Triage complaints- the good, the bad, and the shocking.

  1. 21
    "I was raped by an octopus."

    "I have severe, severe, severe, SEVERE, SEVERE cold sores!" (five severes, I counted. And one cold sore visible.)

    ICUman, ninjanurse85, pnkgirl25, and 18 others like this.

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  2. 333 Comments...

  3. 12
    The good: "I have sunburn on my shoulders and chest and it's painful." Pain x 4 days. No OTC meds attempted. Mild redness noted, no blistering.

    "I am 7 weeks pregnant and my breasts hurt." Um hum. Congratulations on your pregnancy!

    The bad: "My son has just come to live with me. Until he can get a new PCP, we need to see a doctor to get refills on these 17 medications." (no, I am not exaggerating the number) Son is a young adult s/p multi-system trauma with now life-altering disability.

    The shocking: Several come to mind ... focal weakness & facial droop that have me about to organize a CVA alert ... until family tells me the symptoms have been present for 5 days. And those presentations which I have a sinking feeling will result in a dx of some malignancy before the ED visit has concluded.
    Last edit by Altra on Jan 5, '13
  4. 34
    Swallowed 3 jingle bells

    Bit on the lip by a duck (turns out it was a DOG bite and the secretary had misheard; EVERYONE was disappointed because it sounded like it would be such an awesome story)
    ICUman, SherriJones, pnkgirl25, and 31 others like this.
  5. 14
    Pt brought in by EMS CC "I've been walking all day and my legs hurt, and I'm hungry" I kid you not. Pt went straight to triage.
  6. 46
    "Midgets are fighting in my crotch."
    ATech4GFA, ICUman, janellajs, and 43 others like this.
  7. 11
    My child's fever is 99.1 and I didn't want to give him anything because I wanted you to know he was feverish. On Medicaid. Ugh.

  8. 4
    I have always said I'm going to make a list of the top 10 things I hate to hear at triage and that's 1 of them. I hate when you ask a patient "what's going on with you tonight?" and they say "well...." omg I'm in for a long story. Or "when did your symptoms start?" and they say "after church". Well which service are we talking about at 1 am in the morning? People are so funny
  9. 3
    Quote from canoehead
    "I was raped by an octopus."


    I've had the cold sore complaint once but not as "severe" as yours was LOL with a pain of 10 they had 2 little ones and at the time my bottom lip was covered up in them. I was shocked it was my first week in the Er on night shift LOL
  10. 29
    "I haven't been able to get an erection for 6 months." (the pt, not me )
    ATech4GFA, ICUman, shewentwhoa, and 26 others like this.
  11. 34
    "I worked 6 hours trying to get this splinter out!"

    A man that let his wife lay on a couch for 3 weeks with a sore leg (broken hip), and developed fatal pneumonia.

    A Hemmorhagic CVA who drove herself to the ER, and laid on the horn with Hemiparalysis, 1/2 blind, lost vocal ability, and survived after a clot buster restored her to 90% Motor Function with full vocal ability returning- just some residual R eye sight loss, and walks with a cane now because of slight R sided weakness after heavy ambulation.

    An 18 year old who trached a Dalmation following him swallowing a rubber bouncing ball. We plugged site, removed ball he had pushed down deep into the throat- trying to free it(although he did save the dogs life)- and EMS triaged him with an ambulance to the State Universities Veterinarian Hospital. He was our city's Firehouse dog

    A boy whom secretly let a firework pop in his closed hand, wrapped it up with gauze, told his family he had burned it. 5 days later, when they saw the hand, they brought him. He lost it. He would have only lost 1.5 fingers had he came immediately.

    Three lawn workers after a grass cutter ran over a yoohoo glass bottle as a joke(mayhem)!!

    A near salt water pool drowning that developed pulmonary edema, and visible X-ray Fluid around lungs and heart leave AMA after being told seriousness of condition(a Doctor), because he was swimming at his girlfriend's home, and wife, an RN would be coming on shift in 30 minutes who thought him at work. (Convinced him to go by personal vehicle with friend to next Province's Hospital after begging him to stay- died en-route). (This was overseas).

    One Halloween night, Beetlejuice, Santa Clause, Marilyn Monroe, and a Courtroom Jester went on a hayride. Marilyn developed a severe allergic reaction, and Beetlejuice decided to drive her to the hospital- acutely intoxicated where they hit Raggety Anne and Andy head on- No fatalities or serious injuries, even though the car was just going 15-20mph (the others came on their hayride and tractor!!)
    Last edit by BostonTerrierLoverRN on Jan 6, '13
    ICUman, Dazglue, SherriJones, and 31 others like this.


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