Lisa O
Hospitals are places of healing, but they can also be battlegrounds where medical professionals fight to save lives. Ever wondered what kind of crazy stuff doctors, nurses, and other hospital workers see on the job? Buckle up, because we’re diving into Reddit to hear some of the most challenging experiences they’ve shared. Get ready for some wild stories!
Woman Who Clawed Out Her Eyeball
“My dad is in nursing school, told me one story where they brought in a mentally disturbed woman who was behaving violently. She kept on flailing about and then started attacking herself. At one point he said she literally clawed out her eyeball.
It was dangling out of the socket by the optic nerve and everyone tried to restrain her so they could help but one of her arms broke free so she reached up, grabbed her eyeball, and squished it.”
– czar_zach
Woman Places Dead Bird Inside Herself
“My friend is a nurse and working in Melbourne and a well-known patient (frequent flyer with mental health concerns) came in throwing up, her skin was yellow and clammy. She was very disoriented.
The nurse proceeded to do a full body check with another nurse and they just happen to see a small string hanging out of the lady’s private parts. They asked the woman about it and she wouldn’t answer. So the nurses slowly pulled on the string and out came a dead, decaying sparrow.
When asked what it was doing in there, the patient claimed that she was planning on eating it later.The decomposing bird was causing blood poisoning. “
-svenfromsweeden
Benadryl Allergy
“I had a patient come into the ER with some sort of spider/bug bite on her hand that had progressed to a red line running up her arm. She stated she put Benadryl cream on, and it was very itchy. We continued talking, and I asked if she had any allergies, ‘Yes, Benadryl.’ I thought, ‘good lord’ — and I’m sure it was reflected on my face. We washed the Benadryl cream off her arm, and miraculously, it stopped itching.”
– sweetlyserious
Cardiac Arrests
“Me: ‘Do you have any medical history? Including things like heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure?’ Patient: ‘No, nothing ever.’ Me: ‘So, why do you take [list of heart meds]?’ Patient: ‘Oh, I’ve had multiple cardiac arrests.'”
– satieeee
“I Don’t Drink”
“Had a male come in with pancreatitis. Asking him some basic history: ‘How much do you drink alcohol?’ ‘I don’t drink alcohol.’ Ok, well, not my first time so I asked: ‘Do you drink beer?’ ‘Yeah, well after using the sauna, I have some beer.’ (We are in Finland where sauna and beer go very well and frequently together.) ‘Ok, how many beers you have after sauna?’ ‘A case.’ (24 cans are in a case.) ‘And how many times per week you go to sauna?’ ‘Three to four times per week.’ So, he doesn’t drink any alcohol, but 70-100 cans of beer per week.”
– tijujo
The Cat Lab
“Paramedics brought in a 500 pound female into the ER. She had passed out and flopped onto her bed so all of her home bed linens came with her. She eventually made it down to the cath lab for a cardiac workup, and either during the procedure or soon afterwards passed away.
While she was being cleaned up in the morgue they find a cat (also expired) in one of her folds; the prevailing theory being that it must have been squished and absorbed when she passed out. The cath lab was renamed cat lab until HR got wind of it.”
– Col_Mirsh
Cabbage Patch Doll
“Paramedics brought in a “woman in labor,” accompanied by boyfriend. I performed a quick visual check and found something quite unsettling. She appeared to be SEWN SHUT. Like, with thick yarn. Her boyfriend was removed as it appeared to be some sort of abuse issue. The woman was showing signs of infection and is screaming that she needs to push. The home-made stitches were quickly cut, and a small head soon starts crowning.
Sadly, as more of the baby protrudes, it appears very still, stiff, and …plastic-y…? It turned out that this mildly psychotic woman so badly wanted to have a baby, that she shoved a Cabbage Patch Doll up her hoo-haa and sewed it shut to keep it in. “
– TwirlyGuacamole
The Lost Thumb
“I was working in the ER as a paramedic intern. An older man came in with his hand bandaged, stating he couldn’t get his thumb to stop bleeding. As the nurse unwound the bandage, there was a gaping wound oozing blood from where his thumb USED TO BE.
The nurse asked him where his thumb was, and the old guy asked what day it was. The nurse said Thursday. The guy said, ‘Well, I guess the thumb went out with the trash this morning.’ He’d lost his thumb to his lawn mower three days ago and only now was coming in.”
– plscratch
Enema With Garden Hose
“A woman came in with constipation, I’m sure she tried the conventional routes to cure it, but it somehow got to the point that her husband was giving her water enemas with a GARDEN hose. Needless to say, he blew out her intestine.”
– seaspray
Cooked Person Smell
“I’d say one of my worst experiences was an elderly woman who got horrible burns over most of her body after her oxygen tank exploded when she lit a cigarette while hooked up to it. Never thought I’d know what cooked person smelled like.”
– jitterscaffiene
Terrible Infection
“This 20-year-old guy came into the hospital. He had a lot of conditions where he wouldn’t make it past 40, and he currently had some infection. We kept giving him antibiotics, which helped, but not as much as we would have liked.
After about a week of being in the hospital, I walked in, and I’m talking to him, and he tells me that he got a medically necessary circumcision on his last admission to the hospital. I ask if it’s okay if I take a look to make sure it’s healing okay. It was black with all kinds of infection. I’m just not sure how a 20-year-old married man (or his wife) never thought to tell anyone about this for the past week.”
– Desblade101
His Foot Just Popped Off
“This story is my brother’s who is an EMT.
Ambulance called for a homeless man who complains of severe foot pain. Upon trying to inspect the foot, it comes off, just pulls away like an apple plucked from a tree. Revealing the man’s lower leg bones, and a horrendous infection.
He would survive, but not until he had his leg amputated at the mid thigh. “
– BadB*itchFrizzle
Rotting Man
“A guy came into the ER. Apparently he had been found living in his car basically rotting away. The guy was at least 500 pounds, and had to be cut out of the car. He stunk so bad the whole ER and ambulance bay smelled like dead flesh.
There were maggots inside of his open wounds and the sores were so big that man’s hip bone was visible.”
– The_Wil-E_Coyote
Don’t Put Your Feet Up on the Dash
“Not an ER doc but I asked one this at a party once. His response: Young guy was passenger in a car, had his feet up on the dash. Car crashed. One of his femurs was pushed up into his thorax and displaced his heart to the right of midline. Apparently the CT looked nuts. The patient didn’t survive.”
– cosmoceratops
Cockroach Crawling Around
“Not me but my sister is a Registered Nurse in an ER. On one of her shifts, she got a patient who came in screaming in pain, this woman didn’t have a bowel movement for two months. My sister examined her and her rectum was wide open, there was a huge hole that you could look into.
My sister gave her an enema but the feces stuck in this woman’s rectum was rock hard and would not come out. Eventually my sister had to pull it out. After it all came out, my sister looked down and saw a cockroach crawling around in the feces.”
– xoxosayounara
“Does That Matter?”
“I had a patient who came in for genetic counseling, went through their whole family history with the counselor, and then concluded with, ‘Oh yeah, I was adopted as a baby and don’t know who my birth parents are. Does that matter?’
– ThadisJones
How, Though?
“I once checked in on a guy and asked him if he’d had any previous surgeries. ‘No, never.’ When I examined him, he had a surgical scar from just above his pubic bone to just below the sternum. ‘What’s that then?’ I asked. He stared down at it and said: ‘I’ve never noticed that before.’ WTF??”
– Underwritingking
Forgetful Patients
“Me: ‘Any prior surgeries?’ Patient: ‘No.’ Me (examining them): ‘Did you know that you only have one testicle down here?’ Patient: ‘Oh yeah. I had one cut out.’ I always ask specifically about gallbladder, appendix, and testicles because patients forget about having AN ORGAN CUT OUT.”
– BAT123456789
Medications for Lupus
“We were asking a patient about prior medical history because she was on a waitlist for an intestinal transplant, and we asked her in every possible way if she had any history, and she was like, ‘No, I was very healthy before this.’ Finally, we ask her, ‘Do you take any medications at home?’ and she goes, ‘Oh, just the meds I take for lupus.'”
– absencefollows
Bloody Day
“Years ago I worked as a phlebotomist in a hospital. Got a call to rush down to the OR for a stat blood draw. Got suited up and into the room, it’s a woman who had just delivered a baby and was hemorrhaging. She had IV’s in both arms so I had to draw from her foot.
I got a good vein and started filling my tubes and a big gush of blood fell all over the floor at my feet. My feet and legs got splattered with blood. Thankfully, I had on sterile booties that protected my shoes but I had to have my husband bring me clean pants. “
– [deleted]
Poor Man…
“I was in my ER clinical rotation and was working the time after a hurricane took place. EMS brought in a man that was found in his apartment that had no electricity or running water. He was found on the floor unconvinced and covered in filth.
Apparently his family were his caretakers and did not bother to give him his medicine or change his diaper. All they did was just put on new boxers every time he had a bowel movement. By the time he got to the ER, he was wearing at least 10 pairs of underwater and it was awful.
The police and adult proactive services were called since it was apparent that the patient hasn’t eaten for days and hasn’t been given any medicine. It was an awful sight. I’ll never forget it.”
– mcpo91
Beaten To Death
“There was a patient on our unit (pediatric ER) who was on deaths door when he arrived by ambulance. Vitals were shit, belly was distended, and when we rolled him over to get a rectal temp the skin on his bottom was gone. He had been beaten by a Bible and a belt by his step dad until his skin peeled away.
Poor kid was in the 7-8 year old range and yes step dad did go to prison. Kid did not live.”
– angelust
Evil People
“Not exactly something I saw the patient go through, but I saw the sweetest old lady who was suffering with chronic kidney problems because, when she was younger, she worked as a maid for some evil twisted people who forbade her from using the toilet at work (ie 9-5 not including travel).
So she had to force herself to hold a full bladder daily for hours at a time. This is a great way to get stones, which in turn can cause obstruction and damage the kidneys. She was so sweet and lovely, and it just really got to me that people could be so needlessly maleficent.”
– Sabmo
Future Single Mother
“Worked in an orthopaedic clinic and we had a woman come in to have her shoulder replaced. She was pregnant. A man broke into her house with a shotgun, killed her husband, shot her in the shoulder, and then killed himself. I don’t know the reason, all I know is that she was now a future single mother with a dominant arm that was basically non-functional.”
– shdwrnr
Vomiting Diarrhea
“Not one particular patient, but a common occurrence. I work in the post-op unit, and often people have an NG tube. The purpose of these is the remove of fluids from their stomach due to having a bowel obstruction. Often patients become confused due to meds, age or whatever. Often they pull it out and some how, end up vomiting diarrhea. That must be one of the most awful things to experience.”
Deep Psychosis
“Psychiatric hospital: definitely dementia, as is covered throughout this thread, but also patients in deep psychosis; Non-stop energy, paranoia, delusions, violence, aggression, the whole works. Strangely enough, these patients, once sane, are usually the nicest people on the floor. The look of horror and regret when they learn what happened to them and what they did over the previous days kills me every time.”
-userG599024
RIP
“Homeless guy came into the e.r. with a tooth abcess. The infection was making its way too his heart. So we split his neck from ear to ear too get as much infection out as we could. We kept the incision open to monitor the healing. Well the fun part came when we had too do a CT scan. I had to hold this dudes head as we moved him over. It felt like his head was gonna detach at any second…
He ended up dying.”
– thejaypalmershow
Rotting Leg
“A friends step dad was training to be a nurse so he got all the gross stuff that came in because, newbie. A homeless man came in complaining of stomach pains. When he told the guy to undress, he didn’t want to take off his jeans. When asked about it he said, “I can’t take them off, my leg will fall off.” Sure enough his leg was rotting and had maggots crawling in and out of it.”
– SET0H
Terminal Diagnosis
“Seeing a 24 year old (the same age as me at the time) come in with difficulty swallowing, then being told he had end stage oesophageal cancer and had weeks to live, whilst his wife was about to give birth, I was there when he was told, and I still to this day don’t know how I turned up for work the next day.
Having worked there for 5 years already, I’d never experienced anything so awful, he managed a few months, met his son, and died at home. Something that will stick with me forever I think.”
– pepsiplunge2091
Parents’ Stupidity
“Had a patient 1 yrs old. Suspected meningitis. Unresolved fever for 10 days. Parents refused to do a spinal tap and refused medication. Says that after admission for 3 days the medication is not working and wants to be discharged. We tried convincing them not too but they left anway.
To me, the worst is that children pays for their parents stupidity.”
– MegathaS