Your best(or worst) exposure story

[sistrmoon]

Here's mine: This PCA who constantly slacks, doesn't report pertinent info, etc left a foley bag unclamped after he drained it. He had tucked the end into the holder, just left it unclamped. Flooding the room with urine! I walked into the room and was standing in a lake of urine. Got everything mopped up, Cavi wiped my shoes, come in the next day to see the patient on contact for...wait for it...VRE in the urine. Ugh.

[RunninOnCoffee]

My first day as a brand new baby nurse I was giving an injection of Levemir to a 400+ lb patient. I had my left hand in the shape of a C around the spot where I was going to stick for some stupid reason and injecting with the right hand. I guess I had a little too much thrust behind my right hand because the needle hit the patient's arm, bounced up and came right back down.....into my left thumb. I remember just standing there numb for a few seconds, not having any idea what to do. Lesson learned, and injection technique changed forever! Thankfully the patient was negative for everything and it was only a tiny little insulin needle, but enough to shake a lot of fear into me.

And then there is the Hep C patient that dumped her urine onto my shoe. That was fun!

Also got to take a dose of prophylactic antibiotics for bacterial meningitis. I knew what it was as soon as I had the report from IR and saw her come off the elevator to ICU so I was never without a mask and PPE. I also had her intubated with in an hour on the unit for an irratic respiratory pattern which also helped to minimize the risk.

However whoever it was with the C-Diff and being pinned to a patient take the cake! Prayers for your husband with all that! How awful! I hope he is doing much better today!

[beckyboo1, BSN, RN]

Let's see.....for some crazy reason, went to empty a commode bucket and sat it on the side of a bathtub first. You guessed it, dumped down the back of my leg into my shoe. Exposed to TB when we had a non compliant patient with it. We wore masks etc but her family refused to so we were constantly exposed via them. Also been exposed to whooping cough and had to take prophylactic antibiotics for it.

[HelloWish, ADN, BSN]

I start nursing school this fall, so I am thankful to read these posts and learn from everyone's experiences!

[kiszi, RN]

I had a pt with a rectal tube and I was trying to empty the stool collection bag. I was having a hard time getting the cap off, so I pulled harder.. sending the cap shooting off and a full bag of horrid smelling liquid stool shooting all over me.

[anon456, BSN, RN]

Frank red blood in the eye coughed up from a bleeding trach. It was an urgent situation, and I was called in to help (not my patient). Had on the mask but no eye protection. Patient and I both tested negative. Started wearing glasses to work after that.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

Well. I can see I will never entertain the notion of working in a hospital again. Way too clutzy.

[guest2210]

I assisted an MD with an I&D on a medical floor. Instead of putting the scalpel in a sharps container, he tossed it, unbeknownst to me, under a sterile towel. So while cleaning up ost procedure, I sliced my thumb on the scalpel. Subsequent testing was negative.

The first time I performed CPR, on a real person, was a fresh post op AAA resection. First compression cracked a rib and my hands ended up in the patient's chest.

I have also had numerous poop balls thrown at me, but those would mostly stick to the door or walls.

Do I miss bedside nursing? Ummm...no.

[bagladyrn, RN]

Many exposures over the years (especially in the years before precautions!). One of the more recent and visually impressive: Bracing the leg of a laboring patient as she pushed, membranes ruptured at the height of a push and a veritable ocean of amniotic fluid drenched me from neck to knees!

The annoying part was that when I called for someone to come replace me so I could go shower and change I was told "We're in report. You'll have to wait until we're finished." And of course all the time playing it "No big deal" for the patient who is apologizing profusely between contractions!

[lorirn58]

Why were you trying to empty a stool collection bag? Was this from a fecal tube where there is a balloon such as a Dignicare or Flexiseal? NEVER EVER empty those (if you can, because you really can't anyway).

[gunny48]

Been a while but I still remember the patient that was delivered to the ED ambulance door by his wife because he was having chest pains. Got him inside and on a gurney where he immediately pretty much fell apart. Puffing away all over the place, coded, bagged, intubated, etc. and actually looking like he was going to make it to CICU when we told his wife he would be admitted. This upset her because they had been on the way to his appointment in another city to be treated for active tuberculosis....kinda funny now but back then it was during the "masks for everybody" phase and all unknown respiratory cases were presumed to be TB until proven otherwise.

[LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN]

I can recall a "near miss" when I was drawing blood for HIV antibody testing; as I inserted the needle, somehow, a bold drop cascaded into the air and landed below my inner canthus of my left eye...missed it by this...much...

I've only been fortunate to stuck myself with unused needles.

I had a double whammy exposure day: a resident had a positive titer, c/o night sweats, jelly sputum; was promptly sent out; then there was a resident who admitted that where she was living before coming to the facility had bedbugs; found TONs of them in her bed, and in her purse.

Oh, how I love my short-term unit...

[Yosemite, RN, ASN, EMT-I]

Hmmm... years ago. Had to "float" from my medical ICU to some other floor. One of my patients had ascites of unknown origin, freshly admitted. He'd soiled his bed, I assisted him to the chair after cleaning him. Just as I got the bed made, his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out. No pulse. I called a "code;" as I was from another unit, no one took me seriously! Luckily, the unit secretary from MY unit had "floated" to that floor, also. He called it, then came running to help me lift the patient back into bed and we started CPR. As the team was heard in the hall, the patient coughed... esophageal varices broke, blew the Ambu bag off of his face and a fountain of blood hit my chest and into my mouth; freshly made bed now a wreck. The arriving intern looked at me strangely as I kept bagging him while spitting on the floor!

2nd place: ETOH withdrawals, major seizures. Resident by my side as I'm pushing vial after vial of diazepam. As I withdrew one of the syringes, the patient flailed, hit my hand and drove the needle through the webbing between my thumb and index finger. I gave the resident a "Well, isn't this special!" look, withdrew said needle from my hand, reloaded and went back to work.

A few needle sticks, multiple bites when working psych, all is well and still negative for all the nasties. It's a dangerous world out there, kids.