People Share The Time Doctors Knew What They Were Talking About

It must be hard to be a doctor. I mean, there’s all that medical school they have to go through, of course. And then they have to pay outrageous insurance fees – everybody wants to sue these days. And there are long, grueling hours on the job. Then on top of all that, your patients just never seem to want to listen. They read some article on WebMD or on some anti-vaxxer blog, and now they’re convinced they know as much as the woman in the lab coat with the stethoscope and the degrees. Or maybe following the medical advice is just too much trouble? Or, you know, I’m doubled parked, and I just don’t have time for that life-saving surgery… Smart.

Crazy patient stories come in all types. Some have to do with stubbornness; others just couldn’t be inconvenienced to change their ways. Some of them are mundane tales of laziness. Others are of the truly wacky variety. As you might expect, though, ignoring your doctor usually comes with a price – sometimes a steep one that may involve permanently losing a body part or even a life.

So, anywho, check out these tales of patients who simply wouldn’t do what the doctor ordered or did something totally foolish healthwise to themselves that no medical professional could logistically wrap their head around.

Newsflash: doctors aren’t people you just roll your eyes at and go back to what you were doing prior to your medical visit. It may be difficult to admit it, but sometimes these professionals truly are smarter than you, hence why they’re licensed to do what they do.

82. Your Kid Doesn’t Need Glasses? Just Wait Until His Grades Come Back

Poor eyesight can really set a student back.

“I work for an optometrist. It was the month before school started, and a woman brought in her son to have his eyes checked for the first time.

Seems like a pretty reasonable thing for any parent, even if he was a little older than usual for a first eye exam. Better late than never I guess.

The mom was well-spoken and appeared fairly intelligent. Everything went as normal. The doctor examined the boy and ended up prescribing glasses. The doctor explained to the mom that her son had to wear his glasses all the time since he’s nearsighted and basically can’t see clearly past 5′ in front of him.

For some reason this caused a switch to flip in the mom and she spazzed out on the doctor, saying that her son doesn’t need glasses and that the doctor is only saying that he does because he wants to make money.

She says that she only brought her son in because there was some form for a school that needed to be filled out and that doctors are all con artists trying to push unnecessary medications and interventions.

The doctor tried to calm her down and explain that he’s only trying to help them, but that she was free to get a second opinion. He gave her a copy of the kid’s prescription and sent them on their way.

About four months later, the lady is back asking for another copy of her son’s prescription. Apparently, the first-semester midterm results were in, and her son failed them all, because he couldn’t see the board in his classes and needs glasses!” sosanostra

Another User Comments:

“Something similar happened to my mother when she was a kid.

If I recall the story correctly, she was about 3, and she’d always sat real close to the TV. My grandma kept scolding her for lying because she could see just fine.

Well, grandma got tired of hearing excuses and took my mom to the optometrist. The optometrist told her in no uncertain terms that she was nearsighted and needed glasses. My grandma was shocked at the news. Came back later to get the glasses, and on the way out, my mom looks up at her mom and says “Mommy, I can see you!”

My grandma just crumpled in tears at that.” TheOneTrueTrench

81. Lung Doctors Can’t Write Eye Glasses Prescriptions

“Not a doctor, I’m an optician and at this point, I was a young lady in my mid-twenties.

I had a guy come in saying he was a doctor, and he wrote himself a prescription for glasses and he brought frames. A few days later, his lenses come back, he puts on his glasses, and he can’t see. I start going through the possibilities.

Usually, with progressive lenses, it’s an adjustment issue, and they need to sit differently on his face. He completely refuses to let me adjust them. So I check the lenses, and the RX match what he wrote.

I try to explain that there are only two options, either they need to sit differently on his face, or the RX isn’t good. He tells me, “You don’t understand. I’ve had eye surgery for a disease that you’ve never even heard of.”

I offer to remake his lenses to prove a point. His new lenses come in a few days later, and an older coworker is helping him. I told her everything. Again, he can’t see.

She tells him, “The young girl who tried to help you last time was trying to explain that if we adjust your glasses you might be able to see out of them. Will you please let me try?” He lets her, and suddenly, he can see—but not perfectly. It turns out that the dummy was a lung doctor and not even an eye doctor.” smokesmagoats

80. “You’re Going To Kill My Daughter!”

“I have to say the dumbest patient I had was not a patient but the patient’s mother.

This child, I want to say she was about 7 years old or so, was tested for meningitis because she had the symptoms. After any lumbar puncture, you HAVE to stay lied down, completely, 180 degrees. No inclinations. For a few hours. And drink a lot of liquids to counteract the massive migraine that comes as a side effect to the procedure. Pretty standard stuff.

Welp, this special ray of sunshine whose daughter I had to care for, asked me 2 questions, 2 very important questions.

1. Where are the straps? Me, of course, being a confused nursing student ask her ‘What straps?’ To which she replies, ‘The straps so my baby won’t fall down? You know, you have to keep her upside down now so she doesn’t leak all her back fluids?’

This…lady…thought we had to hang her child upside down like a freaking curing salami to prevent fluids from a very small puncture from leaking…

At this point you’re thinking: Well it’s simple right? Just tell her how it works.

Believe me, I did…result? ‘You’re not a doctor! You’re an idiot that couldn’t get into med school and you aren’t even a graduate! You’re going to kill my daughter!’ she shouted.

Thankfully her scandal drew the attention of several staff, including a couple of doctors who proceeded to explain to her EXACTLY what I did. She proceeded to feign ignorance and say that I didn’t tell her this stuff when I spent a good chunk of time explaining it in detail to her as to why she needed to stay lied down and even offered water to her daughter.

Her 7-year-old was more afraid of her mother than the needle she took to the back, which she said didn’t even hurt. Seriously, that gal was made of steel.

So, in the end, I learned two things: 1. You can’t fix stupid, no matter how much you try to educate it, and 2. Get help when this level of dumb happens. More than one person telling them the same thing generally helps subdue stubborn rage. Generally.

Needless to say, I absolutely hate pediatric nursing and not even because of the kids, they are super fun, but how insane the parents get.

They act like bigger spoiled children than the kids you care for.” yami_ryushi

Another User Comments:

“I’ve had a lumbar puncture. I’d rather experience another c-section. That girl was definitely made of steel.” KLWK

79. You’re Human, Not A Stuffed Animal

“I was an R1 resident physician when this happened. I was in the ER and two young adult males came rushing to me. They both had this worried look on their faces.

I calmed them down and took the ER triage slip they had, it’s a small piece of paper that gets filled in by the triage physician who’s the first contact for every patient before they go into the emergency room for their full evaluation.

I quickly scanned the triage slip as I usually do before proceeding to ask them what had happened. This particular slip was quite bizarre, it was obviously filled in a rush, all it had was the patient’s vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, etc.) and a note that said “umbilical hernia” under provisional diagnosis.

So I asked the guy, what seems to be the problem? He said there was this weird “white stuff” coming out of his belly button and he’s really worried about it.

So I proceeded to take his full medical history and then asked him to lay down for an abdominal examination. One of the attending physicians volunteered to help with the examination, thinking it was possibly an infection and the “white stuff” was possibly discharge from an abdominal abscess, which would require surgical drainage.

Anyhow, we expose the patient’s abdomen and proceed with the examination only to discover that the “white stuff” was fluff/cotton from his underwear. The attending and I looked at each other for a moment and were about to burst out laughing but somehow managed to contain it.

The attending explained to the guy what it was, calmed him down, and gave him some advice about personal hygiene and that was it. To this day we’re both not sure what exactly happened. Both men were clearly sober and not under the influence of any drug.” Caldoam

78. Don’t Drink Loads Of Cooking Oil To Lose Weight

You’d think she would have put two and two together.

“Not a doctor but many years ago was working as an assistant to an occupational therapist.

We got a call out to help mobilize a woman who had been morbidly obese and was told to lose weight. We learned from the daughter she had GAINED weight, but her mother would refuse to come clean on what she was eating. All the daughter knew was that her mother may have been eating deep-fried food due to the vast amounts of cooking oil she found in the pantry.

When we arrived, she had gained an extra six kilos but insisted she had lost weight.

She did not look it. Before we began mobilizing her and checked her living room for tripping hazards (she also had horrendous knees), we took a look at the pantry.

Olive oil, peanut oil, sesame oil, any kind of common cooking oil you can find off a supermarket shelf, she had it. A vast stockpile of oil. We asked what she was frying with the oil. She insisted that she wasn’t frying anything and that she was eating healthy since the oils she used were ‘healthy.’ We had to explain to her that oils are still fatty and will still contribute to weight gain.

After a bit of poking around the pantry, I noticed that for the amount of oil she had, she had very little in food that could be traditionally fried. She also had little in other foodstuffs that could explain obesity.

I brought it up with the therapist, and the therapist then demanded the truth. We couldn’t provide complete healthcare until we knew everything. She admitted that she thought healthy oils would help her lose weight and suppress the appetite, so she had taken to drinking the bottles of oil whenever she got hungry.

Needless to say, we disposed of most of the bottles of oil and set her up for a home visit with a dietitian.” Iwatoori

77. Drilling Holes Into Teeth Is A Scam?

Guess I’ve been lied to this entire time.

“I was treating cavities on a very nervous 4-year-old. Had finally gotten into a cooperative groove when genius mother looked up from her phone and noticed that I was drilling teeth. She was in the room the whole time—I had reviewed treatment with her, she knew we were fixing cavities.

She proceeds to curse me out under her breath, saying, “You’re drilling holes in her teeth! This is freaking ridiculous, you people are scammers making holes in people’s teeth!”

I kept my calm and said “Ma’am if you have questions I will be happy to answer after I’m finished”—I’m shaking with rage at this point, because she was 20 minutes late to her appointment, and I’m bending over backward to make sure her kid has a good visit and doesn’t end up scared of the dentist.

When the appointment is over, the kid jumps down, high fives me, and gives me a big hug.

I turn to mom and ask her how exactly she thought cavities were fixed? She said, “You don’t drill, my mother is a dental assistant.” I then proceeded to explain in excruciating detail the scientific process of how we remove decay. She said, “That’s not true.” I then told her that she can go ask her mom, ask Google, or go to dental school if she wants to know more, but I won’t be treating her child anymore.” pheebers

76. Stinky With A Bad Attitude

“Not a doctor but a gastro nurse.

We had a recurring patient who was just a really very strange lady. She had a stoma (an artificial opening into an organ needed for certain medical problems) that absolutely stunk to high heavens because, for the last 20 years, she had not been cleaning it properly. Every single day her stoma would come off because she was twisting the drain tube and wouldn’t allow us to change it.

So this lady was really rude and would shout at us too, and one night shift I couldn’t take it anymore and I snapped at her.

I didn’t yell, but I was overly stern about the fact that if she did not let me clean and treat her stoma then the MRSA bacterial infection that she wasn’t able to get rid of would eat her alive. In hindsight, I didn’t handle that very well, but she let me change the stoma.

Throughout this entire ordeal, she’s yelling at me that her stoma bags are not cut to fit her stoma, that they are too small because her stoma is “50cm by 50cm,” to which I corrected her, saying that’s impossible.

She was adamant that’s how big her stoma was. When I was cleaning the stoma, she yelled at me because it was hurting, so she wanted to just pop the new one on.

I explained it was hurting because of infection, as she never cleans it. She proceeds to tell me that she knows better because she has had the stoma for nearly as long as I’ve been alive. I eventually ended up telling her to shut up and let me do my job, which seemed to work, and the stoma did not come off again that shift.

When she was eventually discharged—she refused every placement in any nearby care facilities to the point where we almost considered a court order to evict her—one of our staff nearly cried with relief.” ecnalubma-

75. Sometimes The Side Effects Of Meds Are Safer

“When I was training to become a dentist, I had a 70-year-old patient who was still in the dating game.

She’s got a ton of acid erosion on her teeth. She tells me she drinks on ‘3-O’ water.

I didn’t know what was in it, so we looked it up on Google. That’d be a pH of 3. All of her water. Plus, she liked to put lemons in her water. I told her this is also acidic. She told me I’m wrong because her friend who took a few nutrition classes said that as soon as the lemon juice gets into the body, it turns basic.

I told her I had a biochemistry degree and that was wrong.

Also, her blood pressure was very high every visit. She tells me that she stopped taking her BP Meds because she thought they were unhealthy. I tell her that her method is not working at all.

A few weeks later, she strokes out and never gets out of a wheelchair again.

I’m friends with her on Facebook now. It’s just sad.” spastic_raider

74. A Never-Ending Cycle

“Over the summer, I was doing my orthopedic internship. Working with a female patient, early 60s, just moved into a senior living community but hated the label it gave her and liked being really active (bike riding, walking, golf, etc).

She is at the clinic for a right meniscus tear and is trying the conservative approach to avoid having to get surgery on her arthritic knee.

Now, I need to emphasize that this woman LOVED being active. Like, even during therapy, she would keep up her golfing, pickleball, etc. I would always remind her to not do so much to let the knee heal and to focus on her exercises, and to lay off those high-stress activities.

No matter how much I told her to do less or stop altogether, she just continued to play. I couldn’t stop her, so instead of ruining my rapport with her, I just reminded her at every session we had.

Well, one fine session comes along, she tells me her knee is hurting a bit extra (surprise surprise) after playing pickleball all weekend long. I told her once again to lay off those activities and to avoid golfing tomorrow (she would golf on Tuesdays).

Of course, she says no, then follows up with this: “Ya know, golfing takes the stress of the knee with how it moves during your swing. So it’s good I’m doing that.”

Except it doesn’t. Literally, three special tests used in examination to assess the presence of a meniscal tear mimic the motion done by the back leg in a golf stance. I just smile and say okay, while I’m internally screaming inside.

This was also during my last week of the internship, so when I saw her again later that week, I became a bit more adamant about her activity level and her condition.

I handed her an article about meniscal tears and the involvement of the rotational aspect that can lead to further tears, told her that while I know that I can’t convince her to quit all her hobbies, that she has to stop most of them or she will never recover conservatively, and that she can absolutely replace it with a water aerobics class that her community runs.” redbeard019

73. And This Is Why He’s Not In Medicine

“I was interning at the same hospital I graduated from.

As a part of our internship program, I was posted in a small clinic that deals with minor medical issues that don’t require any major investigations.

So one evening this guy walks in with a complaint of neck pain. After asking a few questions it was clear that he had slept in a weird position which was the cause of the pain. I tried to explain to him that the pain is temporary and there really is no need for him to take any medication.

But the guy was adamant about getting medication. So I prescribed a painkiller, and since this particular painkiller was known to cause gastritis, I also prescribed a drug called ranitidine as well.

This guy knew that Rantac was something that doctors prescribe for stomach pain. And he had no idea what the other drug does. But once he saw that I have prescribed, Rantac he threw the prescription literally on the floor and started to complain to the nurse that we didn’t know anything and that we have prescribed a medicine for stomach pain when his complaint was neck pain.

I turned to the nurse and just explained to her why I did what I did and once he heard that he silently took his prescription and walked away.” Anudeep_C_Kode

72. Just Zip Your Lips, Lady

“I’m still just a medical student, but our hospital sees a lot of poor and poorly educated patients since we’re a big tertiary hospital in a developing country. THE worst I’ve seen so far are the old ladies who everyone in the family turns to for health advice, their only qualification being seniority.

They usually have a bunch of superstitions that end up contributing to the patient’s condition in the first place.

I once saw an infant brought to the ER for a really bad oral infection, and the mother clearly hadn’t taken a bath since the delivery (it’s a common superstition here that mothers shouldn’t take a bath a week or so postpartum), so we figured that’s the source of the infection. While we’re assessing the patient, the doting grandmother in the background decides she has to comment on everything we’re doing (remember she’s probably the one who advised her daughter not to take a bath).

I just had to shut her down because it was late and people were running out of patience in our understaffed, under-equipped ER and they were more worried that pulse oximetry is hurting the baby’s toes when there’s freaking pus leaking out of the baby’s very inflamed salivary glands. I mean, I get that infections like these are a disease of poverty, that their poor education is just indicative of a wider systemic problem that society fails to address time and again, but by golly does it get annoying.” Doctor_Doo

71. You’re Still Fine

“A while back, I helped open an urgent care center for the first 2 years.

When we opened the doors, one of our first customers was an adorable 85-year-old Asian lady who was really hard to understand but talked a lot.

Anyway, this lady comes in for the first time complaining of stomach pain. We attempted to diagnose her, but nothing added up for about 30 minutes to an hour of her talking. Finally, she told us she just felt better. Okay! We don’t really think anything of it until next week around the same time she shows up again with the same problem.

And guess what the solution was?

After about 45 minutes of listening to what she ate for dinner the last few nights, we eventually figured out corn was messing with her. But this never deterred her from coming in more. It eventually became a once-a-week occurrence, then a once-a-day thing, until we finally started becoming a busy urgent care and we couldn’t really fit her inside our schedule.

I swear this lady actually came in every day thinking she was on the verge of death until we could convince her she was fine.

In case you’re wondering, I’m almost certain she’s well over 90 now and still going.” squanto420sqanching

70. You Don’t Take Blood Pressure Medication Based On How You’re Feeling At The Time

Yeah, that’s not how this type of medication works…

“When I was a medical student, I did an overnight ambulance ride-along. It was a slow night, so I was excited when dispatch called about what sounded like a stroke or loss of consciousness. We zip over there, and the paramedic knocks on the door of a darkened house.

A man opens the door – slowly – and says, “Oh, yes, she’s in the back room.” My sense of foreboding grew as we slowly made our way through the dim house, wondering what awful sight I would see back there.

Just before we get to the backroom, the light flicks on and this spry elderly woman practically bounces out of the room, carrying her bag of meds, cheerily saying, “Oh good, hello gentlemen! Let’s go to the dining room and I’ll tell you what’s been happening!”

She explains how she is on meds for high blood pressure, but instead of taking them as prescribed, she takes more or less depending on how she’s feeling or something.

Before bed, she took her BP on her home automatic machine, and it was a little high, so she kept repeating it and the numbers kept going higher and higher. She thought she was going to stroke out so she called 911.

Of course, they were going up because she was freaking out about the previously high numbers, causing a vicious circle. Even though both I and the paramedic knew she was more than likely fine, neither of us were doctors and so had to take her to the hospital for assessment.

So yeah, either she didn’t understand her meds and the machine properly, or she thought she was too smart to follow her doctor’s instructions.” TableWallFurnace

69. No Need To Diagnose Him; He Diagnoses Himself

“I’m a 4th-year med student seeing patients on clinical rotations. A patient comes in with a laundry list of chronic conditions he suffers from — fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, etc. The guy is wearing over-the-counter braces on all of his fingers and both thumbs, as well as both wrists, forearms, knees, and shins because of a rare bone disorder he has that I’ve never heard of.

“Well that doesn’t surprise me,” he says. “Doctors go to med school to learn how to prescribe drugs and make money, not heal people.” Okay.

The patient tells me that he suffers from a rare disease that I’ve probably never even heard of called myalgic encephalomyelitis. True, I’ve never heard of it. Again: “That’s because doctors don’t care about educating themselves about illness and healing; they just care about giving patients drugs and getting money from big pharma.” Okay, I don’t have a vested interest in this patient thinking I’m smart, so it doesn’t really get to me.

He continues “educating” me throughout the appointment, and I just make conversation with him. The third time he tells me about how all doctors just go to med school so they can put all their patients on drugs, I just say, “Lucky for you, pharmacology was my weakest subject!” That actually gets a laugh out of him, and I listen to his explanations of all of his rare diseases and disorders. The appointment ends, and he leaves.

I look up myalgic encephalomyelitis. It’s the British term for chronic fatigue syndrome, which the patient also had. He has a weekly standing appointment with my predecessor, which is the only thing that keeps him from visiting the local ER every day, sometimes multiple times a day. His diagnosis is Illness Anxiety Disorder, although he would tell you it’s 800 other things you’ve obviously never heard of. He swears that my preceptor is the only honest doctor in the country because he basically just has him come in once a week and talk about all of his various illnesses for 20 minutes, after which the patent returns home feeling validated.

The ER docs love my preceptor.

The patient is mentally ill, so I’m not insulted by him or anything, but you’d be surprised how many people come to the doctor to be treated for something, all the while telling the doctor how horrible they are and why all doctors are evil puppets of big pharma. It’s like when I worked fast food and people would say “every time I come here you guys screw up,” and I’d just think… Why do you keep coming back?!” Eshlau

68. Wrong Hole And They Didn’t Even Know

Yep, it’s exactly what it sounds like.

“As a fourth-year medical student, I spent a few weeks at the OBGYN department. I got to sit in at a fertility clinic and saw a couple (aged early 20s) that had been referred to a consultant by their doctor as they had not conceived following 14 months of trying. Their doctor had initially suspected polycystic ovarian syndrome as the lady was morbidly obese and had some additional body hair. Her ultrasound and hormone levels however showed no evidence of this.

So the consultant proceeded to ask them how often they did the deed, whether they were monitoring for signs of ovulation. He then asked when they last had tried to conceive and the husband proudly stated, ‘About two hours ago.’ They both commented on their excellent love life and the husband was asked to produce a sample. He left the room and the consultant called in a nurse as a chaperone, so he could examine the wife and it is at this point that it became clear what the problem was.

The woman was so fat that there were several folds of fat over her genital area. Within these folds, there was a pouch with a significant amount of gravy. When her genitals were eventually visualized, (with help of the nurse pushing down on the layers of fat) it became clear her hymen was intact with a very small opening.

Therefore, what they thought was doing the act was instead him releasing into the folds of fat without ever entering her.” moozdee3

67. Nasal Spray Shouldn’t Give You Anxiety

“I was working at an Indian services clinic a few years ago.

We prescribe a guy Flonase (nasal spray primarily for allergies) which starts a conversation:

Guy: Will this nasal spray give me anxiety like the last one I had?

Me: This shouldn’t cause anxiety, let me check your chart to see what it was you had before.

I start trying to find which medication he had been prescribed previously but he says: ‘I just threw it away in the trash out front, do you want me to go grab it?’

Me: ‘No, that’s OK, it will be in your chart and I won’t make you go rummage through the trash.’

Unfortunately, I don’t see any evidence of this dude ever having another nasal spray.

And at this point, he insists that he is going to grab it from the trash. He grabs exam gloves from the box on the table (smart move, weirdo) and leaves the room. I can’t stop him.

He comes back a few minutes later with an albuterol inhaler. I’m perplexed.

‘Can you tell me how you use that, you don’t need to actually show me, since that came from the trash.’

Dude tries his hardest to shove the opening (meant for your MOUTH) into his nostril, gives it a squirt and a snort.

So yeah…we talked about the difference between nasal spray and an inhaler…I hope he learned.” Reddit user

66. Follow Our Medical Advice Next Time

Can’t sue for something you failed to follow.

“We had a pup that was about seven months old admitted for essentially an evisceration. Now while the thought of a small puppy having a giant hole in its stomach and all of the organs spilling out is terrifying, it was preventable. After the spay, the owners were instructed to leave the “cone of shame” on the puppy at all times if she was not being directly supervised.

Well, they didn’t, claiming that it “looked like it was hurting her,” so they took it off and left the house. The puppy promptly licked open her stitches, and from there, it got gruesome.

The worst part is that the owners threatened to sue us because it was our fault that they ignored medical instructions and thus had to come back in and pay over a grand to have their puppy’s life saved. People are dumb. The puppy survived, and I see her regularly at our clinic.

The stitches were dissolvable, but they don’t instantly do so, hence the cone. We did follow procedure by stating the expenses beforehand to determine if the owners would have to surrender; luckily they were financially stable enough to afford the immediate surgery. Had they surrendered, I’m confident that the puppy would have become mine.” Source

65. He Wanted A Quick Fix, So He Could Keep Drinking

“I had an old man who was sweet but had spent his adult years drinking away whatever brain cells he had left.

He presented with a chief complaint of “I can’t drink anymore. Every time I drink, I just throw it back up a few minutes later.” Well, it turns out the old man hadn’t been able to eat actual food in months, was subsisting on pretty much just drinks, and hadn’t pooped in over two weeks. But that didn’t bother him a bit… until he couldn’t have any more drinks. He had a big tumor blocking the distal part of his left colon, and everything gradually got backed up all the way to his stomach.

That’s why he couldn’t keep anything down — there was just no more room at the inn.

I fixed him with a colostomy, and he got better and left. He refused chemo, and I figured he’d just go home and die of cancer. But then, almost exactly one year later, he came back to me with just about the same complaint… obstructed to the point of not being able to drink. Except for this time, it was that his ostomy had essentially retracted into his abdomen.

Even my oldest partners had never seen anything like it, but once again, the old man wasn’t remotely fazed. He just wanted us to fix it so he could go home and keep drinking. I did. I haven’t seen Cooter since. I kind of hope he’s still out there, treating his cancer with drinks.” Source

64. Dying Or Just High?

“A barely conscious older lady was brought into the emergency department by her husband. In a very thick Italian accent, she told the doctor she was dying.

She had complained of feeling tingly and having a dry mouth before passing out. The doctor sat the husband down, and they took a medical history. No serious medical problems and she was very fit. In fact, she spent the morning cleaning her son’s bar, as she often did on a Sunday morning. Considering her age, they took these symptoms seriously and started running tests to find the source of her ailments.

The son came in to visit his mother, and on the way, he bypassed his bar.

He noticed that his mother had helped herself to some of the “treats” prepared the night before. The son, the apple of his parents’ eye, had to then explain to his father and the doctor that the treats she had enjoyed were space cakes. And apparently, she enjoyed them as she ate quite a few. They then had to sit down and tell this elderly lady that she was not dying and that she was in fact stoned.

Fortunately, she was still high enough to see the humor.” Source

63. “Check If I’m Okay”

Whatever you say…

“I’m a student, and my general practice supervisor was involved in a scheme to reduce waiting times by having a GP in the emergency room to take patients that weren’t actually in an accident or an emergency. As none of the patients were actually dangerously ill, I was basically doing the consultations with the doctor supervising, double-checking and signing prescriptions.

A guy in his late 20s walks in, looking very healthy, and sits down. The conversation went like this: Guy: “I was stung by a bee this morning.” Me: “Where?” Guy: “On my cheek.” Me: “How long ago was this?” Guy: “Well, it took me about half an hour to get here, and then I’ve been waiting another three and a half hours.” Me: “Did it stop you from swallowing or breathing?” Guy: “No.” Me: “Are you allergic?” Guy: “No.” Me: “What would you like us to do?” Guy: “Check if I’m okay.” At this point, I turn around to my supervisor attempting to say what do I do here? He says “You’re okay, go home.” It was the most surreal consultation I’ve ever had.” Source

62. Pay Attention To What You Eat

“I don’t like speaking ill of my patients mainly because I think we all neglect our health to a certain extent volitionally, and that can be viewed as “dumb.” But the winner is David.

David is a 35-year-old highly functional corporate lawyer. David has G6PD deficiency and (in his case) he develops mild hemolysis when exposed to certain foods, including fava beans. Every year for his birthday, David goes to the fancy Greek restaurant and gets gigandes plaki, his favorite dish.

Every year he develops mild hemolysis with mild jaundice and dark urine. Every year he comes to see me, his gastroenterologist, urgently and without an appointment on the day after his birthday– yelling at the secretary and other patients if he could be seen first.

Every year he repeats his highly anxious concerns that his liver is messed up because he’s mildly jaundiced and has dark urine. Every year I tell him it’s from the gigandes plaki. Every year he resolves never to eat it again and is fine for the rest of the year on his G6PD diet. And every year on his birthday, he forgets. And then the cycle continues.” Source

61. “You Don’t Have A “Children’s Disease,” Huh?

“A patient came in with a rash around her mouth; she was going on about how she had it 14 years ago, and the dermatologist prescribed a certain antibiotic to cure it and diagnosed her with “perioral dermatitis.” She’s showing us pictures on Google.

OK. The doctor diagnoses her with impetigo and prescribes her an antibiotic ointment. She leaves and fills the prescription and comes back flipping her lid. She googled impetigo and, with the help of WebMD, came to the conclusion that it was a children’s disorder on the arms and legs that can only be contracted from children and she wasn’t around children. She insists that what she believes she has perioral dermatitis is a “woman’s disorder” and she doesn’t have this “children’s disease.” She says that the antibiotic he prescribed isn’t on the list of treatments.

The whole time, she’s showing us these pics off google of “perioral dermatitis” saying it’s a woman’s disorder, but half the pictures were of men.

Now one thing you should know, perioral dermatitis means rash around the mouth. That’s it. It doesn’t mean anything else. It’s not a type of rash. It’s not only cured by a specific antibiotic. It’s just a rash that happens to be around the mouth. She was furious, shaking with rage and about to start throwing stuff because the doctor wouldn’t prescribe her this certain antibiotic.

The doctor told us to call the cops if she came back. People can be over the top.” Source

60. Whatever You Do, Don’t Spray The Meds Up Your Nose

At least they have a pretty nose now…

“When we discharge a patient after a liver transplant, we usually spend the last two to three days of the hospital stay familiarizing the patient and their caregiver with the medicines they are going to be on, when to take them, what to do if they throw up after a dose of medicine and so on.

One of our patients returned for the scheduled follow up with a remarkably shiny nose and breathing through the mouth. Upon a quite extensive questioning (I could not figure out what was going on but our superb nurse coordinator figured it out eventually), it emerged that he had been spraying Healex into his nose. Healex is a wound dressing product.

After cleaning an incision, it is sprayed on to it and dries into a thin waterproof layer which keeps the clothes off the skin.

I have no idea why the patient decided to spray it into his nose. He was not supposed to spray anything into the nose. In any case, it had, not unexpectedly, created a water and airtight seal in his nostrils. The treatment, of course, was to wait patiently until a cast of his nostrils fell out in due course of time.” Source

59. Even In Liquid Form, It’s Not Healthy For You

“I had a patient who was coming back post lap band for a checkup.

What we usually do is revise the patient’s weight, and “tighten” the band or “loosen” it as needed. Now the thing to remember is that getting a lap band isn’t as easy as just throwing down some money. For six months, the patient must meet with a psychiatrist and a dietitian to understand what they’re getting into and if they can adjust their lifestyles and commit. A goal weight loss target is usually set for the end of the six months to ensure the patient is serious.

So after all of this rigorous evaluation, a patient is deemed fit for the operation. Enter my patient “Sylvia.” I checked her chart, BMI before surgery was 40, she was morbidly obese and now had come in for her first follow up to ascertain if she’d lost any weight. Well, I put her on the scale, calculate, and what do I see? Her BMI was now 45. Perplexed, I asked her to explain her diet to me.

Our conversation went like this: Sylvia: “Well I’ve been doing a liquid diet just like you all said.” Me: “Very good! Can you tell me what you have?” Sylvia: “I make smoothies and have them whenever I feel hungry.” Me: “So what do you put in your smoothies?” Sylvia: “Cake and ice cream.” Yup. She was serious. Somehow it didn’t occur to her that this wouldn’t be healthy. We reversed her band.” Source

58. Two Bowls Of Oatmeal A Day… Keeps The Pounds Packing

“A woman came in after having a baby and tells us she had trouble nursing.

I booked her an appointment at a lactation clinic and gave her some resources. Her appointment was fine, and she went on her merry way. A few weeks later, we got the fax that she went to the clinic, and everything was fine. Awesome. A year later she shows up for her doctor’s appointment, and she’s obese. She must have put 100 pounds on an already obese frame. She’s developed many health problems related to her weight.

She tells us she’s never been more active after having a kid; her diet hasn’t changed, her work life hasn’t changed, nothing has changed; the weight gain just happened due to hormones. We ask if she’s feeding, she says yes. We ask how she’s getting the extra calories for the feeding, and she tells us the clinic told her to eat one to two bowls of plain oatmeal a day. It worked, so she’s still doing it.

We figure this is how she gained so much weight (she’s probably eating two large bowls of oatmeal on top of her meals, with milk, sugar, butter, etc.), but the woman insists she’s eating one to two packets of plain oatmeal a day. Nothing on it, nothing added to it. It says plain on the package, it tastes plain, it’s plain.

We send the doctor in to see her after briefing him on the whole story about the oatmeal.

He’s in the room with her a long time — much longer than normal. When she comes out of the room, she keeps her head down and walks off, looking angry and embarrassed. The doctor walks up to the nursing table and fills out the chart. “You never asked what brand of oatmeal she’s eating.” It turns out she didn’t know plain rolled oats were a thing. She thought the feeding clinic meant plain oatmeal cookies.

She was eating an entire package of oatmeal cookies every single day for a year (basically a ‘bowl or two’ filled with cookies), and could not understand how that was different from oatmeal.” Source

57. Just Stop With The Feasts

“I had a patient going in to get her foot removed due to diabetes. She was very large; we had the lift out. She woke up early from the surgery because of her size. Fat absorbs the drugs we use to knock people out, so more of it is required to get them out, but it also releases it very slowly so they can come to much quicker and it also causes them to be drowsy for longer.

It’s fun when they’re saying hilarious things but not so fun when they went to get up because people can be really uncoordinated.

This woman’s also large husband brought in fast food burgers and fries with ketchup (check out the sugar on a serving of ketchup… and the serving size next time you have some) with soda. Actually asked us if we could keep it in the blanket warmer! I put the soda in the fridge for him and then asked him about clearing away the lunch tray that had been brought up and he asked me to keep it.

So this woman is getting one decent meal and one terrible one. No wonder, right?

The woman hadn’t been allowed to eat since the night before, as is standard. When she woke up, she was starving, it has been 13 hours since she had eaten (because you know she was chowing down at 11:50 pm the night before, night shift had said).

She woke up and was trying to eat, her husband assisting her. I had to go in there and try to convince him to wait.

She was literally falling asleep slumped over onto a pile of fries and ketchup. She was going to choke! And sitting up and forward like she was doing was causing her to lean off to one side, I was seriously concerned she was going to fall right out of bed over the side, which would be it for her.

Her size, advanced condition, and old age (50~ is old when you’re obese III), a broken hip would lead to a quick death or a long painful one.

I had to send my tech in there to stop them from trying to feed her because she was so damn hungry she couldn’t wait an hour!

This was long but just the worst example of total disregard for health I have seen in my short career so far.” wineheart

Another User Comments:

“I’ve been an EMT for about the past 2 1/2 years and the amount of people that don’t take care of themselves (especially if they have diabetes, had a heart attack, etc.) is absolutely mind-boggling.

It really makes you much more motivated to not end up like these people.” Super_Pinky11

56. Women Don’t Have Prostates

“I’m a nurse. I have a lot of WebMD stories, but my favorite is the 57-year-old woman who came in for a routine visit and a request to try a new medication that she saw advertised on TV. Her visit was for a complaint of increasing urinary retention over the past three weeks. Most urinary retention in women is due to a mild bladder infection … very common in women that age.

When we asked her about the medication she wanted to try, she said the TV ad said it was for urinary retention, so we listened. She took out a scrap of paper with the name of the medication scribbled on it: Flomax. Well. That’s not what’ll work for her and the doctor quickly said he could not prescribe it for her. She was a little offended at the refusal and asked why not.

The doctor said, “Flomax is for benign prostatic hypertrophy and you don’t need it.” She demanded an explanation.

The doctor bluntly explained, “This is treating an enlarged prostate. Women don’t have prostates.”” Source

55. Skull Fracture? No Ma’am, Your Son Just Has A Sunburn

Two totally different things.

“I work in a doctor’s office as a medical office assistant, specifically pediatrics.

A secretary buzzes back to me that there’s a call on line two that needs medical advice. I pick it up, and the mother of one of our patients is on the phone having a panic attack.

She is hyperventilating into the phone. I asked her if she was alright, thinking maybe she needed an ambulance, and through her breaths and now tears, she starts telling me that she thinks her four-year-old son has a skull fracture.

I ask if he fell. No. I ask if he’s conscious. Yes. I ask if he’s breathing. Yes. I ask if he is bleeding from his ears, eyes, nose, mouth, scalp. No. I ask if there is any visible wound.

No. I ask why she thinks he fractured his skull. Because underneath his eyes is red and puffy and Google says that’s a skull fracture.

I tell her to go to the ER for proper assessment. She doesn’t want to. She says she was supposed to take her kids to the beach. Mind you, she is still crying and breathing heavily at this point. I tell her to come right over then but warn her we will probably have to send her to the ER.

She shows up 15 minutes later, cradling the child and crying. The little boy was crying too and screaming, “I don’t want to die, Mommy!” She keeps hushing him and saying, “Mommy loves her strong boy, no matter what!” Which only made him cry harder.

I pull her back into the room, and she just dissolves as she tells me how she looked at him in horror this morning and saw the guarantee signs of a skull fracture.

She swears he must have hit his head yesterday at swim practice. The little boy is crying hard, but I can see the noticeable swelling and pinkness under the eyes that she was referring too.

I went to get the doctor and told her what I thought. She went in and came out about ten minutes later shaking her head. She had the same diagnosis. You know when you wipe your eyes after swimming, you usually wipe under your eye too? The kid must have wiped off his sunscreen around his eyes the day before.

All the pinkness and puffiness was from a mild sunburn under his eyes.” Source

54. Prayer Doesn’t Cure Gangrene

“As a DPT student, I observed this. A very young (mid-20s) morbidly obese female was admitted to the hospital for gangrene (rotting flesh) on her big toe due to uncontrolled diabetes.

The surgeon/physician assess the patient and determine that amputating the toe will stop the spreading of gangrene and make the best of the situation. A few hours before the surgery is to happen, the patient refuses the surgery saying (in effect) that the surgery is unnatural and that God will heal it on his own.

Her family (being very religious) is very supportive of her decision. Sadly, despite the family knowing (and seeing right in front of their eyes) the significance of having uncontrolled diabetes, I witnessed the family multiple times bringing multiple Big Gulp soft drinks and family-size potato chip bags for the patient whenever they would visit.

Over the course of the next few days, the rotting flesh spread from what was once her big toe to now consuming her entire foot, in addition to her other foot now also developing gangrene.

The smell in the room was awful and the mother later admitted to the nurse she tried masking the smell by spraying perfume directly on the patient’s feet. Another surgery was then planned and agreed upon to amputate part of one foot and just above her ankle of the other foot in order to stop the spreading. She once again backed out at the last minute citing her belief that God will heal it. The soft drinks and candy consumption continues as well.

Within a few days, the gangrene spreads to both of her knees. At this point the bones of her toes and distal ends of her feet are completely exposed – all the flesh had rotted and fallen off. Her feet, ankle, and lower legs had sparse gaping cavities where the tissues rotted off as well. The smell is so awful that the family goes through 2-3 air-freshener bottles a day to make the room just barely tolerable for their visit and the patient’s comfort.

Double above-knee amputations are determined to be the best option at this point. Once again, she makes arrangements with the surgeon, then refuses at the last moment claiming she will treat it with prayer.

At this point, my clinical internship ends. I leave, and I never learned what happened with her next.” PrettyTom

53. Getting Rid Of Your Clocks Doesn’t Stop Sleep Apnea

“I’m a sleep therapist. I deal with patients who are suffering from various sleep disorders. The majority of my patients are suffering from obstructive sleep apnea.

One of my patients had been reading some articles and researching sleep apnea and sleeping disorders in general. He decided that a couple of hours of Googling and reading an article or two made him into an expert on sleeping disorders. He told me that he is not going to use his CPAP machine anymore. The conversation went a bit like this….

Him: “I’m not using my CPAP machine anymore, it doesn’t do anything significant and is just a scam by the sleep specialists and insurance company to make more money.”

Me: (I’ve heard this crap before from lots of patients) “Oh, ok.

Well, what are you going to do about your OSA (obstructive sleep apnea)? You know you increase your risk of heart disease and stroke by not treating it?”

Him: “Oh, I am still going to treat it. I’ve read all about it and the problem is clocks.”

Me: (genuinely confused) “Huh? Clocks?”

Him: “Yes. Clocks. It’s having clocks in your bedroom that cause sleep disorders. I’m going to remove all the clocks from my bedroom and that will stop my sleep apnea.”

Me: (No point arguing with an idiot) “Ok then.

I’m going to let your sleep and respiratory physician know what you have decided.”

Him: “Whatever.”” WickedSister

Another User Comments:

“What happened to him?” coopkristen

Reply:

“I don’t know. He stopped seeing me shortly after and didn’t return my follow up calls. I hope he has lost some weight and at least seen his respiratory physician again, but I doubt it.” WickedSister

52. She Should’ve Kept Moving

“LWoman with a small bowel obstruction – when something blocks the bowel and you can’t poop or fart so pressure just builds up behind it and you just keep vomiting until your bowels luckily untangle enough to let food past or you need surgery to untangle/resect/cut away the offending scar tissue.

She comes into an ER once after a week of barely eating and vomiting everything. She’s advised to be admitted and place a nasogastric tube (tube that drains the stomach of air / fluid to relieve the pressure and at least stop the vomiting while waiting for the bowels to untangle). She refuses and goes back home.

A week later with zero improvements, she comes back again. This time she agrees to be admitted to the hospital and have the tube.

We gave her some time with the tube before resorting to surgery. During this time, she refuses to move a single muscle. This puts her at very high risk for blood clots and pneumonia because barely breathing or moving in a hospital with no nutrition is bad for you. We’re giving her IV nutrition and eventually do a surgery and cut away some scar tissue that was likely causing the obstruction.

After surgery, she continues to do absolutely nothing.

Won’t move despite aggressive physical therapists coming in twice daily. Demands pain meds which further block up the bowels. Constantly pulls at her nasogastric tube so it’s out of position and not really helping her. Basically doing everything exactly wrong to help get her bowels moving again. Still isn’t passing anything forward.

One morning, I come in and she suddenly can’t oxygenate. Which means one of three things happened:

One, she formed a blood clot like we warned her and it traveled to the lungs.

This is called a pulmonary embolism and can be fatal.

Two, she aspirated – vomited and breathed it into her lungs – which we also warned her she was at high risk for with the pain meds, bowel obstruction, and constantly pulling on her nasogastric tube. This also can be fatal.

Three, she got a run of the mill pneumonia from barely moving or breathing after surgery and remaining in the hospital. Another risk we constantly told her about.

Usually, this isn’t fatal if caught early, but she was a very frail woman at this point, someone who actually could die from it.

She ended up in the ICU with a breathing tube. We think it was a run of the mill pneumonia. She recovered in the end, but she turned what is typically a 3-day hospital stay into a 3-week stay plus her 1 week at home between hospital visits. That was a difficult woman to deal with.” MyMedStuffThrowaway

51. Medical Professionals Know A Thing Or Two About Saving Lives

“I’m a CNA, so nowhere near a professional, but I did have a patient actually die because he refused treatment and another that we had to kick out because he was refusing treatment and was a health hazard.

The first guy was a trip. He was always calling us into his room for the most trivial of things that, if he had been smart, would have asked us to help him with before we left the first time, or could have very well done himself. He was very narcissistic and manipulative, acting like he was the only patient of important out of the 15 we had to care for, would cuss you out one minute because you wouldn’t let him have his way, and then act like your best friend when you told him how hectic that day had been (when you were trying to drop a hint that he was the reason it was so hectic).

The first time he refused care was for his legs. When I first started working, he was in a wheelchair but only needed limited assistance when transferring. The nurses would, every day, ask him if he would allow them to clean his legs and redo his bandages. He refused to let them do it except maybe once every two weeks, and all the while complaining that his legs hurt and were taking forever to heal. One day, when he allowed the nurses to take off his bandages, they found maggots.

I don’t know if he was sent to the hospital that day or later, but I didn’t see him again for 5 months.

You see, he had been looking for another nursing home to take him in, but because of his behavioral issues, we were the only ones that would take him. So he came back well after I thought he already passed.

When he came back, he was a double amputee, needed the Hoyer lift for transfer, and had to use oxygen.

He never wore the oxygen, was in and out of his bed all evening long, and I think half the time his oxygen tank on the wheelchair was empty, but he wouldn’t allow anyone to change it.

He would bounce back and forth between the hospital and facility so much it was a true toss-up to know if he would even be there on evenings I worked. And when he was there, there was a true possibility that he would need to leave again because of hysteria caused by low oxygen.

“I CAN’T BREATHE, I’M DYING!!” He would scream, and his aid would go in and give him his oxygen to put in, but he wouldn’t accept it, only saying over and over that he needed to go to the hospital. I was told that he died back in February, and I can only assume it was oxygen-related.

The next guy…this one scarred me, not gonna lie. This guy had frostbitten feet from staying in a house that had burned down.

He stayed in the house during late November into December, and I don’t know how he didn’t get sepsis sooner.

Regarding the frostbite, on one foot, only the toes were affected, on the other, it was the whole foot. If you do a Google search of frostbitten feet, the pictures don’t go into the extent that this man had it. From his toes to the back of his ankle the skin was black, looked swollen yet shriveled, and was cracking apart to where you could see the bones moving when he rolled over.

The smell was plain awful; pus, rotting meat, body odor and ammonia that could be smelled from outside his room, and only got worse as you got closer to him.

But he wouldn’t amputate and accused the medical staff for what happened to his feet. He wouldn’t allow aids to put incontinence briefs on him, change his pants, or change his sheets, so the smell of ammonia would linger and burn when on rare occasions he allowed me to touch the bed.

The first time I had him as a patient, no one had warned me of his condition, and mind you, I got my license less than a year ago, so am still rather green. I went in there to check on him, noticed the smell, then saw his feet. He was asleep, so I was able to stare for a moment. I walked back out, stifled a scream, and went back in to check on him.

I ask if I can do anything for him, he says no. I notice blood is all over the sheets and the bed is wet, I offer to change it for him, he says no. He refused care, there was nothing I could do, and as this was the first time I saw this patient, didn’t want to push too far and have him snap. I excused myself, told him goodnight, and politely asked the nurse wtf, and why no one had alerted me to his condition before I went in.

We had to kick him out after a month and a half of him refusing care because he was a health hazard to staff, other patients, and himself. I don’t know what’s happened to him since, but I can still walk into his old room and catch the smell of it.” bluecakt

50. He Could’ve Died In His Sleep

“Was an EMT about 10 years ago. Got dispatched to a single-vehicle motorcycle crash where the rider was likely going way too fast through a long sweeping curve and lost it and was ejected into an open field.

The driver was up and walking around when we got there and was refusing anything more than a basic medical evaluation. He was very adamant about not going to the hospital because he felt okay (relatively, given the situation) and because he was really concerned about getting the bike (his brother’s) taken care of.

I’d had lots of situations where we encouraged people NOT to go to the hospital (by ambulance) because their call was BS. But, this guy, he needed to go and just didn’t want to despite our best efforts to convince him.

We eventually had help from the Deputies and Troopers trying to convince the guy to go. Given the high rate of speed during the crash, we all knew that something was probably wrong with him so, he got an ultimatum of going with the EMTs in the ambulance, or going with a deputy under his custody (we considered that he could have had a head trauma and wasn’t in a competent state of mind).

So, he finally goes to the ER via ambulance and was immediately brought into one of the major trauma bays.

We’re hanging around in there giving our report to the nurses and Docs while they begin giving him a once over.

As we’re about to leave, the doc pulls us over to look at an ultrasound screen. It’s mostly gray but, as he manipulates it, we see and large black mass on the screen. The doc points this out and tells us that it’s significant internal bleeding. In as many words, he said had the patient not come in (knowing he initially refused treatment) he likely would have died in his sleep.” ChuckDarwinLives

49. Some People Shouldn’t Opt For A Home Birth

Um, scary is the word to describe this one.

“Obligatory not a doctor.

My aunt is an RN in the ER. There was a woman who came in after attempting a home birth when she had literally had a child delivered by emergency c-section 10 and a half months prior. She decided on a home birth because no doctors, midwives, anyone with a brain, would do a VBAC (vaginal birth after caesaresn).

I’m sure the medical professionals know where this is going, and I’m hoping I’m not doing an awful job describing this.

Basically, after having a c-section, you have an incredibly weakened uterine wall where the incision was and so it’s recommended that you wait a minimum of 18 months before getting pregnant again after a c-section, to give it time to heal. She got pregnant like 7 weeks later.

As a result, the weakened wall literally ruptured while she was pushing and she began to bleed heavily into her abdominal cavity. She thought the agonizing pain was okay and continued pushing for several minutes until she passed out from blood loss.

It was one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. The baby died because he stopped getting enough oxygenated blood to sustain him.

His mother lived, despite several pints of blood flooding her abdomen, but the tearing was so severe and so traumatic that they ended up having to do a full hysterectomy on this 20 something-year-old woman because she couldn’t follow the advice of all of the doctors she had seen.

Listen to your medical professionals, people, they aren’t telling you these things to make your life harder, or because they have something against you.

They just want things like this to not happen.” cutecuddlytiger

48. Trim Your Own Toenails? Lose Your Entire Foot

“Diabetic patient that I did education with for months on end.

Called her for our weekly checkup on her blood sugar levels. Sweetest old lady, super kind, and a massive sweet tooth, she made my job (care coordination RN) difficult but pleasant.

She had pretty severe diabetes and late-stage complications, like retinopathy (nearly blind) and pretty bad neuropathy.

We’re going over her blood sugar logs when she hesitates and tells me she needs to tell me something, but she’s afraid I’ll be mad.

I chuckle a bit and reassure her I won’t be made.

“Well…I think I cut my toe off.”

…excuse me?

“I was trying to trim my toenails a couple of days ago and realized after a bit I’d been clipping for a very long time.”

I’m stunned into silence. First, I’m irritated because I’ve personally and extensively discussed with her (and all my diabetics) that they aren’t to trim their own nails. Severe diabetics have to see podiatry for that, because of the risks of injuring themselves and not realizing it.

Second, I’ve seen some crazy nasty diabetic feet in my time as an RN, but this would be a first for me. Surely she didn’t actually cut her toe off, right? I insist on bringing her into the office ASAP.

As I go out to visit her, the doctor steps out of her room, shaking his head. I get a waft of some serious infection in just the few seconds the door is open.

Homegirl indeed cut about 3/4 of her big toe-off, with a pair of clippers.

She had a case of gangrene.

We called a squad and got her to the ER. Signs in the ER showed she was already going septic. Although for her age and disability, she was holding herself together fairly well. She landed in the ICU and ended up losing her foot.” dandelion_k

47. He Shouldn’t Have Been Smoking That Stuff

“I’m a paramedic. I had a patient who became a frequent flier for asthma attacks. Except his were triggered every time he smoked  hard drugs.

It always seemed to happen when I was on shift. He also had extreme anxiety, so the treatments we would use were things he just wouldn’t tolerate. I would give him oxygen and try to keep him calm on the way to the ED, where he was often paralyzed and intubated.

Over time, we developed a bit of a rapport. He would be visibly comforted when I walked into his room because I knew how to treat him.

I could calm him down and talk to him and we would just make our way to the hospital. I wasn’t judging him, but I definitely reminded him that smoking hard drugs was more dangerous to him than it is for most people.

One day, we got the same call. Same address, we knew it was Albert. I go into his bedroom and he sees me and I could see him relax. I was there and I was gonna help him like I had several times before.

We had brought up our chair for helping people out of their house. It has small wheels on the bottom and treads to help you lower someone down the stairs. We helped him into the chair and my partner left to go put our bags back in the truck and make sure the path was clear.

That was when Albert died. Sitting in that chair with the oxygen on his face. It was me, him and his adolescent daughter sitting on the bed.

I pulled the chair to the ground and while I was doing chest compressions I tried to tell her in my calmest voice to go in the other room and find her mother. I radioed to my partner to bring everything back NOW.

We intubated him and did the best we could do and took him to the hospital, where he remained dead. I’m sorry, Albert.” FecesThrowingMonkey

46. No, Doc, I’m Perfectly Healthy

“Work for an optometrist as a tech, and luckily nobody has died when we stress how important it is for them to get something checked if we think they need to (cancers, signs of a possible stroke, diabetes, etc).

Although 2 patients come to mind when it comes to possibly losing their vision.

The first patient was a male in his mid-60s who we hadn’t seen in a few years, had been referred to an ophthalmologist to monitor for glaucoma (a disease that causes you to lose vision starting with your peripheral). When I was obtaining his history, he told me he went to see them once, and they wanted him to take 2-3 eye drops a day but he “didn’t feel like it.” When the doctor and I finished his exam, we noted some partial vision loss, very elevated IOP’s (normal range is between 9-21 his were in the 30s), and damage to the optic nerve where we expected it.

We explained all of this to him, and even showed him pictures of his retina and explained what we were seeing.

The doc began to write a script for drops for him to use and was even pulling some out that we keep in cases of emergencies and he straight up said, “I’m not going to be using any drops so I wouldn’t waste the time.” I was dumbfounded, Dr sat in the room explained everything again, and had him sign a waiver that he was essentially declining treatment and understood the risks (including permanent blindness), he signed and walked out.

We tried reaching out to him a couple of weeks later and he answered, said to leave him alone, and hung up.

The second patient was another male but in his late 50s, he is more severe with potentially life-threatening situations. We hadn’t seen him as well in many years, so long that we had no electronic record and couldn’t find the paper records. So essentially working from scratch, he told me he had never been to a primary doctor/hospital because he is 100% healthy and just wants his glasses updated.

When I check his vision with his current glasses, he’s significantly reduced, somewhere around 20/100 in his right eye, and unable to see the chart in his left eye. When I start to take pictures of his retinas, I immediately see signs of glaucoma. When I look a little closer before presenting to the doc, I see active bleeding in both eyes, and in his left eye, it’s right over his central vision which explains why he couldn’t read the chart.

Doc goes in and tells him we are dilating him and he replies, “Why? I’m perfectly healthy.” Doc explains we see signs of multiple diseases not only in the eyes but that are systemic and he could potentially die and we need a better view to determine which disease(s) we believe he has. The patient goes along with it, and we see signs of early-stage glaucoma, diabetes, and hypertension. We explain all of these to the patient, including once again showing him the pictures we took where you literally see blood and where it’s leaking from.

He looks at us, and with a straight smiling face says, “Nah! I know I’m healthy, so I’ll just take the prescription and go get my glasses.” Had him sign the same waiver so we can’t be sued and he just walks out.” Cuatche

45. She Almost Went Blind Because She Didn’t Take Her Prescriptions

“6 years ago, we had a female patient in her late 20s who wanted to have a dental implant done on her (fdi standard # 25 – 2nd bicuspid).

We told her she needed a sinus lift to accept the implant and we had 2 systems to do it (keyhole and window) and urged her to consider it since we cant perforate the sinus membrane with the implant, but she kept saying no to it even after we explained everything to her and even gave her discounts to convince her. We thought she must be thinking that we were going to harvest bone from her hip, but we use a deproteinized allograft and synethetic bone back then (before prp/prf-cgf technology became popular), but she insisted, we decided to get some help from our lawyer and dental association and they recommended using a waiver of responsibility.

We had it done by the lawyer and on the day of surgery, we asked the patient to sign the document before we start, and she got annoyed with us saying that she doesnt need to sign anything (at this point, she already signed the general consent form and implant consent to dental care), but we said that we needed her to sign to perform this procedure against her best interests and that if any problems arose in the future, we would still help but are not liable in any way shape or form.

After a bit, she ended up signing the document and even took a picture of it, and we had the surgery done. It was just one implant, so it was a 30 minute job for us to do the implant. Most implantologists can take upto 2 to 3 hours on just one. It was a successful operation and initial stability was achieved with no perforation of the sinus membrane, a healing cap was placed on it to prevent her from playing with it, and she was required to take antibiotics for 2 weeks as well as maintain her dental hygiene and return in 6 months for her abutment and crown, which she decided to pay in advance (we dont normally charge patients for the 2nd half of the treatment until they come back).

A month later, she called us up and said she was having a really sore throbbing pain on her cheek, which would either mean a pinched nerve or vein or a serious infection, so we prescribed amoxicillin to her which is some strong stuff, so this should have never happened. We decided to change the prescription and have it sent to her by email since she was abroad.

2 months later, she called back and said that her implant fell off and she’s intending to sue because greenish yellow puss was oozing out of the failure site which indicated peri-implantitis as the cause, but the infection should have ceased by now.

We started to get suspicious so we got the dental association involved. We offered to treat her infection for free and replace the implant for free as well as rebuild the lost bone for free, but she didn’t reply and instead of suing, she went quiet and didn’t reply until 3 months after her scheduled appointment.

She called back crying after she heard the news from her opthalmologist that she was at risk of going blind in one eye, other physicians say she had a major infection along all the major nerves on one side of her face, a massive amount of puss in her nasal and optical sinus, puss squirting out of the corners of her eye, and possibly even an infection at the lower parts of her brain..

She admitted to us that she never bought any of the prescriptions and didn’t fly back because she was being too cheap, and she regretted all of it, she couldn’t stop crying over the phone and we wanted to help her but she hung up and we couldn’t call back..

We don’t know what happened to her, but we hope to this day that she’s ok, the first and only near/unconfirmed fatality we’ve had in over 36 years of dentistry.

(I’m the daughter; my mom’s the doctor – one of the best dental implantologists in Asia).” renogaza

44. Suppositories Aren’t Taken Orally

It’s always a good idea to double-check how medications are supposed to be taken.

“We had one woman come back again, and her chief complaint was constipation. Going into her chart, I saw that she had been previously given some suppositories to take, and in the triage note, she said her meds weren’t working and she wanted some different ones.

So the doc is asking her questions, making sure nothing else is wrong, and they get to the part about the meds. She says “Well yeah, the pills I got last time were huge! I have to break them in half to swallow them!”

And then we had to explain that suppositories are not meant to be eaten, and that was why her medication was not relieving her symptoms. She thought Suppository was the name of the medication, like Tylenol is for acetaminophen.

I still can’t forget the doctor explaining to her how to actually use her medication. “On your thumb and up the bum!”” mamblepamble

Another User Comments:

“That reminds me of a joke I heard about where a guy was prescribed suppositories to relieve constipation. Came back a week later, threw them on the doctor’s desk and exclaimed: “For all the good these things are doing me, I might as well be sticking them up my a**!”” Vajranaga

43. He Claimed To Have A “Completely Hard To Pronounce Exotic Disease”

“Very overweight man during ER triage: “My knee has been hurting, and it hurts to walk.

I Googled it, and I have ‘completely hard to pronounce exotic disease.’ I want you to tell the doctor this it’s what I have.”

Me: “Well, the doctor is going to need to do a workup to figure out what you have, so if it’s that, he will diagnose it. I’m going to go ahead and send you to get an Xray now to help expedite the process. He will have the results ready when he goes in to see you.”

Him: “Well, I don’t need a workup, so I’m not doing the Xray.

I know what I have, and it’s ‘completely hard to pronounce exotic disease.’ I need a sample of the fluid build up in my knee sent to pathology, and I want you to tell the doctor what I have.”

Me: “Well, nurses are not allowed to order pathology without a doctor’s order, so I will just let you tell him.”

Him: “This is an urgent matter. I need you to tell the doctor right away.”

Me: “Ok, I will definitely tell him, I am finished with my triage, so have a seat in the waiting room and we will call you when it’s your turn to be seen.

There are about 15 patients ahead of you, Are you sure you don’t want to get the Xray while you wait? It will help save time.”

Him: “Look, I know you think I have bursitis because I’m fat, but I Googled it, and it’s not that.

Me: “Ok sir.” ‘Tells doctor about interaction with the patient.

Doctor: ‘throws head back and laughs while holding his big jolly belly, rolls his eyes, goes back to what he was doing without saying a word’

Later: The patient extends his stay by over an hour because the doctor needs an Xray.

He is visibly p*ssed.

Much later: leaves with a diagnosis of bursitis, prescription, and instructions to lose weight.” Put-A-Bird-On-It

42. She Diagnosed Herself With Tuberculosis

“Paramedic in a small town. Had a patient self-diagnose herself with tuberculosis.

All she had was a cough, but she called 911 anyway for transport to the ED. When we arrived she announced to the entire ED staff that she had just been diagnosed with TB. She never mentioned it to us during our initial assessment.

She did have a long list of meds and such but nothing too out of whack for someone her age (HTN meds, cholesterol pills, etc.).

Of course, all of the protective measures go in place, we’re pulled off duty for 3 days, and we get our a**es chewed for not getting a proper patient history.

Turns out that she didn’t have TB, hadn’t been to a doctor since her last ED visit, and diagnosed her condition based on a friend’s suggestion.” monkeybrigade

41. He Should Have Just Had The Surgery

“Had a throat cancer patient, we offered him surgery to remove the tumor (it was a fairly conservative surgery).

He left because he didn’t want a mutilating surgery and his daughter-in-law had been studying magnet therapy and “she was quite good with it” (his words).

He came back a year later and was out of reach from any treatment. His cancer was so advanced that there was nothing we could do for him.” Dutchess_md19

40. Why Wait For Service When You Can Get It Now?

“Had a post-cardiac surgery patient get out of bed, naked, and walk up to the front desk demanding to talk to the charge.

Don’t remember why. He unhooked his chest tubes from the suction. Surprisingly, there was no bloody mess because he actually clamped them off! When asked about it later he said, “Well, I thought about pulling them out, but it seemed like a bad idea.” ” Species6348

39. He Can Walk On His Own, Even If It Means Staying A Few More Weeks

“I am a nurse and I had a very polite and lovely patient trying to remove all manner of chest tubes and IVs after a motorcycle accident.

He was obviously delirious from the pain meds and the head injury but very nice still.

I left him in the care of my coworker for my lunch, and ten minutes into my lunch break, I see him stagger past the break room door like something out of The Walking Dead, trailing blood everywhere, only to collapse out cold a couple of seconds later. He said he needed the bathroom!! I don’t know how the f*ck he pulled his own chest tubes out.

Removing them always makes me cringe let alone doing it to himself!!!

He was put back to bed, this time in the ICU, and got some more sedation, and even though him ripping it all out set him back a couple of weeks, he still discharged and came to say hi and thanks on the way out.

The happiest delirious patient I ever had. What a bloody trooper. Haha.” whoorderedsquirrel

38. They Warned Him His Appendix Would Rupture

“We had a college student come into the ER and had a wonderful case of appendicitis.

He needed to get surgery ASAP as surgery is way easier and safer if done before it ruptures. He called his parents to let them know, and they told him to refuse because he had a test upcoming in the week and they didn’t want him to miss it.

He left the ER against medical advice while we were all telling him that if your appendicitis gets worse, and if his appendix ruptures, it can definitely lead to death.

The kid luckily comes back about 10 hours later after it ruptured. He gets the emergency surgery, and the amount of time he got to spend in the hospital probably doubled.” I_AM_A_BOOK

37. Food Allergies Really Do Exist

And they can cause very real symptoms and can possibly even lead to death.

“Had a repeat patient (not quite frequent flyer status) as a medic that would always call for a severe allergic reaction to shellfish every other month or so.

She had always had the allergy and knew her reactions were getting worse.

After a year (6 or 7 calls) of this silliness, my crew and I stayed in the hospital ER with her and talked at length about the situation since she’d always stay mum about how it kept happening.

She told us she comes from a patriarchal culture and her father made this amazing seafood soup. If she didn’t eat it and “force her body not to reject his gift to the family,” she would lose her car, phone, or whatever punishment her father deemed necessary.

We pleaded with her to do whatever it took to show him it was deadly and carry her Epi-Pens with her.

Fast forward a few years when I altered course into nursing and joined that ER, I saw a familiar bloated face. Turns out, she had gone off to college in another state and hadn’t been home for a while but had visited her folks for a holiday. Of course, she had the soup, and despite hitting herself with the Epi-Pen when her throat started tightening, the reaction continued.

Her mom, who I had never seen before, told me she tried to eat it fast and rushed to the bathroom where she was found on the floor.

Medics couldn’t tube her in the field, so they tried medical management until they could drive her to our ER. The doctor performed a tracheotomy at the bedside, and she went to the ICU. It took a week for her to recover, and I was told by the ICU nurses that her father “finally got it” that her allergy was a real medical condition.” MonsterHunterRelias

36. No Kissing Means No Kissing

“We had a mom in the NICU who would constantly kiss her premature baby on the mouth.

Several nurses educated her around why that’s not safe for the baby and thankfully documented their teachings. This was during cold and flu season and became even more concerning when the mother was coming in with cold-like symptoms (coughing, sneezing, and obvious congestion). She still continued to kiss the baby right on the mouth. The baby was almost ready to go home by this time but got extremely sick. The baby ended up on a ventilator and had quite the extended stay with many, many close calls.” pmbratt

35. Stubbornness And Poor Excuses Led To More Surgeries

“My aunt had surgery on one eye, and the recovery part was simple: stay on your tummy, head down, eyes closed.

She had to redo the surgery THREE times; she wouldn’t listen.

When I asked my mother why she wouldn’t listen to the doctor’s advice, she told me something along the lines of, “Oh, she did listen, but she got tired of being on her stomach, or “She wanted to be at the restaurant with us, etc.”

Some people just don’t think rules apply to them and that nothing will happen to them.” MissFunkyH

34. Sometimes Going Hungry Is Safer

“Don’t eat anything before surgery…

So often, people will eat and try and justify it, then argue against everyone’s expert opinion and then get extremely p*ssy.

“Oh, my wife said I could eat before surgery. She doesn’t want me going on an empty stomach.”

“I’ll heal better if I eat.”

“I never throw up. I’m good.”

“I’m not going hungry. F*cking figure it out.”” MisterMetal

33. His Independence Was More Important Than His Life

“I’m an ICU nurse, and we had a guy come up in respiratory distress who was insistent on getting to the bathroom instead of using the bedpan. He wasn’t my patient; I was helping admit, and after looking at his oxygen level, I told him, “Sir, that’s really not going to be possible.

You’re not doing well enough right now.” I walk away to go get something and he made such a fuss that the idiot charge nurse decides to let him give it a go.

Almost as soon as he stands up, his 02 drops out, and what do you know? He falls to the floor, pulseless. We start coding him right there on the ground, and eventually, we had to call it.

He died in a puddle of sh*t on the floor because he wouldn’t use a bedpan and someone indulged him.

Listen to your medical professionals, people. It’s always okay to ask why, but we are usually saying things for your benefit, not ours.” balancedinsanity

32. Put The Clot On Hold; Facebook Comes First

When a social media addiction goes too far…

“Patient came to see me having a stroke due to a blocked brain artery. I’d activated the Code Stroke team – everyone was ready in the theatre to get the clot out of her artery: nurses, anesthetist, technician – but she (42) insisted on updating her Facebook status and “checking in” before allowing me to treat her.

Wasted 3-5 minutes and 6-10 million brain cells (if she had that many to start with).” Wenderov

31. Take An Easy? Go To Six Flags Anyway

“Didn’t die, but did lose an eye as a result.

Young kid (20) with bad diabetic retinopathy from uncontrolled DM type 1 had eye surgery to remove blood and scar tissue from inside the eye. We told him to take it easy for a few weeks.

He went to Six Flags. Rollercoasters are bad.

Retina completely detached, eye got soft and painful, had to be removed.” hbrumage

30. Being Cheap Can Cost You Your Life

“When I was in medical school, I had a gentleman in his late 60s come in for chest pain who was found to have a large heart attack (very impressive STEMI in LAD by EKG). He refused emergent cardiac catheterization (go through the arteries and put a stent to open up the vessel of the heart) so he could bring his car home and planned on taking an ambulance back to the hospital.

He was in the parking ramp, and it cost $20/day to park.

He came back by ambulance in full arrest (no pulse) and died. The doctor had to call his son and explain what happened. He was like, “Yah, that sounds like dad; he’s always been cheap.”” SivverGreenMan

29. Don’t Want To Shower? Lose Your Junk

“Not a med professional, but my aunt is and I’d like to share her horrifying story.

She once had a patient, a young guy in his early 20s, who had very poor hygiene.

He didn’t shower regularly, didn’t brush his teeth, wore the same clothes for days on end…etc.

If I recall correctly, he one day came in with a nasty rash on his lower abdomen/pubic area that was starting to show signs of infection. She provided antibiotics and instruction and extensively stressed to him to improve hygiene and keep the area clean. Otherwise, it’ll just keep coming back or get worse.

Well, as the story goes, he didn’t pick up the prescription and apparently choose to just keep putting A&D Gold ointment on the area.

She later found out that he ended up in the ER after going into shock at work. Turns out, he ended up getting gangrene in the area and it had spread to his penis and scrotum which had to be removed.” TommyLeeJonesIsGay

Another User Comments:

“Nurse here. Had a Fournier’s Gangrene patient a few weeks back. Luckily, it was caught in time and was drained, debrided (bad parts cut out), and the patient had to have the wound redressed and packed several times daily.

This involved me shoving my ENTIRE hand in the incision between the anus and scrotum.

Wash your junk or you become a human hand puppet.” NoFox4U

28. He Used His Epi-Pen Before The Allergic Reaction

Food allergies suck, but come on…

“Had a guy come in the ED with an allergic reaction to peanuts. I tell him, “Hey, no more peanuts because each allergic reaction gets worse and worse.”

I send him home with a prescription for an Epi-pen in case he is accidentally exposed to peanuts and tell him to follow up with an allergist.

THE NEXT DAY, he is back, barely breathing, and his vital signs are in the dumpster. His wife is with him and tells me he filled the script for the Epi-pen, gave himself the shot ahead of time, and then ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because ‘that would be okay,” despite my strict instructions to stay away from peanuts and his wife yelling at him not to do it as he was spreading the peanut butter on the bread.

The guy ended up intubated (tube down the throat for breathing) with chest tubes on both sides because his allergic reaction was so far along. He was in the ICU for 2 weeks because they couldn’t wean him from the vent.

Last I heard, he had permanent lung damage and is on a bunch of meds just to get through the day. All for a PB&J.” Sanfranshan

27. Doctor Said Not To Touch The Knife…

“Overheard in the ER I volunteer at:

*heated argument*

Dr: Sir, I’m telling you: do not touch the knife.

You could risk cutting an artery.

*patient shouts and apparently pulls out the knife.*

Dr: D*mn it! Angie, get more gauze!

*Some incoherent shouting. I saw security walk by too. Patient shouts.*

Dr: Why did you put it back in?!

That’s right. He removed the knife, bled, and in the shouting match, re-stabbed himself with the knife in the same spot it came out of.” daemare

26. Don’t Choose Work Over Your Health

Especially when you have a condition that can potentially take your life.

“Eye doctor here. I had a patient who came in, and on evaluation, I determined that her diabetes was out of control by the look of her retinas which required immediate intervention. I sent her straight to the retina specialist who then scheduled her for an OR. She decided that day not to go in because she had work and couldn’t afford to take off.

She was cleaning houses, and the sprays made her sneeze, causing massive hemorrhaging in her eyes due to the weakened vascular state from her diabetes.

She went immediately blind and got into emergency surgery that day.

It took months of recovery and injections to reverse some damage, and she now (years later) has functional vision again. Her kidneys were also failing her and she had no idea. This kicked off a massive lifestyle change and a chain of doctor appointments that saved her life, all starting from an eye exam.” OscarDivine

25. Apparently, Only Savages Starve Before Surgery

“The patient was supposed to have starved for eight hours for her morning scheduled breast surgery.

During the procedure, she regurgitated what can only be described as a full partially digested English breakfast, with identifiable sausages, egg, beans, and possibly black pudding, up into her unprotected airway and attempted to inhale the lot.

Managed to prevent the majority of it going down, but she needed HDU care for a day or so for her lungs to recover from the stomach acid.” VolatileAgent81

24. Don’t Call In And Then Refuse Treatment

The hypocrisy is real.

“EMT/paramedic student here.

So we had a patient who was morbidly obese and couldn’t get out of his house. He decides after about 4 days of uncontrolled chest pain to call it in. Well, we get there and find evidence of several MIs but refuses care and wants us to leave.

About 45 mins later, we get a call from the building he lived in and we got there and it was him in full-blown cardiac arrest. This man was so obese that we couldn’t get him through the door and had to knock out a wall and lift him down off the second story with a lift.

All the while, me and my paramedic lead were bagging him through an ET tube.

Lots of firsts on that call: first ET tube I put in and first IO is ever seen done in the field.” DaRunninMan

23. He Just Had To Sleep Face Down

“A**hole patient on a centrimag, basically a heart pump with hoses that draw blood from your heart into a pump next to the bed and brings the blood back to the heart through a different hose.

As you could imagine, there is little room for movement since they could dislodge and you’d have blood squirting inside your body or outside. This guy was adamant he had to sleep face down. Well he did, and then he died.” grovelmd

22. Take Care Of Your Kidneys

“I’m on dialysis and one of the nurses told me about patients that after kidney transplants just will stop taking their anti-rejection meds after a few years because they think they don’t need it anymore and it’s really frustrating for the nurses because the patients just ruined a donor kidney.” GooberM_47

21. When It Comes To Smoking, If There’s A Will, There’s A Way

And he sure found a way.

“I had a guy who had to have a tracheostomy due to his excessive smoking.

When asked in follow up, he revealed he was still smoking: THROUGH HIS TRACH.” commodorecliche

20. Refusing Medical Care Isn’t A Wise Option

“I worked in ER admissions throughout college. A teenager and his parents came in because he went over the handlebars on his bike. The staff wanted to keep him in observation overnight, but his parents refused, even after they offered to put him in a recovery room that was near the ER and normally only used during the day for outpatient surgeries.

They came back the next day, and he was white as a ghost. It turned out he had punctured some part of his digestive system and, I think, had some internal bleeding. It’s the only true emergency surgery I saw in the four years I worked there when the staff actually ran to the OR with a patient.” clemenni

19. A CT Scan Would Have Saved His Life

Word of advice: just get the scan.

“Patient had vague abdominal symptoms, and I recommended a CT scan.

He refused cause he was afraid of radiation. He also refused colonoscopy so all we could do was an ultrasound, which found nothing cause he was fat, and abdominal ultrasound is a sh*tty examination anyway.

A year later, he was admitted again, and this time, he couldn’t refuse a CT – where we found a massive colon cancer tumor. He’s probably dead now.” iodinepusher

18. He Had His Reasons For Not Wanting To Ride In An Ambulance

“Had a patient signed out by another ER doc at shift change pending chest X-ray.

CXR showed aortic dissection. This guy should’ve been dead already.

Being a small hospital (level 3 trauma center) in the middle of nowhere, we call the closest level 1 for a transfer. An ambulance shows up for transfer and the guy decides he’s not going. He’s got enemies in that city and they’ll kill him.

After a standoff in the ER hallway involving security, police, EMTs, multiple docs, nurses, and a very scared scribe (me) the guy (a very large man) gets on board with the plan and decides not to leave AMA.

Later, we find out from EMTs he tried to jump out of the ambulance en route to the other hospital. Once he arrived, he left AMA. No clue what happened to him after, but d*mn, the dissection was INSANE.” mcqlby

17. He Really Was A Doctor, Not A Witch Doctor

“My dad tells a story of a morbidly obese woman who came into his clinic and after an exam told her simply: “If you don’t make drastic changes to your lifestyle and diet and start losing weight, you are going to die.” She was dead within the week.

Her family tried to sue because my dad was clearly “a witch doctor” and cursed her to death. It was sad all around.” Kyren11

16. He Had The Right To Refuse And Suffered The Consequences

“I wasn’t there that day, but we had a patient who had been noncompliant with his leg pumps—these inflatable Velcro things that force blood to continue circulating so that clots don’t form in the legs. He didn’t want to wear them, and he had the right to refuse, so we couldn’t force him.

Lo and behold, when therapy finally got him up to walk the halls, he immediately keeled over from a massive heart attack. They coded him right there on the floor and got him back, but he passed later that night.” whoreofgralea

Another User Comments:

“As someone from a therapy department…… whenever there’s a patient like this, I straight up refuse to move them until something is being done to manage the clotting/risk. People might want to kill themselves, but I sure as hell won’t help them.” big-yugi

15. Can’t Wait For An Observation? Your Kid Will Be Back In A Few Hours

“Once I was the only doctor on duty in a rural village with diminished medical supplies.

The village is called Shinafiyah and lies in the desert of southern Iraq. A 4 year old child came to what was supposed to be an ER with diarrhea and some dehydration. They didn’t have tap water and they drink from a near-by river (directly, that is). From what I gathered, it seemed that the child had cholera. Cholera has some unique reputation in medicine that I will skip here for the sake of your appetite.

I strongly urged his father to keep him longer for observation but he refused.

A few hours later, he came back and the child was very ill and severely dehydrated. He was -as we describe such case medically- drowsy. He looked like a rotten wooden doll with the sunken eyes of an old man. I couldn’t get an IV access (an accessible vein for fluids) and didn’t have a central line set. I had to cannulate one of the large veins of his neck and he barely made it.

Cholera wasn’t endemic (not usually seen) there, so I had to make some calls and provide some samples to be tested about 200 miles away and send the child with an ambulance after he was stable.

The father and his son came back a couple of weeks later to visit. I gave him some chlorine tablets and cookies for the kids.” mtx15

14. One Word: Vaccinate

We get it; the possible risks of vaccinations are scary but so are the risks of not getting them.

“Doctor-in-training, had already had three children die during my pediatric rotation from preventable diseases and their complications. Parents opted out of vaccination, all three pairs regretted it after the death. It’s become harder for me to have polite discussions about immunization because the conspiracy theories about vaccines are killing children. I get so furious every time it comes up.” /u/Staterae 

13. Oxygen Really Is Flammable

“Nurse/paramedic here. Frequently went to a patient’s home for a shortness of breath call.

She was always smoking while receiving supplemental oxygen, which is quite dangerous. I told her to stop doing it.

A few weeks later, she burned her house down and nearly died of third-degree facial burns after continuing to smoke while on oxygen.” markko79

12. Not Even An Amputation Could Convince Her

“I was working on a general med/surg unit as a new nurse. An elderly diabetic patient ran over her second toe with the bedside table and the nail was ripped off.

She was incredibly mean and didn’t want anyone touching her or talking to her. I tried to explain the severity of her injury, especially because she was an uncontrolled diabetic and already had compromised circulation to her feet. She still refused to let me treat the wound. She also refused care from the physician. There was really nothing we could do more than a gentle cleansing with antibiotic ointment and sterile dressings which she eventually relented to.

She was refusing everything and not demented or disoriented so we had to respect her wishes. She had overall poor hygiene and days later still refused more than just the bare minimum care.

She came back to the hospital about 2 months later with an amputated leg. That toe was gangrenous and everything below the knee had to go. The doc told her she likely would have been fine if she didn’t refuse treatment.

After her amputation, she again tried to refuse care.

We did what we had to do, and eventually, she was discharged back to the nursing home she came from. She sabotaged her own healing several times by introducing infection to her wounds because of neglect and carelessness.

I saw her obituary in the newspaper a few weeks later.” dairyqueenlatifah

11. Those Darn Garlic Knots Nearly Got Him

“Had a patient who was NPO (not allowed to eat) because he had a bowel obstruction. He didn’t like that we weren’t feeding him, so, unbeknownst to the nurses, he called up Papa John’s and ordered some garlic knots.

He ate the entire box. Then, predictably, he vomited them up, aspirated his vomit, went into respiratory arrest, and coded. We did CPR and got him back. He had some underlying lung issues so we never could get him weaned off the ventilator. He spent a month in the ICU and was eventually discharged to a long-term care facility with a tracheostomy on the vent.” cupcakewife

10. Not Everything Is A Conspiracy: It’s Just Vitamin K

“My wife is a labor and delivery nurse.

When a baby is born, they give it some vitamin that the baby can’t produce itself for the first 6 months of its life (or something like that). I think its Vitamin K to help with blood clotting. it’s potentially lethal if the baby doesn’t get this obviously as they can bleed out internally.

Welp, one mother didn’t want their kid getting vitamin K cuz anti-vaxxer. The baby ended up dying in the NICU. No way to know if the lack of vitamin K contributed to the death or not but…I think most medical professionals would point to it being part of the reason the baby died.

EDIT: To clarify, the cause of death was related to a bleeding issue. I don’t recall the cause of the bleeding or what the specifics of the issue were, but ultimately, the baby doesn’t get the clotting aid, baby bleeds to death, lacking the clotting aid likely played a role in the death.” jbourne0129

9. The EMT Warned Him, But He Didn’t Listen

He did the same thing the EMT warned him not to do.

“EMT here, worked an overdose of a 19-year-old got him back with a bunch of Narcan at the beginning of our shift.

We told him and his father the needed to get rid of whatever he was taking because it was most likely laced with fentanyl and would kill him if he did any more. Guess who we picked up for an OD later that same shift? ” Princess_Honey_Bunny

8. She Gave Her Boyfriend Medicine From The Streets

“Like many others have stated, this happens so regularly that it’s almost hard to think of a specific instance. However, I do have one.

It’s not about a patient, but it’s about a patient’s family member.

I had a patient in the ICU for some respiratory issue. I can’t even really remember now. He had chronic pain and some mental health issues at baseline, and he had this codependent girlfriend who was a very nice lady but who was VERY present at his bedside all the time, constantly beside herself with worry that he wasn’t getting enough pain medication (he was) and that he wasn’t getting enough sleep (he wasn’t, but nobody does in the ICU).

We kept reassuring her that we were giving him his meds and not to worry.

The day he transferred out of the ICU, I was working a night shift and heard a code blue paged overhead. It was for him. He had gone into respiratory arrest, was fortunately found right away, intubated, resuscitated, and came right back to my ICU.

After some digging (and after he was able to wake up and give us some info), we found out that his girlfriend was worried he wasn’t going to be able to sleep, so she bought some Seroquel on the street and gave it to him.

And his dumb a** took it. He was already on his home dose of Seroquel and opioids, plus some additional opioids for the acute pain of whatever was going on with him. The sedation from that extra Seroquel in conjunction with the rest of his meds tipped his already not-so-great respiratory issues into a full arrest. Once he woke up, he was mortified and asked that she not be allowed to visit him anymore.

I had to call her and tell her she was not allowed to visit him anymore and that hospital security had been alerted.

She was . . . not happy. The lesson: if someone is hospitalized, WE WILL PROVIDE THE APPROPRIATE MEDICATIONS. You do not need to bring in extra meds you bought on the street. We got it.” Sp4ceh0rse

Another User Comments:

“So, semi-related question.

If someone were admitted to the hospital, would standard meds they are taking (not related to the issue at hand) be provided, or would the patient need to bring their supply? Obviously, one would talk to the doctor before taking them, but I’ve always been curious about that.” quirkyknitgirl

Reply:

“When you’re admitted, someone (nurse/pharmacist/doctor) should do something called a medication reconciliation with you, during which they verify what meds you are taking at home including doses and frequencies.

Some patients will bring their meds, which can be helpful in figuring out exactly what you are taking at home, but once you’re admitted, we will prescribe them to you and supply them from the hospital pharmacy. It’s important that the only meds you are getting while admitted as an inpatient are those the hospital is prescribing. It’s a safety issue.

For one thing, you are in the hospital for a reason, and something that is perfectly safe for you to take when you’re in your normal state of health may be dangerous in the setting of an acute illness.

If you have a bad infection and septic shock, for example, I am not going to give you meds that might lower your blood pressure further. If you have an acute kidney injury, I need to make sure any of your home meds that could make your kidney function worse are being held and substituted with something safer for the kidneys if appropriate. Some oral diabetes medications can have bad side effects during acute illness, so we often temporarily hold those and use insulin temporarily.

We are frequently also prescribing new meds like antibiotics or blood thinners, depending on your medical condition, and some of those can have interactions with your outpatient medications, so we may need to adjust doses or hold some of the home meds. If someone is taking meds on their own that we don’t know about, it can be SUPER dangerous.” Sp4ceh0rse

7. Yeah, A Shed Wasn’t What We Had In Mind

“Was assured by a patient who underwent major head and neck cancer surgery that he had a safe home plus family help awaiting him after discharge.

He’d need it with new medicines and wound care. Was found unconscious in a shed with no electricity and no running water in — get this — his cousin’s back yard.

More just really sad. Some people suck.

Edit: He survived. Was extremely dehydrated and had pneumonia, but he’s still kickin’ last I checked.” flammenwerfer

6. Parents Know Best

“I used to work in the mental health field in a hospital diversion unit. A teenage girl got admitted to my unit because she tried to take her own life by slicing her neck in the bathtub.

As soon as she gets admitted, she starts convincing her parents to pull her out since she can be discharged with parental permission. Against my advice, parents pull the girl out from the unit early. Within the next few weeks, she successfully completed suicide in a busy part of town. It was a big story in the local papers, and that’s how I found out.” Nataliewassmart

5. A Heart Attack Wasn’t A Good Enough Warning Sign For Him

“Resident doctor here. During my coronary care rotation:

Me: “This heart attack was a warning.

The most important thing for you to do, regardless of what medications we give you (which are also very important), is to stop smoking. I know it’s very difficult and we can help you quit.”

Patient: “Yeah, I’m gonna think about it.”

Comes back a few years later for another heart attack.

This happens on the regular. Sadly, unless a patient wants to quit smoking (and even when they do want to), it’s such a difficult habit to quit that it often takes major consequences before people realize the dangers.

PSA it’s much easier to never smoke than it is to quit. So DON’T START SMOKING.” finepointbic

4. Their Family Was A Bad Influence

Family should care about your health, but as for this family, things were quite different.

“The patient wasn’t necessarily the one ignoring doctors but the family. This patient was extremely overweight and unable to swallow properly because of it. Also being diabetic, they were on a strict diet while in the hospital.

In the middle of the night when the patient should have been sleeping, the family would wake them to feed them KFC, chips, cakes, and other things the patient should not have had.

The patient stopped breathing. During CPR, the patient aspirated the fried chicken they consumed about an hour before. Unable to bring them back. Died.

The family had a “picnic” in the waiting room while we were coding patient.” crazycactus47

Another User Comments:

“Oh God. I know this is petty, but doing CPR on patients that are eating is so f*cking disgusting. I’m a nurse, but half-chewed wet food is my Kryptonite. The need to do CPR on patients mid-meal happened fairly often at the dialysis unit I worked at.

One patient in particular would bring in a God-d*mned smorgasbord to each treatment and spread it all out like a buffet. He scoffed at our warnings that he could choke and there would be little we could do for him in that circumstance.

The day arrived where he aspirates on shrimp and crackers while speaking to a staff member. It was gruesome. This was a rather large man with both legs amputated above the knees. His body shape was basically an enormous belly on a wide torso with two skinny arms, two useless (in terms of moving him) stumps, and a big fat head.

There was no way to give quality Heimlich maneuver, and he quickly lost consciousness. We started CPR, and he was HEAVILY bleeding from his mouth. His belly was slumped to the side, and we couldn’t prop it up well too.

The paramedics stuck a camera down his throat and essentially said it was useless with how much food was crammed down there. He died there on the floor in front of everyone. The one good thing that came of it was having an actual story behind my warning to patients about eating while on dialysis.

At least to sit up properly, chew thoroughly, and maybe avoid the deadly combo of chewed cracker paste and half-masticated (yes, it’s not often one can use this word) room temp shrimp.” ribertiberius

3. Things Can Always Get Worse

“Went to a car accident on the highway when I was working as a FF/Medic. Guy was fairly messed up. He adamantly refused treatment and transport. Against strong urging to go to the hospital, he signed himself off and started walking down a slight decline off the road where his car had come to rest after the accident.

He made it about 10 feet from the back of the ambulance. Lost consciousness and tumbled the rest of his way down the decline. What started off as a smack on his head and a few cuts turned into a broken left arm, serious concussion and a nasty gash on his head.” Irm603

2. Just Go To OR

“Patient came in and was discovered to have an abdominal bleed. Doc was in the middle of surgery and the patient’s vitals are good so we monitor and tell the patient she will go up as soon as the doc is finished.

2 hours later, OR sends for the patient and she refuses. States if the doc can make her wait. He can wait. She wants dinner and to go to bed. Nothing worked to change her mind. After several rounds of docs and nurses educating/begging, etc., the surgeon comes down to see what is going on. After speaking with her for a while, he comes out of the room and says to “keep monitoring and don’t feed – she’ll come one way or another.”

Several hours later, I am taking a set of vitals and talking with the patient when she just flatlines in the middle of a sentence.

Luckily, she came back right away. Immediately, after she felt a little better, the patient apologizes profusely and signs consent. Rushed to OR. There was a lot more stubbornness and cursing on part of the patient but wanted to keep shorter. Just boggled my mind that she almost died out of spite.” curlywirlygirly

1. You’re Not Taking Me Alive

“Work as a medic on an ambulance…. Got called for a female short of breath. She was in her 50s or 60s, we get there and it’s obvious she is having a real hard time breathing.

Her oxygen saturation is 60% (normal is 95% or higher), so we gave her oxygen, get ready to get her loaded up, but she doesn’t want to go. We do everything we can to try and get her to go, absolutely will not. We explain she will die if she doesn’t go, nope not going. We take our oxygen off and leave.

2 hours later, another crew is sent back for someone not breathing, never got a pulse back.

So not an almost died, she did die.” Arkard1

I admit it: I’ve used Google to help me understand what’s going on with my body, and I’ve tried at-home remedies to help myself. Still, nothing comes close to the care and advice of a certified medical professional. Sadly, we live in a time where people feel that even the best doctor on the planet’s word cannot be trusted, but in reality, they’re the often the best people to listen to.