What's the worse thing you have seen?

TA123 · Apr 28, 2011

OK maybe this thread should be deleted...obviously this is ******* 80% of nurses here off. I don't know maybe people are reading too much into the topic. Too me I feel like we all have funny story to tell that may not even relate to our pt's condition. like when a pt told a CNA " Please tell my nurse i may not have BM today but i've been having juicy fart all day. I had asked him when was the last time he had BM and he said couple of days ago.

PMFB-RN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Hard to say. Two come immediately to mind:

1. I am all alone as the only RN in a small town hospital's ER. It's about 0100 in the AM and the ER doc is asleep in his call room. In the door walks a man carrying a blood covered little girl, behind him in walks a woman carrying little girl's arm.

2. Working agency in a VA hospital MICU and took care of a man whose legs were literally rotting hunks of flesh. He hadn't had blood flow to them for a long time and had refused amputation. We had to put him in a negative pressure room to try to prevent the stench from making everyone in the unit sick. He was beyond septic, intubated and on several pressors and of course full code. He coded during my shift and I called a code but refused to take part. An intern did several chest compressions and feces came boiling out of his mouth. Thank goodness the resident called the code right then.

nurse2033, MSN, RN · Apr 28, 2011

Nurses that can't spell.

FF-PHRN · Apr 28, 2011

Self inflicted GSW to the scrotum walked into the ER. Not kidding. It was difficult to look him in the eye. Try using a holster next time Mr. Gangbanger.

Elderly female backed over by a car driven by her husband. He did not see her. It was snowing and ice covered, hilly drive way. She was face down with only her head not still under the vehicle. I was the first paramedic on scene on the fire engine. Car was on a ice covered hill. It would slide as all extrication was attempted. Husband was beside himself as one would expect. Really bad day with a bad outcome.

If my grammar\spelling\punctuation is bad, then I humbly apologize to those who might be grading this..................or not.

snow_bear · Apr 28, 2011

I had a pt with this once. His was a different presentation. His skin sloughed off in big patches. Walking into his room meant walking through inches of dead skin around the bed that were like big feathers. It was quite disturbing. I'm sure housekeeping got sick of the "sweep up dead skin in pt room" calls.

The swelling was from anyphylaxis which occured two weeks after I discontinued the medication that caused this reaction. I was on the next to last dose of a ten day predisone pack. Doc put me back on 60mg of predisone for 2 months. She then referred me to a rheumatogolist for follow-up who said the steroids saved my skin (from sloughing off), and possibly my life. This was in April 1999.

As bad as it was, it could have been worse. Much worse.

I have no scarring from the rashes, but my immune system is still over-reactive and I have narrowing of the airway. I've developed severe airborne allergies and my throat swells up. I'm on 5 medications and receiving allergy injections and it still doesn't control ALL of the symptoms.

A few years ago, I was hospitalized for several days with a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a WBC of over 50,000.....with no known cause! All the tests came back negative.....mono, meningitis, leukemia. Docs didn't know what to do with me, so they did everything - steroids, antibotics, painkillers. It worked! I got better. Again.