37 Hospital Patients And Staff Share The Wildest Things They've Witnessed

I once met Michael Jackson!

Well, not the actual Michael Jackson - a very nice man in psychosis who was convinced he was Michael Jackson.

He wasn't even in the psych unit - he was on a surgical ward after jumping through a large window to escape from Interpol. He had two broken legs and severe lacerations.

Interesting guy.

I was interning at a hospital and basically I aided nurses doing menial tasks like making beds, delivering drinks or snacks to patients, and even bathing patients. One day I was helping transport a patient for surgery and the man seemed fine, chipper even. I didn't ask why he was there so I just did my job. When we made it the area where he was to be prepped I stayed because I was curious to see why he was there. The doctor pulled of his blanket to reveal his leg pretty much soaked in blood with pieces of his flesh loose. He accidentally shotgunned his leg and was taking like a champ. All he said was "It was my own damn fault so I can't be mad." I have no what he was on, but I wish to be that serene if something like that even happens to me.

I was an employee at the ICU. A man had tried gunning down his wife, who was divorcing him. She managed to flee. So he drank concrete dissolver to commit suicide. That stuff is water-reactive, and all of the medicine we could give him were water-based. So, basically, there was nothing we could do at all, but watch him and monitor the situation. The chemical burns were intense and you could see all the way inside. He didn't live the night. He was comatose, of course. Still, there were police officers keeping guard the whole night, and the guy was in handcuff - not that he was going anywhere.

I've seen worse but that was pretty hard core.

I had an accident where I sliced my leg up real bad. 27 stitches bad. My mom drove me to the hospital. I went into the ER and there was a lady behind the glass on her phone. I told her I'm hurt real bad and need help. She didn't look up and just mumbled something I couldn't understand. I slapped the glass, leaving a bloody handprint. She still didn't look up until she finished doing whatever she was doing. When she finally did look up, she saw the blood and started to panic. I told the doctor that saw me about her behavior, but I have no idea if anything happened about it.

I was in the hospital for a few days with what turned out to be nothing, but one night around 3 am they brought a new patient into my room. As they were getting him in the bed, he started having a full-voice conversation about how he felt fine and being in the hospital was silly. In a very polite, calm but firm voice. He started saying that he didn’t need to be there and was going home, getting progressively louder and angrier.

I could tell from the voice he was an elderly gentleman, and it turned out he had dementia.

The weird part was sitting there in the dark as a larger and larger group of doctors, nurses and orderlies came to try and get him to calm down. When that didn’t work, another woman who was clearly fairly high up the authority ladder started talking in a slow, loud and clear voice, telling the crowd (not the patient anymore) that they were going to restrain and sedate hIm.

She narrated every step, while he was shouting and threatening. Very clearly she was talking to future lawyers and investigators. The whole procedure took more than a half hour, while orderlies held him (which was different from restraining him). It ended with something like “we are injecting him to sedate him,” followed by a very quick fade-out before they took him out of the room.

it was very sad and scary to see (well, hear) someone who had clearly been a fairly smart, self-assured and independent person going down that road. Not understanding what was happening and getting insulted and then outraged by what he perceived as his mistreatment and loss of autonomy. It gave me a sense of what hell it must be caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s.

I was an ER nurse. Nobody checked the guy going through alcohol withdrawals pockets, he set the bed on fire with a lighter while he was hallucinating. Entire bed went up in flames, sprinklers went off, whole pod of rooms shut down. Oxygen tank in the room the whole time. He was just chillin the whole time, watching it burn.

I was an ER nurse so I've seen lots of crazy things but one of my favorites is when I was an EMT based in a part of Chicago known for a higher population of mental health and homelessness issues.

Homeless mentally ill gentleman enters ER with complaints of urinary retention and it is determined he needs a foley catheter placed. The patient refuses every nurse except the youngest and most attractive, and proceeds to verbalize to said nurse that she is those things while she places the catheter. After the catheter is in place and urine is draining there is a relatively peaceful 15 minutes after which the patient begins to berate staff for the turkey sandwiches not tasting good enough, the blankets not being warm enough, not being quick enough, etc. He proceeds to verbalize "f**k this place" rips out his foley catheter, stands up, walks to the wall right by the entrance to his room, and proceeds to projectile s**t all over the wall. He then walks out without telling anyone. Minutes later another nurse is squatting by the wall trying to wipe away the damage with tears in her eyes. 

I have no idea why I went through with becoming a nurse after that.

A year ago I had to sit across from a dude picking his split open finger for 4 hours. It was open from him picking it and had obviously been open (like 1/4 gone to the bone) a long time and was dry and black, orange and yellow. There was a pile of crusts around him in the floor. Bit of a concern to say the least.

A patient trying to hand out maltesers to staff.. it was her poo rolled into balls

I was working in a hospital and we had a prisoner in the emergency department. We were out of beds, so they had him in a storage closest with two guards. I went in to examine him. He had a port for dialysis with an attached tube. He was probably 6’3, 350lbs. He’s cuffed. As I’m examining him, he bites and tears out his tube and blood just starts spraying **everywhere** all over me and the guards. The guards were in shock and I was in shock and we were all looking at each other expecting each to do something.

Eventually, they restrained him and we sedated him and stopped the bleeding. It was at like 2am and just an unreal experience.

I was brought to the ER by ambulance. While I was waiting for a room, another patient was extremely drunk and waiting for a bed nearby. He asked the EMT if he could vape in the hospital and they told him he couldn't. He proceeded to pull out a vape and try anyways. The hospital staff took it away from him. After about 5 minutes, and when he seemed sure that nobody was looking, he pulled out another vape and tried to take a hit. It was quickly confiscated by hospital staff.

Used to be a frequent patient so have seen some s**t….

A schizophrenic woman in the ward for several weeks screaming her head off about everything including the nurses trying to make her wear a pad etc

Was walking around the ward and saw the moment a woman passed away surrounded by her family there were spilling out of the room and into the ward and was wheeled out shortly after

Most harrowing was in ER a man wheeling in his in and out of consciousness wife that honestly looked like she was passing away and slapping her and everything to try keep her awake. Seeing the horror shock and pure heartbreak on his face is just stuck in my memory

My (now late) mother and I were in triage in the hospital, had to wait in the hall to be seen. We were seated next to a man that looked like Bill Fagerbakke (actor that was in the movie the Stand, and is the voice actor for Patrick in the SpongeBob SquarePants series). The man looked about 40, and his elderly parents were there with him.

Everything was fine and dandy, I was twiddling my thumbs looking down, until I hear a nurse speaking with the man:

Nurse: “What did you eat for breakfast today?”
Man: “A gallon of lighter fluid and two bricks.”
Nurse: “ok, and what is your name?”
Man: “Bob Marley M**o.”
Nurse: “ok great I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

I realized I was sitting next to someone who likely had Schizophrenia, or some type of delusional disorder. It was insane and fascinating how calm and patient the nurse was with him.

A few minutes after that, a psychotic woman was being strapped to a bed as she was having a mental break. My mom and I genuinely thought we were accidentally in a psych ward. For years after, bob Marley m**o was our little inside joke.

I was in the ER for reasons and while in a bed there was another woman next to me who was very obviously there to try and get pain meds like morphine or similar. She would roll around in agony when a nurse or doctor was in the room but as soon as they left she’d be snacking or laughing at the TV or calling someone.

A few hours in she gets a phone call and starts freaking out. Says her daughter was stabbed and she needs to go. I knew she was an addict of some kind but her fear and panic sounded very, very real. She started calling for nurse to come take her IV out because she had to leave ASAP to go to her daughter. She’s crying and ripping out her IV by herself, a whole mess.

The nurse who is discharging her asks her if her daughter would be taken to that hospital, and the woman says her phone is dead so she doesn’t know, she’s just going to go to wherever she last heard from her. I still think about her and wonder if her daughter was okay. Or real, even.

UK patient in an A&E waiting room. Fella was sat in the waiting room bleeding from somewhere, not a small amount either, completely oblivious to everyone around him including the nurses trying to admit him. Pretty sure he was on [drugs] as he just sat there gurning and bopping to some music on his headphones. Strange experience to say the least.

I was in the waiting room waiting to be seen (for what turned out to be gall stones - not the most fun I’ve ever had), a group of young dudes come in, one guy’s face and knuckles are all covered in blood and his shirt is all ripped up, obviously been in a fight. The triage nurse asked what happened and the guy’s mate says “he fell down the stairs”. The triage nurse was like “ok, that clearly didn’t happen, I need you to tell me exactly what happened so we can triage and treat you properly”, and the guy insists he fell down the stairs. Meanwhile one of the other mates has picked a fight with security for whatever reason so the whole group arc up and start trying to fight the security guard so another security guard shows up and the whole group, including the dude who “fell down the stairs” all get kicked out.

MEANWHILE another nurse is getting screamed at by a lady whose son apparently came to the hospital in an ambulance but there was no record of her son being there.

There was some other crazy stuff but I get the feeling that was just a regular Saturday night.

The hospital I go to is where police bring people that are in custody, so it’s not uncommon for a few officers at a time to accompany someone in cuffs who looks like they’ve been through a lot. Once there was a young girl who kicked the f**k out of a nurse in her stomach.

The scarier instance was when a very large man broke free (still cuffed) & while sprinting down the hallway, body checking every person in his way into walls and everyone was just shouting that they didn’t know what to do. I was still on a hallway bed and I could feel the air rush when he passed me, it was kinda crazy