Craziest thing you've witnessed while shadowing?

[Necr0sis713]

I was shadowing a physician. His patients can sometimes be very difficult to work with, and he has to sometimes be really assertive and a bit tough on them. One of his patients wasn't complying with the exercises and drug regimen he gave her. I also think she said that she was smoking a little bit every know and then, but I wasn't sure. The doctor looked at her, gave her a bratty smirk and said "When's the funeral, do they serve food there?"

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Everglow4]

Pretty sure posting stuff like that would violate HIPAA privacy concerns. Just a thought.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[NotASerialKiller]

This one time a guy come into the ER with a severe chest wound and a cute paramedic with a giant forehead had her hand in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. As it turned out the wound was from his buddy accidentally firing a homemade bazooka at him, but the thing was, it never exploded! That meant that at any moment it could go off if it was jostled, and boy the paramedic did not take that well! The handsome surgeons managed to get both of them into the OR safely, but after a little while the paramedic couldn't take it anymore and yanked her hand right out. Luckily a melodramatic intern was there to stick her hand in immediately, which was incredibly brave (although maybe she was just suicidal?). Somehow they were able to remove the bomb, and then the equally handsome head of the bomb squad was slowly carrying it down the hall out of the OR, when KABOOOOOOOM!!!! it went off right then and there. Thankfully none of the attractive physicians were killed. After witnessing this though, I'll forever have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to practice medicine in Seattle.

 

[777137]

This one time a guy come into the ER with a severe chest wound and a cute paramedic with a giant forehead had her hand in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. As it turned out the wound was from his buddy accidentally firing a homemade bazooka at him, but the thing was, it never exploded! That meant that at any moment it could go off if it was jostled, and boy the paramedic did not take that well! The handsome surgeons managed to get both of them into the OR safely, but after a little while the paramedic couldn't take it anymore and yanked her hand right out. Luckily a melodramatic intern was there to stick her hand in immediately, which was incredibly brave (although maybe she was just suicidal?). Somehow they were able to remove the bomb, and then the equally handsome head of the bomb squad was slowly carrying it down the hall out of the OR, when KABOOOOOOOM!!!! it went off right then and there. Thankfully none of the attractive physicians were killed. After witnessing this though, I'll forever have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to practice medicine in Seattle.

I didn't catch on until she yanked her hand out. 5/7 pasta

 

[Necr0sis713]

Is this really violating HIPAA?

 

[Astra]

Patient had a meltdown when she couldn't get her xanax prescription

 

[Lucca]

This one time a guy come into the ER with a severe chest wound and a cute paramedic with a giant forehead had her hand in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. As it turned out the wound was from his buddy accidentally firing a homemade bazooka at him, but the thing was, it never exploded! That meant that at any moment it could go off if it was jostled, and boy the paramedic did not take that well! The handsome surgeons managed to get both of them into the OR safely, but after a little while the paramedic couldn't take it anymore and yanked her hand right out. Luckily a melodramatic intern was there to stick her hand in immediately, which was incredibly brave (although maybe she was just suicidal?). Somehow they were able to remove the bomb, and then the equally handsome head of the bomb squad was slowly carrying it down the hall out of the OR, when KABOOOOOOOM!!!! it went off right then and there. Thankfully none of the attractive physicians were killed. After witnessing this though, I'll forever have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to practice medicine in Seattle.

Your posts never disappoint.

I once walked into pathology and saw the pathologist carrying a human leg and plopping it down on the table to be examined. It's not crazy but it was the first time I had ever seen a limb freshly detached from a human body. Was uncanny

 

[CryMeRiver]

Having the doc I was shadowing ask me if I wanted to suture up a procedure lmao

 

[deleted407021]

C-sections are pretty weird the first time you see them.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Coolest thing: I was invited to scrub in and assist on a pig to monkey kidney transplant. Managed not to kill the pig or the monkey which was pretty neat.

Craziest thing: Working overnight in the ER we had a call someone was coming in with a gun shot wound to the leg. When the guy arrives turns out he was my foster brother who my parents adopted when I was six but had left to live with a distant uncle several years ago. I'm a skinny Jewish kid and All the doctors/ED staff were very surprised when this guy who was black, 250 lbs, and sporting a thick Jamaican accent said I was his brother. I love the guy to death but he's a complete *****...one of his friends gave him the gun to look at ("he said it wasn't loaded") and when he pulled the trigger lo and behold it went off and he shot himself in the leg. Luckily it didn't cause any lasting damage.

 

[deforestasian]

I once saw someone with their penis stuck in a wrench. That was an interesting experience.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

I once saw someone with their penis stuck in a wrench. That was an interesting experience.

"Umm, can someone page maintenance to the ED?"

 

[Toutie]

Not much can be said that would top the stuff in this all time classic SND thread.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/things-i-learn-from-my-patients.257985/

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This wasn't shadowing or really the craziest thing I saw, but it was the craziest reason I've had a patient tell me they were in the OR. I was an OR tech before joining the Navy. One afternoon, this huge, 6'4" 200# young Black man was brought in with his hand totally ****ed up. Tons of foreign bodies, degloving, etc. He was pretty calm about the whole thing, and it wouldn't have been weird except he was escorted by two fine corrections officers.

After he was transferred to the table and restrained, we asked him what happened to his hand. His reply was completely deadpan.

"I filled a coffee pot full of bleach and punched a guy in the face with it."

The other guy went somewhere else, so I didn't get to see what he looked like. If his face looked anything like our guy's hand... Yeowch.

 

[LizzyM]

I once saw someone with their penis stuck in a wrench. That was an interesting experience.

Should this be linked to the thread about using "their" when you don't know a person's gender?

 

[Lawpy]

I once saw someone with their penis stuck in a wrench. That was an interesting experience.

Should this be linked to the thread about using "their" when you don't know a person's gender?

You made me bellow out loud with laughter with this one, LizzyM!

(Stole this from @Goro )

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Should this be linked to the thread about using "their" when you don't know a person's gender?

You know the sex, not the gender. Could be a transgender woman.

 

[DocJuan]

Is this really violating HIPAA?

You would have to identify the person for it to violate HIPAA.

I saw a 19 year old boy's abdominal x-ray visualizing a rhinestone-studded vibrator that he'd accidentally gotten stuck. Luckily the general surgeon was able to get it out the way it way it came in.

 

[TaupePremed]

Patient had a meltdown when she couldn't get her xanax prescription

Everyone has seen that shadowing, if you shadow Family Medicine or any kind of primary care. The Xanax patients are the ones who melt down. The Klonopin patients are so much more manageable.

 

[LizzyM]

You know the sex, not the gender. Could be a transgender woman.

Hence the use of "their". I rest my case for the use of their rather than his/her.

 

[TaupePremed]

My personal favorite:

A young woman is surprised to find she is pregnant. She is theoretically on birth control pills. The doctor could not figure out whether she was happy to be pregnant or not.

After the patient left, the male doctor is literally asking the female nurse "how many birth control pills do you have to forget before you can get pregnant?" It was so funny.

Honestly, the doctor and nurse were funnier than the patient. And they were respectful, just curious.

 

[Lucca]

Hence the use of "their". I rest my case for the use of their rather than his/her.

Aside from being the evil queen of numbers are you also the comma queen?

 

[MountainManMike]

Pretty sure posting stuff like that would violate HIPAA privacy concerns. Just a thought.

Is this really violating HIPAA?

DocJuan gets it, HIPAA is still pretty sketchy to navigate around.

You would have to identify the person for it to violate HIPAA.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Hence the use of "their". I rest my case for the use of their rather than his/her.

Get that punctuation inside the quotation marks! What are you, British or something?

 

[DokterMom]

I once saw someone with their penis stuck in a wrench. That was an interesting experience.

How on earth did he manage to fall on to a wrench? (That's how all of these things happen...)

 

[Everglow4]

.

 

[mimelim]

I was in the ER two days ago and an av fistula ruptured during my exam. Blood hit the ceiling and wall ~6-7 feet away. Sprayed me from thigh to mask as well as the high school student who was shadowing ER physicians and just happened to be in the room. Thankfully, I have seen enough of these to know that full PPE is always mandatory for everyone in the room, with full mask w/ face shield and gown. Got proximal control and placed a good stitch to stop the bleeding and that is when the shadow fainted.

Then there was the time when I was observing a cardiac case and there was a pre-med actually scrubbed in watching (no idea how they swung that, probably shouldn't have been doing it, but not my service or my surgeon) and the surgeon said, "Now, feel here." The student started reaching and the surgeon yelled, "Are you crazy? Why would you touch the heart?!?!!?!?!??!?!" The student froze and then started shaking and the surgeon said, "I was just kidding, if I really didn't want you to touch I would have hit your hand away."

 

[neuromaria9]

This one time a guy come into the ER with a severe chest wound and a cute paramedic with a giant forehead had her hand in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. As it turned out the wound was from his buddy accidentally firing a homemade bazooka at him, but the thing was, it never exploded! That meant that at any moment it could go off if it was jostled, and boy the paramedic did not take that well! The handsome surgeons managed to get both of them into the OR safely, but after a little while the paramedic couldn't take it anymore and yanked her hand right out. Luckily a melodramatic intern was there to stick her hand in immediately, which was incredibly brave (although maybe she was just suicidal?). Somehow they were able to remove the bomb, and then the equally handsome head of the bomb squad was slowly carrying it down the hall out of the OR, when KABOOOOOOOM!!!! it went off right then and there. Thankfully none of the attractive physicians were killed. After witnessing this though, I'll forever have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to practice medicine in Seattle.

It took me a second to realize what you were talking about. A I thought it sounded like Grey's, yikes.

 

[BombsAway]

This one time a guy come into the ER with a severe chest wound and a cute paramedic with a giant forehead had her hand in his chest to try to stop the bleeding. As it turned out the wound was from his buddy accidentally firing a homemade bazooka at him, but the thing was, it never exploded! That meant that at any moment it could go off if it was jostled, and boy the paramedic did not take that well! The handsome surgeons managed to get both of them into the OR safely, but after a little while the paramedic couldn't take it anymore and yanked her hand right out. Luckily a melodramatic intern was there to stick her hand in immediately, which was incredibly brave (although maybe she was just suicidal?). Somehow they were able to remove the bomb, and then the equally handsome head of the bomb squad was slowly carrying it down the hall out of the OR, when KABOOOOOOOM!!!! it went off right then and there. Thankfully none of the attractive physicians were killed. After witnessing this though, I'll forever have a tremendous amount of respect for anyone willing to practice medicine in Seattle.

is that from GA or did that actually happen? I've never seen an episode myself, maybe I should start.

Reminds me of a story: dude gets hammered an RPG round and it failed to detonate (lucky!). Anyway, the thing is sticking out of him front and back so the Surgeon and EOD worked together to get it out. Fired ordnance is known to be touchy so they lined the OR with sandbags and when it was over they gave the surgeon a bronze star, high fives, and women swooned. The EOD guy vanished into obscurity buy hey, thats what you get for not being handsome.

 

[ATPsynthase123]

I was shadowing a surgeon during a Bowel Resection and saw a surgical tech in training (getting her clinical hours) almost feint face first into the the mans intestines where they were working. The surgeon yelled at her and made her sit outside the OR for the rest of the procedure.

It was also on that day that i realized that human intestines look like a piece of chewed up gum.

 

[ATPsynthase123]

My personal favorite:

A young woman is surprised to find she is pregnant. She is theoretically on birth control pills. The doctor could not figure out whether she was happy to be pregnant or not.

After the patient left, the male doctor is literally asking the female nurse "how many birth control pills do you have to forget before you can get pregnant?" It was so funny.

Honestly, the doctor and nurse were funnier than the patient. And they were respectful, just curious.

I was shadowing a ER doc and he told me story about how once during his residency a morbidly obese woman came in with her husband complaining of nausea and abdominal pain. The ran a test and discovered she was pregnant and going into labor. Turns out she had been cheating on her husband because he insisted that he was sterile. After telling me that whole story he turned to me and said "and that is why anytime a woman age 15 and up comes into the ER with nausea and abdominal issues the first thing i do is run a pregnancy test. Also, if you get a girlfriend, make sure that she isn't so fat that if she gets pregnant she will know it."

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

I looked into a man's eyes as he "died." He had a severe carotid stenosis and the surgeon inflated a balloon in the carotid which caused his heart to stop. Heard the flatline tone, but he was responsive for 3-4 more seconds before his eyes rolled up into his head. The strangest thing was that a really annoying T-Mobile ad had started playing on the Pandora station the doctors were listening to at that exact moment, and all I could think was that if he hadn't resuscitated, that would have been the last thing he ever heard.

 

[jtd2081]

Had a patient in the ED and the doc told her she was pregnant. Probably about a month or so along. When the pt was being d/c the boyfriend/husband came up to the doctor. He asked "Can a pregnancy be delayed? We have not had sex in over 4 months."
Docs response: "Sir all I will say is that she is about 1 month pregnant."

 

[mimelim]

I looked into a man's eyes as he "died." He had a severe carotid stenosis and the surgeon inflated a balloon in the carotid which caused his heart to stop. Heard the flatline tone, but he was responsive for 3-4 more seconds before his eyes rolled up into his head. The strangest thing was that a really annoying T-Mobile ad had started playing on the Pandora station the doctors were listening to at that exact moment, and all I could think was that if he hadn't resuscitated, that would have been the last thing he ever heard.

Why was someone inflating a balloon in the carotid...

 

[toutou]

I've seen cool surgeries while working and shadowing but what really stuck with me was the time the FP doc I shadowed turned away a transgendered women because he felt uncomfortable...needless to say I found another PCP doc to shadow after that day. One of the biggest reason I want to pursue FP or IM.

 

[jwilliams1993]

about the hipaa stuff... you don't necessarily need to directly identify the person to violate hipaa. if you provide enough identifying information that someone can piece together who it is, you can get in serious trouble. just think to yourself, if the person read what i'm writing, would they know it was definitely their own story? i'd suggest just steering away from details in stories like these.

 

[frosted2]

C-sections are pretty weird the first time you see them.

And incredibly bloody! Almost worse than any trauma patient I have seen working EMS.

 

[deleted407021]

And incredibly bloody! Almost worse than any trauma patient I have seen working EMS.

And dad's facial expression behind the paper mask they give him is

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Why was someone inflating a balloon in the carotid...

I believe it was a balloon angioplasty

 

[mimelim]

I believe it was a balloon angioplasty

Just for clarification, this was a surgeon? Not a cardiologist? This is plain old angioplasty without stent? Also, bradycardia is a known complication and you should have atropine ready to be administered in that situation. Sounds like a lawsuit...

Sorry, that just sounds horrible....

 

[CaliforniaDreamer]

Just for clarification, this was a surgeon? Not a cardiologist? This is plain old angioplasty without stent? Also, bradycardia is a known complication and you should have atropine ready to be administered in that situation. Sounds like a lawsuit...

Sorry, that just sounds horrible....

Yes sorry, the doctor is an interventional neuroradiologist! This was a stent placement. They knew it was coming and told me it would happen, which I why I was ready and watching his eyes.

 

[halodos]

Witnessed a manual heart massage while shadowing a trauma surgeon. It was successful and one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

Sent from my SM-T713 using Tapatalk

 

[leonardoson]

I once saw blood being drawn.

 

[bunchesonothing]

I once escorted a recently deceased patient to the morgue when volunteering.

I saw an elderly patient code a few times in a day when the family would not sign a DNR.

I saw a doctor have to make a judgement call and intubate a hypoxic patient against her will.

 

[bunchesonothing]

Ohh... and an addict go nuts in the ER, get out of bed, and about the floor, etc....

 

[frosted2]

Ohh... and an addict go nuts in the ER, get out of bed, and about the floor, etc....

That is a daily occurrence in the ER where I work


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[GBCrzzyy]

A woman came into the ER with second degree burns all over her neck, face, arms, stomach, thighs, and groin. Apparently she was removing her nail polish with nail polish remover while smoking a cigarette and accidentally dropped the cigarette in the bottle of remover and freaked out, spilling it all over herself.

Also saw a guy in a-fib be sedated and subsequently shocked into a normal rhythm. I thought it was incredible to watch!

 

[LnSin]

this was in England. I was shadowing a "registrar" (resident, I think?) and he had to go to the ER (they call it A and E?) to do stitches. He was puzzled because any junior doctor should be able to handle that, right?

When I get there, I see a large black man with a MACHETE shoved reaaaaaaaaaaaal deep into his thigh, I mean it was really in there! The doctor asked, "how the hell did this happen bruv?" and, I kid you not, this man responds "It's what happens when you insult the missus, innit, don't call the lady fat ya hear me mate"

Dude called his wife fat and got stabbed for it! Ah crazy times

 

[deleted751373]

In the ED...

I once saw a dude stabbed in all his joints. Like behind his knees, armpits, elbows. One of the freakiest things I've seen.

Another one was a landscaper had fallen off a ladder with a chainsaw. It shredded his lower abdomen and his manhood. But he was so calm!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

 

[LnSin]

But he was so calm!

ah adrenaline, my old friend.