47 Incidents Emergency Room Workers Wish They Could Unsee, Unhear Or Unsmell

A family was in a very bad car accident on an interstate. Car banged up pretty bad. The fire rescue got the family out and mom realized her child and her car seat were gone. They searched the accident scene and found the infant and carrier about 75 ft down the road, upright with the infant happily watching them. No damage to the child at all from being ejected. I admitted the child for observation, but didn't have a scratch. Whole family was ok, mom and older child banged up bad but nothing serious. Was the most incredible thing I have ever seen in the ER.

Ok, here we go. This happened around last new years. We get a call for an incoming level one trauma, and the EMTs on the radio tell us it's an impalement injury. Ok, that's pretty unusual, but whatever. Fast forward ten minutes. EMS brings the patient in, accompanied by a crew of fire fighters, and with no further ado, here's the story:

20 year old kid gets new skis for Christmas. It's around 2 a.m. a few days later and the streets are covered in several inches of fresh snow. So, the kid straps on his new skis, his dad hops in the car, and is towing the kid along through the snowy streets at 30 mph. Big surprise, the Toyota loses traction and starts to skid. The skier, seeing what's happening, doesn't want to be anywhere near the car and bails. Of course, he's flying, and needs to stop, so he aims for a big pile of snow on the curb and slams into it.

Turns out, it's not a pile of snow. It's a pile of construction debris under a thin layer of powder. Oops.

The kid comes into the trauma bay with a five foot long piece of steel rebar entering his thigh, exiting at the groin, then re-entering his abdomen at the crest of the pelvis and exiting again about 5 inches later.

The kid is fully oriented and awake, and besides the rebar skewer, is uninjured. After the survey and imaging is complete, the trauma attending makes the decision to head straight up to the OR. I work in the ER, so everything from here on in is second hand.

Three firefighters scrub into the OR and they bring a special saw that can cut the steel without creating sparks and igniting the oxygen. The saw immediately malfunctions, and the trauma surgeons decide that rather than cut the metal, they'll cut the patient. They "de-roof" the rebar, essentially slicing the top off the skin tunnel, and lift the bar out.

This five foot steel spike missed every bone, every major blood vessel, and every organ, not to mention missing his gentleman's sausage. The kid spends two days in the hospital and walks out on his own.

People tend to think the sudden, abrupt stuff are the hardest to deal with. The 40 year old hoping to enjoy his son's birthday and turned up dead in a heart attack. The lost limb in a chainsaw accident. The drowned infant. These all are terrible of course, but I deal with the acute stuff well. S**t happens and it's fast and this is why I'm in ED.

But nothing can get me like the non acute stuff. The same old lady turning up for the 3rd time, worse each wear. You chatted enough to know her. She orphaned young and raised herself with cleaner work. A balloon operator on WWII. Married childhood sweetheart who ran away 10 years later leaving her to fend for the young children. Fiercely independent. Children grew up loving but in their own struggles. All she ever wanted was to be dignified, independent and not burden anyone. Now notice her progressive worsening. First she stopped being so mobile. Then can't clean and started tripping. Don't know her meds as well. Can't shop anymore. Decline. Decline. Now you break it to her this is it. She will not get better. She will be more and more relying mobile aid. Then bed bound. Then lose her bowel and urine function. Then need to be fed. She might never lose her mind. She asks you if she will only suffer for a little longer. You have to be honest. You don't know. Maybe months. Maybe years. Maybe even decades. Alive but as everything she never wanted to be and there are no hope.

F****d me up. That.

A 2 year old baby that the "boyfriend" forgot in the hot tub for 15 minutes. The baby was screaming, but the boyfriend was too busy being on the phone. Meanwhile, the mother was in the kitchen cooking dinner. The result? 3rd degree burns that were bigger than the baby. I can still see those huge bubbles in front of me. I can't imagine what the pain must have been. Scarred for life, literally.

Not an ER doctor, but a dentist who had to sometimes go to the ER if someone got popped in the face with something and messed up their teeth.

One guy chainsawed through his face. They wanted me to just look and make sure the broken teeth wouldn't be a problem and prevent him from going to the OR.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU WAITING FOR? SURE HE HAS A COUPLE TEETH BROKEN BUT THAT'S THE SMALLEST PROBLEM HE HAS RIGHT NOW.

An 18 month old (don't remember the exact age, but less than 3) comes in in full arrest. Earlier in the day, his mother, an optometrist, was driving him to a play date. For some inexplicable reason, when backing out of the driveway, she didn't notice that the child was missing in the backseat. Somehow he had gotten himself under one of the rear wheels. It was only after feeling an unexpected speed bump in her driveway that she noticed her missing child. She scrambled out of the car to find she had driven over her son's head. Upon noting the immediate cranial swelling, she then decides that her optometry training qualifies her to make the important medical decision to create a burr hole - usually drilled in the skull for hemorrhaging - WITH A PAIR OF SCISSORS to relieve pressure. Brain matter started spilling out. It is at this point that she resolves to drive the *5 minutes* to our ER. The child passed soon after arrival. Very sad. We never did get an update on the legal ratifications of the case.

Well, the *grossest* thing I've seen so far has been a diabetic homeless guy with necrotizing fasciitis and a rediculously uncontrolled maggot infestation of his right leg. Dude's entire right lower extremity below the knee was black and smelled like a rotting animal carcass, with uncounted maggots boiling around inside. You could hear them from the doorway to his room. After he went upstairs to the ICU we had to close that room for multiple days and have it sprayed for bugs because there were *thousands* of flies in there.

Best part of the story is that he subsequently left the hospital AMA -- against medical advice -- presumably, to die within a day or two, after telling the critical care docs and the surgeons that he refused to lose his leg because he wanted to be whole in the afterlife. I really hope that worked out for him as he planned for it to...

A guy walking in through the front entrance holding his own balls in his hands....
He had been climbing a flagpole and slipped down and his ball sack was caught on the part where you tie the rope for the flag...

Had a woman and her 16 year old daughter come in. Daughter complaining of abdominal pain. Mom is carrying a bible. During exam, doctor asks if there is any chance she is pregnant. Mom goes ballistic. "WE ARE A GOOD CHRISTIAN FAMILY! HOW DARE YOU!! I'LL SEE THAT YOU ARE FIRED!!"

Get the labs back and of course she is pregnant. Doctor gets huge smile on his face.

We return to the exam room and he again asks the daughter if there is any chance that she is pregnant. Mom responds as expected, demanding to see another doctor, etc. Doctor looks at mom and says, "I'm not talking to YOU!" He again asks the girl if she could be pregnant and she responds with the typical, "Oh goodness no, I'm a virgin." The doctor hands the lab results to the mother and says, "CONGRATULATIONS! Another immaculate conception!" and walked out of the room.

My all time favorite: A lady was all gorked out on d***s and alcohol and was passed out on a gurney late one night in the ER. We had the lights dimmed and all was generally quiet. Every so often she would awaken and sing at the top of her lungs, "Doooon'ttt cryyyy foooor meeeee Argentiiiina!" That was 20+ years ago and it still cracks me up.

I'm a biomed undergrad; so not a true worker but I've gotten a couple hundred hours worth in the ER.

Little girl came in with her parents and without her foot. Apparently her grandpa was riding the lawnmower with her on his lap and she fell off and he ran over her foot/leg. Sadly couldn't be reattached. That girl was cool as a cucumber though.

Not a doc or nurse but a former patient transport (it was my job to move the gurney/body/patient while med staff focuses on administering life saving stuffs in a trauma center in downtown LA. Saw a lot of stuff but the two worst are:

1. Guy attempts s*****e and shoots himself in the face (gun barrel in mouth). Initially fails his attempt and has enough brains left in his head to call 911. Shows up at the hospital with a mostly normal looking face, talking coherently, making small chat, the majority of the top of his head was missing and his brain was exposed and oozing out. Eventually his failed attempt turned into an unfortunate success and I bagged that body and took him to the morgue about an hour after arrival.

2. Motorcycle accident and the biker is in full leather with a helmet on as the EMT was nervous about neck and spinal injuries. No pulse. Doc in the ER is doing chest compressions trying to keep the heart moving and there is A LOT of blood. To his credit he put some effort into this rescue attempt but ultimately the motorcyclist's head eventually rolled off the stretcher. And by eventually I mean fairly quickly. We had barely gotten all the way into trauma room 1. Guys head was likely severed from the get go. We all stopped working and I remember initially feeling sick (I was 18). Lead doc yells out sarcastically "WELL, there's your problem!" Takes off his gloves and mask and walks out. That was a hard patient to figure out how to bag. . .

Once, we received an ambulance call of a guy who was involved in an motor vehicle accident. He was riding shotgun. He buddy hit a lamppost and the post impaled his entire abdomen the post was at least 10 to 15 cm in diameter. Lucky for him the post penetrated his entire abdomen thus, stopping excessive bleeding. When we arrived on scene the fire department was working on cutting the lamppost as it was too long for the ambulance an cutting too close would cause too much heat and risk injury. So we too the ambulance to the nearest seven eleven to get some ice to cool the post. Then, we placed him in the ambulance. On the way there I called the surgeon on call and presented the case. He accepted and we prepared the patient. As we were wheeling him into the elevator. The pole got lodged as it was too big for the elevator door. We had to call the fire department again but, this time they came with packets of ice form seven eleven. The patient went on to the theatre where they managed to remove the pole. He survived with no disabilities.

Working as a security officer at a trauma center one of our responsibilities were responding and assisting with medivacs. Our helipad was on the roof of the hospital. Usually our medivac cases were vehicle accidents from outer island that needed critical care, (this is Hawaii).

There were several of us on the roof with several trauma nurses as well as 3 gurneys waiting for the bird to come in. Already this is out of the ordinary as there is usually one nurse present accompanied with one officer. We hear the propellers of the helicopter and turn to see this huge Coastguard aircraft. We are confused since the Coastguard is not the agency contracted for medivacs. They land and immediately half of us respond to the bird pushing a gurney. I stayed back with the elevator to escort the team to the ER and assist with any crowd control. The first gurney is rushed into the bay.

At first I can't decipher what I'm looking at and then suddenly my brain catches up to my eyes. I'm looking at one of the Coastguard's guardsmen facedown still in his flight suit with helmet on. His flight suit is torn in places and you can see that his body is just completely broken. And, there is so much blood just pouring onto the floor. You see no life in his eyes. They pull 2 more like him off of the helicopter. We get down to the ER as fast as we could. Literally running down the white halls of the hospital leaving a bloody trail.

No one in the ER knows what type of case is coming in other than the Coastguard was transporting and to be ready for multiple patients. We make it to the ER and what is normally a noisy place becomes dead silent, minus the beeps of medical equipment. Those brave men was completing a rescue training exercise about 3 miles off island when their helicopter went down. They were already gone before they got to us and only 3 of the 4 on board were rescued.

I don't know what was more heart wrenching. Seeing those men in the condition they were, or seeing the worry faces of their wives come into the ER not knowing they're about to receive the worse news of their lives. One wife hurriedly arrived pushing a stroller of infant twins. That was the only time in the 7 years I was there that the ER was that quiet and tears laced everyone's eyes or even cried.

I take x-rays and CT in a big ER.

Had a really old, sad guy they brought in from the prison, who had taken the blades out of a safety razor, folded them in half and swallowed them. He suddenly vomited blood all over the floor and crashed in the radiology suit. He didn't code, but he collapsed, vomitted all this blood, turned all pale, andI had to call for help.

A girl with a bunch of d***s smuggled in leaky balloons in her colon collapsed and had a seizure like I've never seen. I was doing abdominal films, and she was fine one second, then started seizing, and I barely caught her. She bent backwards like a f*****g horseshoe, arched on one heel, and her head, and one shoulder, eyes rolled back, and making the weirdest noise. Poor kid.

Some guy swallowed a huge fishing lure (Called a Rapala). Drunk, and who knows why, but he just did. like a 3" balsa wood plug, with two treble hooks.

A skinny old psychotic guy, found down, who had stabbed himself beyond counting with a tiny little knife. Dozens of stab wounds, put out his eye, stabbed his face, neck, arms and legs, stomach, groin, everything, at least 50 times. They found him covered in blood, hypothermic, naked, barely conscious.

A guy speeding like hell on a motorcycle hit a fence, and they brought him in with his arm completely detached at the shoulder, literally ripped off, but still inside his jacket. So him lying there clumped off, and a jacket with an arm in it.

Had them bring us a bulletbike guy who hit a deer at over 100 mph. Broke all kinds of extremities, but, the weird deal was he was covered with deer hair and blood, and also rocks, twigs, pine needles.

Something new every week. Saw my 2nd lightning strike victim the other day.. A lady came in with a sinus infection that had worked it's way into her brain, and she had these matching cerebral abcesses in her frontal lobes. Had a lady with gigantic ovarian tumors you could see on x-ray. Impalements, GSW, a lady had a metal stake fall off a tru k in front of her and go through her face. A guy with a nail in his heart a lawnmower through at him. Stuff like that.

Son of an Emergency Doctor here. My dads always told me some wild things about the late night shifts.

One night he came home and told me a thief had broken into someone's house that night and was bent over, rummaging through the homeowners belongings. The homeowner was 5 feet away in a closet with a cross bow... They had to carry the thief into the ER because the homeowner shot him square in the a**s. My dad said he'd never been so mortified of a wound until he saw that.

At a children's hospital...it was the mother who freaked out over something. Not quite sure what, but she was upset.

So like most rational upset people, she took off all her clothes and was screaming at the top of her lungs about how the doctors were f****d up. She's stomping around the ward just starkers. Naked screaming lady isn't a thing sick kids should be seeing, so security came and took her into an isolation room (that's used for bad psych cases). Whenever someone approached the observation window, she'd spread her legs, point at her vag and go, "What do you think of this?"

She got taken to an adult psych unit. Not sure what happened to her or her kid.

Posting the obvious buttstuff in my 2 weeks of ER: It was in mid December, when i had to call in a patient with some "private" problems.

Usually you'd take something to stuff up your a*s that you can get out easily, right? Like a plug, with a plate on the bottom so it doesn't go into hiding. This guy however chose a table tennis ball in the beginning of November and it's been up there since then.

I s**t you not, and neither did he since he no longer could.

A real live gorilla. Not a suit. There had been some sort of altercation at the zoo between the male gorillas and one dropped the other on its head quite violently. The zoo had put in a breathing tube and knew the injury was bad. Called our neurosurgeons and asked if they would look at him as a last resort. So they brought this massive beast in with IV's, heart monitor, etc. They did a CT scan of it and the docs said even if it was a human that it wasn't survivable. Zoo staff were crying it was sad. An amazing beast and crazy that it was in my ER!

I was in nursing school and working night shift in the medical respiratory ICU we got a patient from the ER who was h*gh on something. All of the sudden we hear his nurse screaming. He had her by the breasts kind of like a hawk grasping its prey. It took all five of us could do to get her free. She screamed for us to unhook her bra to get her free unfortunately it was a front hook and we couldn't get at the hooks. At the time I was a weight lifter, I started squeezing his hands and finally got her free. Told us she had bruises for six months.