What's the scariest thing you've ever seen as a nurse?

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I'm Curious... What's the scariest thing/experience you've ever seen or had as a nurse?

Mine was when I had to tell a pt husband to leave as there was home/?abuse issues. The husband and patient got extremely angry and I had to call security to escort him out. When pt husband left I was very shaken over this situation as I was only a nsg student at the time. So I told the charge I was going to get a coffee and step outside for some air. When I went outside, the husband was pacing in the parking lot staring at me. It looked like he was going to go postal. I was stiff with fear and I didn't know wether to stay or run. Finally security ran out and escorted me in and the husband finally left. Man was I ever shaken up about that!!!

Specializes in LDRP.

a few for me..

1. a pregnant pt with epilepsy (non compliant with her meds and little prenatal care) seizing over and over..called the rapid response team and it took over 2 hours to get her stable enough for transfer.

2. Called the OB to come for delivery, It was her first baby and typically Id have enough time but urge to push was so strong, the mom couldn't control it, I called the house MD for back up but he didnt make it...i delivered the baby on my own. Scary but everyone was ok,the FOB even asked if I could get a raise- LOL

3. The mom of a patient getting ready to deliver was not adhering to our visiting policy and got so mad at me she came at me from across the room, got in my face, screamed profanities and threatened me (i was also pregnant at the time) As she was being escorted out by security, she continued to threaten me and our charge nurse. She ended up having to be escourted off of the property by the local police.

4. Seeing/hearing a FOB find out his full term baby passed away, A chilling noise, i will never forget.

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Specializes in ICU-my whole life!!.
The most scary thing I have ever seen in my career was the alien creature eat through a man's abdominal cavity in the ER. The man entered the ER with the complaint of cramping, and general malaise, and exhibited a low grade fever. The man was triage, and had been in the ER for about 2 hours, when the he began to scream like a woman. Two nurses, and four paramedics found the man violently arching his back, and his abdomen looked as though it was being poked from something within. The man fell flat on his back and the green alien creature with dinosaur teeth, let out a hiss and growl, and scurried on its was out the hospital ER and never to be found. That was the scariest thing I ever seen in my life.:uhoh3:

This sounds like the movie A.L.I.E.N.

Are you sure you were not dreaming?:uhoh3:

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Specializes in Psychiatric.

Well, being a nurse now, my training as a Marine for taking someone down doesn't really apply, as we were trained to kill in the Marines. OBVIOUSLY, I'm not going to be trying to kill my clients. But, as I stated, I was frozen with fear this time. Think of the biggest Hell's Angel biker you've ever seen, and you about where how big this guy was. During any other assault I've seen at my unit, I've always been the first to intervene, but this was just different somehow.

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Specializes in Hospice, ONC, Tele, Med Surg, Endo/Output.

I was charge nurse at a large hospital -- 34 bed med-surg floor. A nurse 20 years my senior says, "can you check him with me, something's not right?" Well, the man was a 32 year old, diabetic, past drug user, who had a CABG weeks ago, developed a wound infection, and had been on a wound vacc to his sternum, which was dc'd a few days ago. Well, we went into his room, he was gray as a ghost and agonal, no pulse, non-responsive; I screamed for o negative, code team, crash cart, etc...I saw rivulets blood seeping from his open sternal wound and surrounding his heart (his nurse had been doing his dressing change); i could see his heart beat a couple of times, when all of a sudden cups of blood exited a hole in his heart all over the bed along side the patient and formed huge clots. Patient was gone, and the pt's nurse and i just screamed "help, help!!". Code team arrived in about 75 secs. We had to clean up all the blood before putting on defib pads. Fortunately the code team consisted of 3 doctors and they did the cardiac massage and used internal paddles. They were in there for an hour. The patient received 10 bags of blood. Later, the surgeon said the infection had eaten a hole in the heart. I always thought afterwards that wound vaccs should never be used on sternal wounds. Anyway, that other nurse and i had to have counseling just to deal with the horror of what we saw.

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Specializes in psych, geriatrics.
:eek: Wow. I'm sorry, but that's just plain cruel. I understand that sometimes family don't make the decisions we would like them to, and have a hard time letting go, but to order no pain meds and deliberately increase this woman's suffering seems sooooo wrong to me. And how can a doctor "order" the husband to do anything? Even if it was in the pt's best interest for the code status to be changed, this is one case where the end does not, in my opinion, justify the means.

From your description, I'd say you have a Physician who has problems that need to be addressed, and IS a problem that needs to be addressed. Does your institution have a Civil Rights Officer or the like? Given your description, an anonymous report might be called for. Good luck, its a tough situation in many ways.

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Significant Other went *crazy* when MD didn't make it for baby's delivery and it was RN-assisted. Gorgeous delivery, mom & babe in excellent shape & nursing like old pros by the time doc rolled in. FOB became very abusive to staff & had to be escorted out.

More drama & threats to life as well as threats of suit followed, and it was a hot mess for a couple of days. We didn't walk out alone for a while after this situation.

The MD almost didn't make it for most of my births (I've had 5). The only thing that upset me was when I couldn't push when I really, really needed to.

In this case I would have just been happy that the delivery was safe and everyone healthy.

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Hi everyone. I am new here. I must say I absolutely love reading all these stories. I have see some interesting things when I was a CNA. I just graduated nursing school and waiting on my ATT to come in so I can take the NCLEX (yes I am nervous, and driving myself crazy with studying. hoping everything from nursing school stuck!!) anyways, I usually worked the night shift when I was a CNA and loved to hear about all the "ghost stories" I was a skeptic until one night I saw a "ghost" I was working the 7p to 7a shift. and doing rounds about 3:30-4:00 am.( in a locked alzheimers unit) when I noticed a very tall man dressed all in black (not it wasn't Johnny Cash) he looked dated like old amish , black top hat, black suit and shoes. and he was in the hallway that connected the 2 units, noticing what time it was and how he looked , I decided I needed to go talk to him and see what he was doing there. so I started walking toward him. he turned and walked the opposite way. I followed trying to catch up to him and he turned the corner . when I turned the corner. I actually saw him walk through the water fountain and wall. I go up to the nurse's desk and tell the charge nurse what I saw. she said "oh, you saw the man in black, not many people have seen him and usually when he shows up a resident passes" , sure enough the next day, a resident passed! ....I have a couple more stories about nursing homes I have shared in my ghost stories group on facebook its called texas panhandle ghost stories and urban legends. yall feel free to join it. no matter where you are from and please share your stories.

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LouTracy-Walker - I'm glad you dug up this old thread, as it was an interesting read. Just FYI, there is a ghost stories thread on this board, with zillions of posts. Some of the posts in that thread gave me goosebumps. Anyway, it sounded to me like that might be your cup of tea, so I thought I would give you a heads up.

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Pa's taking care of ICU and sick kids in our ER. Should never happen.

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER, Pediatrics, Corrections.

I once was caring for a guy in the ICU during a clinical rotation. There was a man with him which I believe was his uncle. The uncle kept making strange remarks whenever I was in the room. I brushed them off. I walked in and he was sitting in a chair with a strange look on his face.He then said out of NOWHERE "My favorite number is 666." All the hairs on my neck stood up. I was glad when he would leave to go home!

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I can't remember if i posted this a year+ ago, but here it is, again if necessary:

Aortic erosion, open sternal wound, fungal infection post heart transplant. You never saw so much blood so fast in all your life, and then it was over.

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Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.

The most scariest thing happened to me recently: finding a baby who needed to be seriously trached (mom declined and wasn't at a capacity to be knowledgable in making the decision, but wouldn't make the child a DNR) be found pulseless and unresponsive with this eerie pinpoint pupil stare and be able to bring that child back to life...I can still remember how the ribs were swinging underneath my compressions.

Baby died 6 days later. :blink:

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