Coolest/Weirdest/Most Disgusting Shadowing experiences - you know you have 'em!

[LabMonster]

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I just finished a three day tour on third shift in one of my employer's ER - what a BLAST! If ever I had doubts about medical school, I don't now; I had so much fun and saw quite nice variety of cases.

First of all, I saw my first pelvic exam and let me say, you wimmen got the **** end of the deal. Thank God I have external genitalia.

I saw the lacs, peds, abdominal pain, chest pain, epistaxis (elevated coumadin/Factor V Leiden, etc; but early this morning it was very slow. The doc and I were talking about how I had seen a pretty good number of cases, but no ortho.... Ask and ye shall receive.

A girl was at work when she caught her finger in a door. We were all dubious wondering why a finger lac was coming in by ambulance.

The doc unwrapped the field dressing and the tip of her finger just flopped down. She had a wicked break - the bone was exposed and fairly crushed. The extensor tendon was gone, and the flexor tendon was pulling her finger tip in a pretty funky direction. The doc numbed the nerve and then reduced it - very cool, he had to give it a bit of tension so the bone ends would meet up. He tacked it in with four sutures and admitted her - ortho would check it later in the morning.

Over this short time, we didn't have any really bizarre cases or extreme traumas - the finger was about as bloody as it got. I had a great time though and I think it would be interesting to hear everyone else's stories.

 

[gujuDoc]

The most disgusting thing I've seen was not during my college shadowing experience, but back in highschool when I saw a lady have staples removed along her lower leg. She had an accident. They didn't even give her anesthesia to ease the pain.

 

[Jezzielin]

Hmm... I have seen some awesome things!



I got to see an LP and an open abdominal surgery (THEE COOLEST, just to have that much of a look into the human body!).

Also I saw, circumcisions (sorry boys - that looks painful! 😳 ). The doc was like hold the baby's hand while I do this... I gave it my pinky and d*mn what a grip! Poor guy...

I have even seen a MVA with grey matter out a guy's head 🙁 .

Alot of the more minor procedures as well - but still, so interesting to watch!

One time a doc was trying to explain to me the difference between the different lung sounds (normal, rawls, wheezing, etc.) He was tryin to sound it out... After a minute he was frustrated and he handed me his stethoscope and said, "Take this and examine the patient in curtain 2." Man, I felt like a med student - not to mention totally cool 😎


All these experience make me crave to see more!!! It is all so amazing! 🙂

 

[taddpole]

So, I just started a round of shadowing in Orlando yesterday...most of the stuff was chest pain, but one guy came in and they had to crack his chest- my resident didnt know it was going on but we went in afterward and there he was. His heart sticking out and everything, it was beautiful.

Later in the day a different resident called over and asked someone to put in a feeding tube. I looked over at my resident and she was like "GO! It'll be fun!" Apparently he was talking to me. So I went in and got to attempt (there had already been one in, so the incision and all that good stuff was already done) putting it in.

Those are my stories. I'll be doing this every day or so for the next 2 weeks, so there will be more 🙂

 

[gujuDoc]

Oh about my other shadowing experiences they go in order as follows:

Highschool AHEC summer program:

Pediatric office patient check ups. Just the usual stuff you see through a pediatric office as well as some hospital rounds.

OBGYN office. The gyn that was not also an OB, did some papsmeres and well womans tests, etc.

The OB did a sonogram for a pregnant woman. That was cool.

College years:

Shadowed in Physical Med and Rehab on team rounds. Shadowed in Neurology VA clinic. In neuro, I saw the basic neurological check ups. Neuro check ups included things like asking the patient to remember 3 words such as pen, glasses, and purple by telling them to say those terms and then asking them to repeat it later to check memory. They also do this thing where they ask you to follow the finger with your eyes or ask you to take your finger and touch the nose and then move your hand back. These are eye/motor coordination tests. There are a few other tests like these they use. They also discuss when MRI's and Cat scans are needed. I got to see a couple of MRI's and Cat scans too. It makes me want to do it all the more every time I go there. The patients are really cool to and have some interesting stories.

 

[Hoooba]

My most gruesome experience was shadowing a general surgeon in high school. He was going to do a Vasectomy and asked the patient if he minded that I watch. Surprisingly, and to my disappointment, the patient didn't mind me watching him get vasectomized. I sat there for one hour uncomfortably, probably more than the patient, as I witnessed the surgeon tie off the man's sperm line.

 

[Denn]

I just finished a three day tour on third shift in one of my employer's ER - what a BLAST! If ever I had doubts about medical school, I don't now; I had so much fun and saw quite nice variety of cases.

First of all, I saw my first pelvic exam and let me say, you wimmen got the **** end of the deal. Thank God I have external genitalia.

I saw the lacs, peds, abdominal pain, chest pain, epistaxis (elevated coumadin/Factor V Leiden, etc; but early this morning it was very slow. The doc and I were talking about how I had seen a pretty good number of cases, but no ortho.... Ask and ye shall receive.

A girl was at work when she caught her finger in a door. We were all dubious wondering why a finger lac was coming in by ambulance.

The doc unwrapped the field dressing and the tip of her finger just flopped down. She had a wicked break - the bone was exposed and fairly crushed. The extensor tendon was gone, and the flexor tendon was pulling her finger tip in a pretty funky direction. The doc numbed the nerve and then reduced it - very cool, he had to give it a bit of tension so the bone ends would meet up. He tacked it in with four sutures and admitted her - ortho would check it later in the morning.

Over this short time, we didn't have any really bizarre cases or extreme traumas - the finger was about as bloody as it got. I had a great time though and I think it would be interesting to hear everyone else's stories.

I just think that this whole post is very immature. Your usage of word "WE" also sounds very ironic to me. Just my opinion.

 

[Jezzielin]

I just think that this whole post is very immature. Your usage of word "WE" also sounds very ironic to me. Just my opinion.

Huh? ANYWAY... 🙄

 

[Shredder]

I just think that this whole post is very immature. Your usage of word "WE" also sounds very ironic to me. Just my opinion.

eh, excitement will be excitement. my experience was that i saw someone die in the ER. and i didnt really care. 🙁 well hey, i guess its good to desensitize oneself to death early in this field

 

[Fenrezz]

My worst experience was my very first one. Got stuck in a corner with a patient in front of me. Old woman with Alzheimers dementia and skin cancer next to her anus. They pulled her pants down and she had had an 'accident' in her diapers. There was no where for me to go. I braced my stomach for the first odor wave that hit me. My knees buckled but I held steady.

The smell was so bad. Only able to hold my breath for so long, I had to breathe in lungfuls of it. I literally had to will myself not to gag in front of all the nurses and the doc. Hell, I had it good; the nurses were having to wipe her clean while she was screaming in agony because they had to keep wiping up against the cancer on her skin.

I remember thinking "this must be why they want you to shadow before applying".

 

[shahalam]

My worst experience was my very first one. Got stuck in a corner with a patient in front of me. Old woman with Alzheimers dementia and skin cancer next to her anus. They pulled her pants down and she had had an 'accident' in her diapers. There was no where for me to go. I braced my stomach for the first odor wave that hit me. My knees buckled but I held steady.

The smell was so bad. Only able to hold my breath for so long, I had to breathe in lungfuls of it. I literally had to will myself not to gag in front of all the nurses and the doc. Hell, I had it good; the nurses were having to wipe her clean while she was screaming in agony because they had to keep wiping up against the cancer on her skin.

I remember thinking "this must be why they want you to shadow before applying".

I would have puked on her face, lol.
Anyways, my experience is when a psychiatric patient got loose in the ER. They had like 4 cops in there and 2 of them tazed him till he couldn't move anymore. I thought it was gruesomely funny. 🙄

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

I volunteer at an ICU, but one night I was hanging out in the ER when the ICU was very slow. I was minding my own business when a guy suddently kicks in the door, his hands holding his abdomen with blood oozing everywhere, and he's screaming for help in Spanish. Apparently the guy was shot in the stomach by his wife 😱 Bear in mind that this is Sunday night at 11pm, and a gun shot wound in La Jolla at that time of night is almost unheard of.

 

[eena]

I believe that I have pretty good tolerance for gross things (rather highly interesting cases). but seeing maggots crawling out of an open wound where an orthotic is inserted can be too much, not to mention the smell! I jut had to take a shower after seeing it.

 

[caffeine37]

from shadowing in latin america...

someone sewed a c-section up wrong in the hospital where I volunteered. it opened, and basically the woman's intestines popped out.

also, one of the surgeons there told me he wasn't a gynecologist because "gynecologists work where other people have their fun"

thank god I didn't get sick there myself.

 

[tigress]

The most interesting thing I saw when I was shadowing was a sausage digit in a kid with ankylosing spondylitis. lol

I did see a really sad case. This teenage girl with both sickle cell and lupus 🙁. Poor girl could barely walk, but she was a fighter and insisted on hobbling around with a cane. The doc I was shadowing said that the sickle cell was actually tougher on her most of the time than the SLE.

I'm hoping to shadow in the ER but I haven't found a doc yet. I'm supposed to start volunteering in a local ER soon so hopefully I'll find somebody to shadow. And also I want to shadow a guy I know who's a radiologist, just because I'm interested in radiology.

 

[JDWflash44]

Well, I worked in a cardiac rehab program during undergrad, so we got to sit-in on open heart coronary artery bypass surgeries, very cool, but very messy. I was able to look right over the curtain and down into the chest cavity. The sawing of the sternum and the cracking of the chest was a nice way to start. Then, when they stopped the heart that was kind of eerie (sp?). The weirdest part was how the surgeon would almost pick the heart up to look around and underneath it.

I also worked for a year full-time in an orthopaedics office. Saw some weird stuff, the "grossest" was probably an older women who had had surgery for a shattered knee cap and had come in with an septic joint because part of the patella had worn through the skin and you could see bone just by looking at her knee (she was in the OR that afternoon). These was also the occasional lancing of infections where you never knew where the fluid was going to go. Then there was the time that the doc I was working with tried to drain a joint of a patient that was on coumadin with an 18 gauge needle, when he pulled it out blood squirted like a fountain onto him. There's probably other gross stuff, i'll post it if I remember it.

 

[BlinkyCat]

Wow, ya'll have really cool experiences it seem. How did you guys get opportunity to shadow? I want to do that, but I don't know who to ask and where to go to ask..

 

[JDWflash44]

Wow, ya'll have really cool experiences it seem. How did you guys get opportunity to shadow? I want to do that, but I don't know who to ask and where to go to ask..

I graduated from college and needed a 600 hour internship. My major was exercise science so it had to be relevant. I did an internet search, I emailed a private group practice orthopaedics office and told them I wanted to volunteer and do clinical work. IMHO the important thing is to contact a PRIVATE group practive or individual practice because they dont have to jump through the hoops of getting it approved for you to be there. They do what they want (or so it seemed to me). But, as soon as I said I would work for free they took me within a week. I volunteered 2 days(14-16hrs) a week for 3-4 months. Then, I was looking fo a job and they enthusiastically offered to pay me (i did take on some more responsibility). So it was a no brainer, I basically got paid to shadow for a year. And got a kick-ass recommendation from an MD. My advice would be do an internt search in your area, then email them and say you are pre-med and want to volunteer and get clinical experience. Someone will say yes to free work....goodluck.... if u have an ???'s feel free to PM me.

 

[SitraAchra]

As I entered the patient room with the doc I was shadowing, the patient stands up and shakes my bare hand. The doctor immediately says "so you're here for a fungal infection of the penis" - he proceeds to drop trow and by god it was quite infected. I washed my hands twice.

 

[ShyRem]

As I entered the patient room with the doc I was shadowing, the patient stands up and shakes my bare hand. The doctor immediately says "so you're here for a fungal infection of the penis" - he proceeds to drop trow and by god it was quite infected. I washed my hands twice.

 

[Scubadoc]

I've posted this one before but it warrants a repost. Cool, I don't know about but this one definitely goes right up there with the weird and the disgusting:

there was a psych consult called down to see this guy in the ER. I went and checked to see what was going on as well since they had this guy in a room with armed guards. Turned out he was from the local prison.

The guards had heard cheering and yelling coming from his cell, went to check it out, and saw the other inmates cheering him on in a game that can only be described as "bobbing for other inmate's poop".

I bet he had some foul breath.

 

[doctigger]

I volunteer as a clinical research assistant in the ER.... I've got a number of interesting experiences, here are a few.

My favorite:
Resident, "Do not go in to talk to that patient." He was abosolutely and totally serious and repeated the following more than once, "She will SUCK your SOUL out through your EYES." 😱 LOL... and he wasn't just making a joke.

Classic:
Bloody broken helmet.... I always tell the kids I know "WEAR YOUR HELMENT when riding your bike!"

Drunk Injured Guy getting a shot yelling at the nurse:
"Shoot your own cock!" "I'm not a criminal, you're the junkie!"

Watching a double life-flight helicopter landing from the roof. (and finding out that my ID badge opens the doors to the landing pad! 😀 )

Cathaders (sp?)- male and female

OHHHHH...... we had a lady accidentally drive her car off a bridge into the river! She was all over the news for more than a week! (yeah, she was fine at the end of it all.)

Code- didn't make it. Code- made it to ICU.

Observing ultrasounds of ovarian cysts and ultrasound to check arterial flow and plaque buildup. Getting handed a doctor's stethoscope to listen to a patient's irregular heart beat (the whooshing kind).

HAving a guy go into seizure while I was interviewing him.

"frequent fliers." "spider bites."

Person who OD'd on METHODONE!!!! (Definately one for the anti-drug comercials.... was writhing in pain.... ick) Heroin OD x 2.

Watching for an hour as they struggled to get a breathing tube correctly inserted into a really difficult airway till an anestesiologist had to do it.

.....good times......

 

[DoctaJay]

Yall can see some pictures in my premeddiary.com diary, but when I shadowed this summer I witnessed some nasty stuff.

There was this diabetic guy that was standing on the side of the street. At the same time, a car ran a red light at the intersection. That car hit a Suburban, and the Suburban went off the street, pinning the diabetic between the front of the suburburan and a light pole.When the guy came into the ER, his legs were crazy mangled. s. I could clearly see his tibia and fibula, both of which were completely broken. His patella was opening like a french door. The nasty part was that because of his diabetes, his feet were almost completely gangrene. That was the worst smell I've ever encountered. Also, for some reason, he couldn't control his bowels, and he began to crap all over the place. So the combination of his leg being splayed open, his infected feet, and his feces made it a pretty nasty experience. He ended up losing one of his legs, but he was alright after that.

There was also this man and this women that came into the ER. It was a domestic dispute where the husband tried to stab his wife. In defense, I suppose the wife held her hands up to defend herself, and because of that, the knife her husband was trying to kill her with half sliced off most of her fingers. For some reason that grossed me out more than seeing someone die.

I also saw an ED thoracotomy performed twice. It was crazy to see a person's chest opened like that, so quickly. On one of the guys, the bullet hit a major vein, so when they performed the thoracotomy, blood SPILLED out,like a sea of it. It basically soaked everyones shoes, including mine. Needless to say, the trash enjoyed those NIKEs. It was also very erie to touch a persons body when they had died just a second ago. There body is still warm, but you know that they will never wake up. That was kind of hard to get over at first.

 

[CTG]

I just think that this whole post is very immature. Your usage of word "WE" also sounds very ironic to me. Just my opinion.

don't be a buzzkill, this guy's excited and wants to share. it doesn't hurt anyone to be enthusiastic (or she, i don't know 🙂 )

 

[CTG]

My worst experience was my very first one. Got stuck in a corner with a patient in front of me. Old woman with Alzheimers dementia and skin cancer next to her anus. They pulled her pants down and she had had an 'accident' in her diapers. There was no where for me to go. I braced my stomach for the first odor wave that hit me. My knees buckled but I held steady.

The smell was so bad. Only able to hold my breath for so long, I had to breathe in lungfuls of it. I literally had to will myself not to gag in front of all the nurses and the doc. Hell, I had it good; the nurses were having to wipe her clean while she was screaming in agony because they had to keep wiping up against the cancer on her skin.

I remember thinking "this must be why they want you to shadow before applying".

haha...i had a similar experience...at least the smell part anyway...this elderly woman came into the ER because her legs were literally rotting...they were massively swollen and, like i said, rotting. you could smell it from the furthest room in the er. the worst part was she kept buzzing for help and none of the nurses wanted to go in there and deal with the overpowering stench of rotting flesh, so they kept sending me...funniest part to me was that she came into the EMERGENCY room, as if the fact that her legs had been rotting for over four months suddenly registered as a pressing issue

i have other stories but i'll save those for another time

 

[ShyRem]

Welcome to the ER where the problems culminating over weeks and/or months are now extremely important. My favorite? Woman comes to ER. The following is an almost verbatim transcript of the events:

"What's the problem?"
"Hurts when I have sex."
"Uh-huh. How long has it been like this?"
"Eighteen months."
"Excuse me? How long?"
"Eighteen months."
"And why didn't you go to a clinic or doctor's office?"
"'Cuz it's an EMERGENCY."
"Ok. And why is it an emergency NOW?"
"'Cuz I wanna have sex tonight."

No lie. I was there. And lemme tell you, after seein' what her problem was, I bet it hurt when she had sex. Gotta love the ER.

 

[usandylim]

When I was in high school I volunteered as a research assistant for a local hospital. I got to witness the various ways the lab mice are 'sacrificed.' The ones which are deemed unusable are usually put to death by oxygenation. For select others, the way it is done is by pushing down the back of their necks using the blunt edge of a scissor until an audible pop is heard. Next, they inject a blue dye through the tail to mark the veins. The final step immediately afterwards involves peeling the stomach open. Many times the heart would still be beating and the body twitching as we started to examine the organs, although they are supposedly already dead by that time. I did this procedure several times myself, and the experience was unforgettable. Even though we typically think mice and rats as pests and attempt to eradicate them with traps and poison, it seems to pull at your conscience when the death happens by your own hands... especially as I was the caretaker of these mice and knew them from when they were born until the day they are sacrificed.

 

[SitraAchra]

I can understand that feeling - for the bio lab i TA'ed in, we had to kill frogs who were just anesthetized with a chemical called "frog nap" and then cut their heads right off with a big pair of scissors. I think as long as you remind yourself it's for a worthy cause, you can get over any perceived "cruelty."

 

[Medinsane]

seeing a catheter get stuck up a boys peeny. He was screaming his face off and for good reason too. ouch.

 

[diosa428]

When I was in high school I volunteered as a research assistant for a local hospital. I got to witness the various ways the lab mice are 'sacrificed.' The ones which are deemed unusable are usually put to death by oxygenation. For select others, the way it is done is by pushing down the back of their necks using the blunt edge of a scissor until an audible pop is heard. Next, they inject a blue dye through the tail to mark the veins. The final step immediately afterwards involves peeling the stomach open. Many times the heart would still be beating and the body twitching as we started to examine the organs, although they are supposedly already dead by that time. I did this procedure several times myself, and the experience was unforgettable. Even though we typically think mice and rats as pests and attempt to eradicate them with traps and poison, it seems to pull at your conscience when the death happens by your own hands... especially as I was the caretaker of these mice and knew them from when they were born until the day they are sacrificed.

I work in a neuroscience lab, so we want the brains as fresh as if the mice were still alive. To do this, the mouse gets injected with drugs which puts it to sleep. It is then cut open and a needle is stuck in it's heart. First a buffer is pumped through it's bloodstream so the blood doesn't clot - then paraformaldehyde is pumped through. Definitely deserves the term "sacrificed".

 

[dopaminophile]

I lanced, drained, and packed a big perineal absess once. I can't imagine the pain that dude went through and draining absesses is pretty sick anyway, so that one was pretty rough. After doing a whole bunch of absesses, I have no problem saying that women are far more tolerent of extreme pain than are men.

It was far from gross, but I also got to scrub in and assist on a couple of pediatric closed heart procedures. In fact, I was stunned at how clean a thoracotomy can be. That was a whole lot of fun and really changed my attitude towards surgery.

 

[doctigger]

I work in a neuroscience lab, so we want the brains as fresh as if the mice were still alive. To do this, the mouse gets injected with drugs which puts it to sleep. It is then cut open and a needle is stuck in it's heart. First a buffer is pumped through it's bloodstream so the blood doesn't clot - then paraformaldehyde is pumped through. Definitely deserves the term "sacrificed".

Ick. Having to do that on a daily basis would really bother me.... maybe it is a good thing that I didn't end up with one of the neuroscience lab research positions I applied for. 🙁

 

[bbtbay]

I was medical assisting at the free clinic I work at and I had just finished doing the vitals on this patient who was simply complaining of "groin pain." I ask the attending if I can shadow him for this patient, and the attending asked, and like most homeless clients --- they didn't care (in fact he thought I was already a doctor). So the patient drops his pants, and his testes fall to the floor --- the patient has a testicular hernia (his intestines had seeped thru his inguinal canal into his testes). Needless to say, the patient was referred immediately to surgery.

 

[beanbean]

Doctigger....

The whooshing sound you heard with the heart was probably a murmur. There are a bunch of websites that offer sample sounds of them and explain the physiology.

I think you are referring to Foley catheters being placed through the urethra and into the bladder.

Methadone is an opioid like heroin and people do OD on it. The patient does not appreciate when they are saved from respiratory arrest when given Narcan...pushes them off their high and straight into withdrawal.

Sounds like you are enjoying your time in the ED!

Check out the EM Forum and the best thread on SDN: "What I Learned From My Patients" (if you haven't already been there).

 

[redruby]

My co-worker was assisting the doctor we worked for with a gyne patient who was complaining of a "horrible smell". Doc proceeded to reach in with a teneculum and pulled out an old, putrid tampon from whenever the hell this woman last had her period. My friend said it smelled like something had died in there. I gotta say that after working in an OB/GYN office for a year, I will never ever want to go into that specialty. Ever!

 

[ShyRem]

My co-worker was assisting the doctor we worked for with a gyne patient who was complaining of a "horrible smell". Doc proceeded to reach in with a teneculum and pulled out an old, putrid tampon from whenever the hell this woman last had her period. My friend said it smelled like something had died in there. I gotta say that after working in an OB/GYN office for a year, I will never ever want to go into that specialty. Ever!

Ok. This officially gets nominated as the grossest thing.

 

[chrisfeliciano]

RHINOPLASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hands down, the grossest (sp?) surgery ever. The chisels a killer!

 

[tacrum43]

This is my "cool" story. I copied it here from my personal statement. You should know that it's a little over-dramaticized, but I think it's still good. 🙂

I had been observing him in the emergency room for a few weeks at the time, and this visit had been pretty slow, but that all changed at about ten minutes to midnight. Suddenly, the doors burst open and a patient was rushed into the Emergency Room. She was an elderly woman who had suffered a heart attack just outside in the hospital parking lot, which I suppose is a good place to have an MI if you must have one. I stood back at first, hesitant to get involved in this very serious emergency, but then a nurse motioned me closer and asked if I wanted to help with the CPR. I said "okay" and quickly walked over, my EMT training racing through my mind as I thought "fifteen compressions to two breaths." With someone else taking care of the breaths, an endotracheal tube in place, I cut away the woman's clothes with the shears the nurse had handed me and then put my hands over her exposed sternum and began compressions. It was surreal to me. Sure, I had practiced on a dummy during my training, but this was a real person whose heart had stopped beating. The sternum and rib cage creaked horribly like some sort of old rusty iron hinge as I applied pressure. After several minutes of CPR, she opened her eyes and fought fervently to have the tracheal tube removed; she was literally alive and kicking. "Hold her down" rang through the air and I pinned down her arms to prevent her from ripping out the tube as nurses administered drugs, including a sedative to calm her while other concerns were resolved. There she lay, unmoving, her bare chest exposed and vomit spread on her pillow, but alive. Her son, who was in the room, thanked us all for helping to save his mother's life, and I was excited to learn from the doctor that she was up and walking three days afterwards.

 

[gujuDoc]

My co-worker was assisting the doctor we worked for with a gyne patient who was complaining of a "horrible smell". Doc proceeded to reach in with a teneculum and pulled out an old, putrid tampon from whenever the hell this woman last had her period. My friend said it smelled like something had died in there. I gotta say that after working in an OB/GYN office for a year, I will never ever want to go into that specialty. Ever!

I used to like OB/GYN because I thought it was neat see baby's delivered. But I quickly realized that is the last thing I would want to do because I don't think I would want to see other females' stuff. This is definitely the grossest thing on here.

When I was in elementary school, a classmate had a nurse for a mom. So the mom brought in some xrays of a guy that had swallowed a fork whole. He had other objects like that too in his stomach. It was real weird. They had to do surgery to remove these random objects which the guy had swallowed.

 

[Fusion]

As a somewhat older applicant who has been at this application thing for a while and hopes that this will finally be the year that he starts medical school (fingers crossed!), I have been fortunate enough to have had some pretty interesting clinical experiences. I did all sorts of shadowing and volunteering during undergrad: OR, ER, SICU, Surgical Path Lab, etc. After college I worked as a clinical research assistant in cardiovascular anesthesiology where I routinely observed open heart surgeries and even got to do some minor experimental/surgical procedures on live pigs. I then went to work as an anesthesia tech in the OR of a private hospital and am currently working in an interventional pain clinic of a cancer hospital. I have assisted anesthesiologists with all sorts of surgical procedures: emergency CABG’s, thoracotomies, total joint replacements, urological and gynecological procedures, different brain surgeries, plastic surgeries, ENT procedures, etc. Even though I have seen a lot of cool/interesting/disgusting things, there are certainly experiences that stick out in my mind. When I was working in the OR, a very sick old woman came in for emergency surgery for an obstructed bowel. It was so bad that her abdomen was significantly distended, and when the surgeon cut her open the stench was absolutely horrible. The doctor was literally scooping out fecal matter from her intestine by the handful and dumping it into a bucket on the floor. He filled at least two buckets before he was finished. If the anesthesiologist working the case didn’t absolutely need me at the time (I was assisting him with a Swan-Ganz catheter), I would have gladly stepped out of the room. I really felt for the scrub techs, though. They were literally gagging and one almost passed out. Luckily, the circulator nurse was able to drop a few drops of some nice smelling stuff they have in the OR directly onto their surgical masks to help cover up the smell. I think that was when I gave up the idea of ever going into general surgery…

I also have had some interesting experiences in the pain clinic. I have seen a few very large tumors, and working with cancer patients really makes you count your blessings. I really feel for these people and especially admire the ones who keep a positive outlook on their condition, even though they know that their days are numbered. Perhaps the most interesting patient we have is a young man who has had various medical problems (though none of them cancer related) that has led to him suffering from severe chronic back pain. This poor guy is in so much pain that he will literally pass out and will only wake up after a minute or so. For this reason, he uses a wheelchair at all times. I have heard of ppl passing out from excruciating pain, but this man experiences it all the time.

One interesting thing that would also be worth mentioning…My father is a general surgeon and I have heard many a story. One of the most interesting things was a few years back when an older overweight woman who had been in and out of hospitals presented to him with pain in her left breast. After a brief exam he discovered the problem – she had a hypodermic needle still stuck in the skin underneath her breast! Someone who had cared for her earlier apparently wasn’t paying enough attention to what they were doing. Anyway, somehow the local media caught wind of it and interviewed my dad for their “quirky story of the week” type thing.

 

[Medinsane]

O heck yeh, but that's not as disgusting as doing surgery on a mouse to get fresh spinal cord with no para. *yeck*

I work in a neuroscience lab, so we want the brains as fresh as if the mice were still alive. To do this, the mouse gets injected with drugs which puts it to sleep. It is then cut open and a needle is stuck in it's heart. First a buffer is pumped through it's bloodstream so the blood doesn't clot - then paraformaldehyde is pumped through. Definitely deserves the term "sacrificed".

 

[Agent Splat]

Most of my "memorable" experiences come out of the ambulance, but when I was shadowing an internal medicine doc one of her patients was convinced that he was allergic to battery acid and if he used a cell phone it caused his lips to get chapped. He said any time he used something powered by batteries he'd break out into hives. She couldn't convince him it was all in his head.

 

[fateema368]

My co-worker was assisting the doctor we worked for with a gyne patient who was complaining of a "horrible smell". Doc proceeded to reach in with a teneculum and pulled out an old, putrid tampon from whenever the hell this woman last had her period. My friend said it smelled like something had died in there. I gotta say that after working in an OB/GYN office for a year, I will never ever want to go into that specialty. Ever!

This happened to a girls mom in high school, she left it in for months (maybe 6, maybe 3) because she really just forgot about it. In the meantime she used other tampons during her period and it was later removed by her doctor with a warning that she was never allowed to use tampons again, apparently it had happened in the past with the tampon being left in for just weeks on end.

 

[markboonya]

i was shadowing a urologist, mainly in the OR. then my scrubs kinda just fell off. guess i didnt tie them very securely. i didnt notice becuase i was so engrossed by the procedure he was performing. yeah, so i was standing there in my doggy print boxers for i dont know how long until he turned around and matter-o-factly stated that my pants were no longer around my waist.

 

[christinejane19]

ive had a full (1000 cc's) fecal bag explode on me.

The patient had C. diff.

 

[KingTutATL]

This happened to a girls mom in high school, she left it in for months (maybe 6, maybe 3) because she really just forgot about it. In the meantime she used other tampons during her period and it was later removed by her doctor with a warning that she was never allowed to use tampons again, apparently it had happened in the past with the tampon being left in for just weeks on end.

I thought if a tampon was in a woman for more than 8-10 hours she would go into toxic shock syndrome? How could you forget that you have a tampon inside . Theres a damn string on them for a reason.

 

[LabMonster]

My co-worker was assisting the doctor we worked for with a gyne patient who was complaining of a "horrible smell". Doc proceeded to reach in with a teneculum and pulled out an old, putrid tampon from whenever the hell this woman last had her period. My friend said it smelled like something had died in there. I gotta say that after working in an OB/GYN office for a year, I will never ever want to go into that specialty. Ever!

Pretty much the most horrifying thing yet..

 

[LabMonster]

ive had a full (1000 cc's) fecal bag explode on me.

The patient had C. diff.

Yep, that's more disgusting.


Keep 'em coming! There are some great stories out there.

 

[fun8stuff]

A couple years back while shadowing in radiology, the doc showed me an xray of a guy who came in that day with a bottle of old spice stuck up his butt. Apparently, the patient and his partner had done this plenty of times, but this was the first time he had problems. Anyways, as the radiologist noticed the suprised look on my face, he said that I wouldnt believe the things people get stuck of their rear ends and began to tell me of a few other things he had seen, ranging from fruits and vegetabls, to coins and cell phones.

 

[rexlax]

in my third year. some interesting highlights:

1) During my surgery/trauma rotation, we admitted an obese woman wearing a tight silky leopard skin lingerie for extreme blood loss. Turns out it was multiple lacerations. Vaginal lacerations. Turns out she was masturbating with a Starbucks Frappucino bottle and it broke inside her. She lost over 1L of blood. When asked what she did for a living, she said, "er.... telephone operator.... *shifty eyes* " I guess that's what you call it these days. There were multiple shards of glass inside her that had to be removed. It was painful to have to watch.

2) Two male patients having sex in the psychiatric ward. Patient A was asking for vaseline all day. When the Patient B was admitted, Patient A began solicting to have sex with him until 30 minutes later, Patient B complied. It was sad hearing the nurse quivering, "Help... I need help here...." when she discovered them in the act. We ran in and it was utter chaos. This was my last day on my inpatient psychiatry ward, and to say the least, it truly was a climatic end to a wild month.

3) The gay patient that sticks up a 1L Mountain dew Bottle up too far up his anus. It's an impressive X-ray where you can tell via the fluid levels that the bottle was completely full. Yup. he did the Dew. When discharged the man said, "oh, you'll see me back again soon." .....

4)The many deliveries where woman are defecating all over while pushing. There's something about someone else's poop smell... it really gets to you. And now I totally understand why toilets have water in them-- to dampen the smell!