48 Doctors Share The Most Entitled Patients They’ve Ever Encountered

Not a doctor, but I work the front desk of a doctor's office. Woman came in to her appointment on the 6th floor, but when her appointment was over the elevator was down. She demanded we call the fire department so that they could carry her down the stairs.

Obligatory not a doctor but I worked in a pediatric ED for a bit. Once, at the start of my shift, a mother asked me if I could get a cup of water for her child. Since some patients are supposed to be NPO, I told her I would check with the doctor. Before I could say anything else, the mother screamed "You f*****g useless ginger b***h!" And threw her purse at me. She had terrible aim and her purse split open all over the floor at my feet. I just walked away when she told me to pick it up. She screamed at me one more time, and by now the rest of the unit was just silently staring at her.

Security was called, and she eventually had to be escorted out of the building with her kid because she was refusing to leave without her child receiving antibiotics. He was there for a cold, was told to go home and rest. I felt so bad for the kid. She spent the entire day refusing to leave and asking for different d***s for her kid, ranging from penicillin to percocet, and becoming more and more irate when she was told no. So asking for water and not being told "yes" straight away set her off.

But I was known as GB by my coworkers for the rest of the time I worked there so. Got a funny nickname I guess.

One time a pt I was cleaning up a pt after a BM and I guess she felt the need to fart, so she asked me to hold open her a*s cheeks so that she could fart (this would be farting right at me, I feel like this is important to mention).

I politely declined and told her the fart could wait for another time.

Called for a “fall victim” go to find a 400lb 20 year old who slid out of her recliner when she tried to stand. She is yelling at us the entire time that we’re waiting for fire to help with lifting. We get her up, put her on the stair chair to move her down the narrow stairs because she says her knees hurt from the fall and that she has back pain. We get her down to our stretcher and she requests to go to a hospital 45 minutes away because that’s “where the tv commercials said to go.” I inform her that Medicaid will not pay that bill and she will be liable because she doesn’t meet requirements to go there(STEMI/CVA) and that if she goes to the local hospital 5 minutes away, she would be able to go home sooner. She whips out her state benefits card and tells us, “oh, silly ambulance drivers, I got that all access, go wherever I want to card.” I almost lost it, but instead just told her that we go to the local hospital and then if she really wants to go to the other hospital, she can asked to be transferred. She bitched us out the entire way, that we work for her, her tax dollars pay our salaries, we need to give her the respect that she deserves. My partner flipped out, asked her what she did for a living and what tax dollars does she pay? She said that she collects welfare and disability because she is depressed. I stopped him before he screamed that she is paid by our tax dollars and we don’t owe her anything if she abuses the system like this. I’m very thankful that I don’t work in that area anymore.

Family member pushed their way into a bay as we were coding a patient to ask the nurse who was doing compressions when their family member was going to get the water they asked for.

I'm an EMT, not a doctor. Had a patient once who shriekingly demanded a back massage to "calm her nerves" (she did not get one). Also of note was the fact that there was nothing detectibly physically wrong with her.

I forgot to share the one that takes the cake, i had a patient attempt to take the hospital bed blanket when I told her it had to stay she said thats fine but i am going to take this pillow and when i told her I couldn’t let her take that either she told me i was selfish.

One time I had a pt who had been hit by a car at a low rate of speed while crossing the street. She was fully alert and able bodied. Just shook up. (Understandably). She was receiving my undivided attention for over an hour while we waited for her parents to arrive (she was like late 20’s but vacationing with her parents). She was refusing a head CT for some reason and suddenly I received a near cardiac arrest patient from EMS so my focus obviously turned to stabilizing that person who was TRYING TO DIE. The pos entitled patient was in the same room as the dying patient because it was a resus room. She could hear everything and see what I was doing at times due to the s****y curtain. Her family would have seen everything as they came in to be with the patient as well. My coworkers were checking on her periodically while I was busy.

Anyways, once I was done stabilizing the patient, I went to check on her and was met with awful vitriol from her and her mother. Basically the patient stated we didn’t do s**t and accused me of poor nursing care. They wanted wound care to her light abrasions on her face and arms which is fine. However, the entire time they talked s**t about me like I wasn’t there doing her care. They basically talked about me like I was the help. It got to the point that I stopped and told them to stop or I would leave. The mom acted like she didn’t know what I was referring to, trying to basically gaslight me. At that point I said I professionally told her to f**k off and stated that she was perfectly capable of the care I was providing and that they could finish. I said I would no longer provide care and would send my supervisor in. I got the house supervisor involved. Everyone was shocked at how pissed I was as I’m very much a no b******t, laid back nurse. The doc ended up just discharging her because the ct that she finally did was fine. They left while being escorted out by the house supervisor. They then tried to come back hours later and demand narcotic pain pills and for us to dispense the medication. We explained that we could not do so and they literally were so f*****g stupid. They could not understand why we could not legally just dispense medicine. The mother claimed she was a prominent journalist in LA. I didn’t care. She was evil. It’s one of the top 5 terrible, career questioning interactions I’ve had in my nursing career.

They literally were visiting the little town from LA and were acting disgusted that the ER was so small. The lack of reality in the entire family was f*****g amazing. Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past the patient being at fault for getting hit because of how entitled she was. She probably walked out into the street thinking people would just stop.

Anyways. People like that exist and vote. Isn’t that crazy.

Just had the biggest snowstorm in 40 years. We had a patient call for an ambulance because she didn’t want to be home alone (fair, I’ll empathize. She had anxiety). She then complained because we didn’t shovel her driveway and she had to walk through 3 feet of snow to get to our truck.

I was shaving a patient’s abdomen to prep them for a c section (back when we used to do that), and the patient wanted me to touch up her bikini line, too.

Pt was demanding a 6th pillow to get comfortable. Went to get it, but sidetracked when my other pt coded. Eventually took the pillow in to patient 1 and got yelled at for “taking too long.” I explained I had been busy doing CPR across the hall. Pt paused “you mean where you have to press on the chest and breathe for the person cause their heart stopped?” Yeah. That. “Well, whatever. You still made me wait way too long.” 🙄🖕.

Had a family member tap her empty Coke can outside of the door demanding a new one while I was dealing with another annoying, and honestly unreasonable, task she requested. I left her room not more than 2 minutes before, and told her I’d bring one in with me next time I came in. Take a walk to the vending machine Brenda, this isn’t a hotel.

Not a doctor, but the one time I went to the ER I encounted what I'm fairly certain was an entitled parent/daughter combo in the waiting area. I was in for a shattered thumb, and got put into the triage seating, it was a slow late night and there weren't a ton of people. I remember looking over, and they were both angrily staring at me, and I could practically read on their faces "Why are YOU there? You don't look hurt! How dare you!"


I then overheard the daughter being approached by a nurse asking her to reiterate her issue (I think), and the daughter replies "You know, I feel like I'm really holding myself together pretty well, considering that I FEEL LIKE I'M BEING STABBED IN THE STOMACH right now. So yeah." It was in the most valley girl entitled type of voice you can imagine. Her mother is also now staring angrily at the nurse with the "how dare you" glare.


To clarify, this girl was in her late teens, had been sitting there since before we arrived, and she was basically just pouting with her arms folded, and didn't look sick or in pain at all. The girl continued to be questioned, though I forgot most of the actual exchange since this was a few years back. Just before I got admitted, I heard the nurse advice her that it was likely just an upset stomach or mild flu bug, and to go to a clinic tomorrow if she wasn't better or if she started to feel worse. They left in a huff, and the girl was walking perfectly fine, as well.

I have had a 100 percent capable patient demand I move their pillow from one side of their bed/body to the other while they sat in bed with nothing in their hands. I have had a patient report me for speaking to another nurse in passing while walking down the hall( pt was being pushed by me in a wheelchair ,apparently I was not concerned enough about her because I spoke to someone else). I have has a pt purposely knock a glass flower vase down and shatter it on the ground because she was mad at/arguing with her spouse and then demand I clean it immediately.

I was a patient visiting the orthopedics clinic of a major hospital in Minneapolis for a follow up on my destroyed arm.

We were in the lobby waiting when this black guy came out from the rooms dragging his 6-7 year old son. He started screaming and screaming about how the nurse asked him to stop talking on his cellphone on speakerphone when his son was getting examined.

He called the front desk ladies (100% innocent) "racist c***s" over and over and that the entire hospital was full of racists. Finally after 4-5 minutes of this, security showed up and asked him to leave and he yelled back "Ya'll racists better not be here when I get back with my gun."

I have no idea if they arrested him or let him go but I was happy to get the h**l out of that s**t hole. I felt so bad for his son. What an absolutely horrible role model.

Had a patient demand her medication, looked at chart that it was already given. Communicated to her, she yelled at me that I was withholding her own property from her and told me her son in law is a cop and she was going to call him. Then called daughter telling her that she was being threatened by the nurse etc. I told her she is welcome to call anyone she likes and told her I'd help put a complaint in against me with the hospital if she wanted. Patient declined.

Had a patient who called for hip pain. It was around 5 o'clock and I work in a pretty big city so it was rush hour as f**k. Get there and she's in her apartment, sitting on an electric scooter. She says her hip is bad and she needs to get it replaced and the pain is unbearable. She says she had an appointment about 6 months ago for the surgery but she missed it. I explain to her the an ER is not going to do emergency hip surgery for a chronic problem. She says she doesnt care. She wants to go to the hospital to get the appointment set up. We are out of trucks at this point and she puts a little cherry on top, she wants to go to a hospital in a nearby city that, because it's rush hour as f**k, will take about 45 minutes to get to. I suggest a closer hospital because they aren't going to do anything for her anyway and she goes on this tirade about how she has the right to call an ambulance (although I guarantee she don't pay taxes) and the right to go to whatever hospital she wants. My partner, who is frustrated also, says ma'am, you're right, but you need to understand you're taking a 911 ambulance out of service for an hour so you can go make an appointment. Well she called my partner a racist and demanded we take her anyway. So we said yes ma'am. She bitched the whole way to the hospital and asked for our badge numbers and supervisors phone number. Which I happily gave her.

Recently in the middle of a snow storm. Roads have turned to total c**p. We get to this house. Pull out our monitor, med bag. BLS is trugging up the road. They get their stairchair. PD is on the scene providing the healing oxygen of life. Woman who called says all the right things. Chest pain, blah blah blah...12 lead zero issues NSR. Dex stick good. Capnography 35. Pulse ox 96. No fever we did it all. BLS wrap her up. Carry her down the stairs. Pull out the stretcher place her in the ambulance. She is yelling at her husband to take her purse before we leave. Get her in the back of the ambulance. BLS asks ....lights or no lights....I say no lights....easy ride to the hospital. PT starts freaking out....." I want to go lights and sirens that is why I called you. My husband could have taken me if you were not going to do that." I take a breath and say "Ma'am you are pretty stable. Be grateful. We only go lights and sirens for people who are critical." She said nothing....as I hand her the form to sign for that $2500 dollar ride to the ER......

Not a doctor, but I work in patient registration at the ER. Guy came in on an ambulance and we had absolutely no rooms available. The patient was brought in for “vomiting” and was moaning and groaning, albeit quietly. After the paramedics were waiting with him in the hall for 10-15 minutes, the charge nurse had them set the patient out in the waiting room, since he was ambulatory and not critical or anything. The paramedic told me that the guy had literally been at the hospital down the road that morning, and apparently didn’t like whatever they told him, so he called the ambulance to take him to a different hospital. He hadn’t vomited since that morning, and he was perfectly fine otherwise.

After they set him in the waiting room, dude decides this is the worst pain of his life and he’s dying. Went from moaning and groaning to full on yelling in about 5 minutes flat. I work at the check in window and I had full view of his theatrics, where he slumped himself over some chairs hollering and whatnot, and then got up and paced and did the same thing again. When the triage nurse (who had been taking vitals on another waiting patient) went down the hall to start an IV, the guy comes up to the window and says that he’s having trouble breathing. Then he proceeds to give me a laundry list of symptoms, including “I feel like I’m about to pass out” and “I’m sorry I’m being so unprofessional and loud but I am in so much pain it’s unbearable” etc. My thing is, if you can sit there and tell me all of that effortlessly, you’re not having trouble breathing.

I was also not having it that day since not even an hour earlier a girl faked a seizure in the lobby, so I just nodded and said “okay thank you for letting me know.”

When the triage nurse finally calls him back, this guy suddenly can’t walk or stand on his own. When they wheel him back to the triage area, the nurse starts to do an EKG since he is saying he’s having chest pain (another symptom that wasn’t present when he originally checked in). After he hollers and rolls around all through the vitals and everything, they take him back to a room that just opened up, and he’s still carrying on up until the doctor comes in to see him.

After that, I didn’t hear a peep. His friends showed up and visited him, and all was well. Then, when the doctor is ready to discharge him, all of sudden his yelling starts up again.

I don’t know what this guy’s problem was, but apparently he desperately wanted to be admitted to the hospital. Oh, and his main complaint was listed “ate some bad pizza rolls, vomited twice this morning.”.

I think the most irate my dad got was when I had emergency surgery and then they moved me up to my room and forgot to tell him, I think he stepped away to grab a coffee and when he came back he saw an empty bed being taken out of the OR. Little freaked out... whoops.