the argiuments that I couldnt keep up. But in the efforts to stay off the suggested delay in my graduation buy a year, a friend of mine had an idea to really get the instructor by suprise and sort of get her goat. So to speak.

One morning while I was doing my rotation my friend came into the ER for evaluation for having twisted his ankle. While he hobbled around complaining to the Nursing Instructor that it hurt so bad and he didnt think he could be in school that day she requested to examine the ankle herself.

He reluctantly hobbled over to the table and leaned up against it saying it was too painful to hop up on the examin table.

As she knelt down to look and examin my friend anke he slowly raised the pant leg of his scrubs. The instructors decerning eye quickly changed to fright when she cought sight of what (tastfully would be discribed as a atifical apendage) in reality shouldnt have been that far down the leg. She fell over and was so beside herself she left the room and came back sometime later (once composted) to take my friend to the Dean of Students of what came to be known as the discussion.

I will leave it up to your amagination to invision the discussions and debriefing we students had at the local pub across the street during lunch break.

That was when I learned how suttle my friend can be in his communication with those that place themselves on high pedistals.

chris_at_lucas_RN, RN · Nov 26, 2003

so beside herself she left the room and came back sometime later (once composted) to take my friend to the Dean of Students

I am fascinated by the idea of a composted nursing instructor. :eek: Many of them don't deserve the opportunity....

TEEHEE! :roll