Craziest thing you've witnessed while shadowing?

[jtd2081]

One guy and his lady friend were doing some stuff together. She decided to do some testicular stimulation and squeezed on his scrotum. Tore it right open and his testicle was literally hanging out...
Super calm. Doc told her to uhhh...not do that again.

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[QofQuimica]

Weirdest thing I saw shadowing as a premed:

When I was in college, I spent some time riding on an ambulance (just shadowing). One of our calls was to a car accident. The cops had gotten there before us and had stopped traffic in both directions, so we crossed to the wrong side of the street (which was empty) when we were about a block away. We still had lights and sirens going. As we approach the intersection where the accident was, there's this huge jolt, followed by a scraping noise. We look out the windows, and we saw that someone had tried to make a U-turn and had turned directly into the ambulance. The driver got out of the car and appeared all right, so we kept going to the scene. We picked up the person we had been called to get and took them to the hospital, now driving on the correct side of the road.

The driver who had U-turned into us followed us to the hospital to complain. The cop at the hospital promptly ticketed him for not yielding us the right of way and for making an illegal U-turn across double yellow lines. He asked the guy, "didn't you see the flashing lights and hear the sirens? Why did you make an illegal U-turn when there was an ambulance coming?" The guy said, "well, yeah, I saw and heard it. I just couldn't believe it was driving on the wrong side of the road!" He was a Canadian tourist visiting our fine state of Florida. I guess the ambulances up there don't ever cross the yellow lines....or maybe they just have different laws of physics that allow two objects to occupy the same space at the same time. Heh.

 

[dafuturesurgeon]

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.

Didnt feel like looking to see if anyone else notice but that is straight from Grey's Anatomy

 

[LnSin]

Didnt feel like looking to see if anyone else notice but that is straight from Grey's Anatomy

Woosh

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[SirCardiac]

At the medical examiner's office the other day, a teen came in from a horrible auto accident involving a drunk driver. His body was literally ripped him half and the two halves were found 100ft apart. Horrific sight, but you don't see this everyday.

 

[tjo422]

Probably tied between the man I saw with a knife sticking out of his back, blade all the way in, and an MRI of ten coke packets scattered through a person's intestines. Equally interesting was the convo with the ED resident that ensued about the dangers that face patients after they are released sans drugs in digestive tract.


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[Akewataru]

This wasn't so much crazy but it was really awkward...like crickets awkward...

I recently went to shadow my uncle who is a surgeon. Before shadowing him at his practice, we had to go to a tumor board-like meeting that meets twice a week at the hospital. It was packed room with the Surgeons, Radiologist, Pathologist, Oncologist, meeting coordinator, PT, Nurse Manager, Genetic Counselor, etc...Everyone knew I was his niece as he introduced me as such. So when my uncle was discussing a liver cancer patient that he had taken on recently because the original surgeon was on vacation, another surgeon who I later discovered doesn't particularly like him, interrupts him injecting his opinion and belittling his while talking to the other doctors as if he isn't even there. Insulted, my uncle raises his voice pointing at him and says three times "Look at me when you're talking to me!" You could hear a pin drop in that room for like five seconds afterwards. I peer over at everyone else to see how they react. Everyone pretends to look at something else particularly interesting than the situation at hand. Then things continue as normal. Once the meeting as was over everyone files out of the room except my uncle and the other surgeon. They've gone into the closet to "hash" things out. I wish I could have been privy to that convo. The meeting coordinator gives me a sympathetic look and tells me that they've never liked one another, but it never got that bad.

So, yeah not so crazy but definitely awkward.

 

[I'm No Superman]

The craziest thing that I saw while volunteering was a nurse getting punched in the face by a patient who came in after a failed suicide attempt with a katana while on a ****-ton of drugs.

 

[frosted2]

The craziest thing that I saw while volunteering was a nurse getting punched in the face by a patient who came in after a failed suicide attempt with a katana while on a ****-ton of drugs.

I once saw a 9o something year old woman sucker punch a nurse in the face AFTER getting Geodon... AND she was in restraints! I kept my distance from her... I like to keep my teeth!

 

[Necr0sis713]

Was shadowing a doctor the other day and there was a patient with krokodil skin. Her legs were literally rotten black. I felt bad for her but she was a mess.


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[iwh]

Not shadowing but i scribe in an ED.

Yesterday, I saw a memory care patient go from barely conscious to ape **** crazy and screaming like a hyena when the nurse tried to place an IV

 

[wanderingorion]

One night scribing in the ED, I saw a 40 y/o man came in covered in gorilla glue, present on his chest and forearms. He reported that he had been assaulted by a potential male lover, and had glue and Q-tips shoved into his rectum and urethra. His cheeks were glued together, along with his meatus, and one of the EDT's had to run to a Walgreen's to get 3 bottles of nail polish remover. After about 2 hours, multiple plastic guaze containers and pairs of gloves, somewhere around 30+ Q-tips were removed from his orifices. Eventually, the police coaxed out the patient's confession that he had done all this craziness to himself, so he would be admitted and "cared for like a baby." He had been seen in the ED for a rectal foreign body (screwdriver) about 6 months before.
You should've seen the MD I was working with have to tell this story multiple times as he consulted plastic surgeon, a burn unit, and a general surgeon throughout the night.
He was admitted a few days later, not requiring any surgeries, luckily, with plans to follow-up with a psychiatrist. I hope he listened.

 

[Necr0sis713]

One night scribing in the ED, I saw a 40 y/o man came in covered in gorilla glue, present on his chest and forearms. He reported that he had been assaulted by a potential male lover, and had glue and Q-tips shoved into his rectum and urethra. His cheeks were glued together, along with his meatus, and one of the EDT's had to run to a Walgreen's to get 3 bottles of nail polish remover. After about 2 hours, multiple plastic guaze containers and pairs of gloves, somewhere around 30+ Q-tips were removed from his orifices. Eventually, the police coaxed out the patient's confession that he had done all this craziness to himself, so he would be admitted and "cared for like a baby." He had been seen in the ED for a rectal foreign body (screwdriver) about 6 months before.
You should've seen the MD I was working with have to tell this story multiple times as he consulted plastic surgeon, a burn unit, and a general surgeon throughout the night.
He was admitted a few days later, not requiring any surgeries, luckily, with plans to follow-up with a psychiatrist. I hope he listened.

It's good to know that by being a doctor I can help get people out of such crazy, outlandish situations that they might get themselves into.

Like seriously, who else can you turn to when you decide to shove qtips and glue into your urethra.


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[wanderingorion]

Like seriously, who else can you turn to when you decide to shove qtips and glue into your urethra.

 

[Necr0sis713]

View attachment 207242

You forgot to put dat pic of a q tip in a urethra tho


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[dr.grenouille]

I like this thread, so bumping. Once while volunteering in a women’s hospital, I was checking on patients to see if they needed water, ice, pads, etc., and I literally walked into a patient’s pool of blood while both her and her husband super calmly asked me for more extra large pads. I’ve never seen nurses run so fast to a patients room.

 

[Isoval]

I once had a patient grab me and start sucking on my thumb.

 

[frosted2]

You forgot to put dat pic of a q tip in a urethra tho


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Or razor blades, if we are referring to patients in the incarcerated population.

 

[frosted2]

I once had a patient grab me and start sucking on my thumb.

Psych or peds?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Or razor blades, if we are referring to patients in the incarcerated population.

This was while working, not shadowing, but speaking of inmates, we had a guy come in for multiple foreign body removals on his hand. It was all glass from a coffee pot that he filled with bleach and broke over someone’s face.

 

[frosted2]

This was while working, not shadowing, but speaking of inmates, we had a guy come in for multiple foreign body removals on his hand. It was all glass from a coffee pot that he filled with bleach and broke over someone’s face.

Oh my...
The inmate stories I could tell!

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Oh my...
The inmate stories I could tell!

Lol yeah. We were like ...aaand propofol.

 

[usernamesaredumb]

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


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How?

 

[frosted2]

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

Pretty BLOODY.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Pretty BLOODY.

All that afterbirth though. Yum.

 

[LebronManning]

Scribing and I saw an ED thoracotomy. Once the guy died, the surgeon let me touch the organs and it was insane. Honestly this is the moment where I knew I wanted to do medicine for the rest of my life

 

[frosted2]

How?

Patient identifying information.

 

[usernamesaredumb]

Patient identifying information.

Telling a story while omitting name, location, Time/date, gender and age doesn't violate HIPAA. By that reasoning, if a show like grey's anatomy writes a script about a case that is similar to that of a real person's the writers would be violating HIPAA.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

Telling a story while omitting name, location, Time/date, gender and age doesn't violate HIPAA. By that reasoning, if a show like grey's anatomy writes a script about a case that is similar to that of a real person's the writers would be violating HIPAA.

Yeah it’s really just any identifying info. If you omit that, you’re good.

 

[DrRiker]

An aortic aneurysm rupture was rather intense to witness as a premed. Pumping blood into this old lady with 70/30 blood pressure by the pint, just to see it projected from her mouth moments later.

 

[usernamesaredumb]

An aortic aneurysm rupture was rather intense to witness as a premed. Pumping blood into this old lady with 70/30 blood pressure by the pint, just to see it projected from her mouth moments later.

Jesus thats nuts. How does a ruptured aorta pump blood out of her mouth though?

 

[jtd2081]

Working in the ER allows for some fun stories:

Fun story 1: Patient injects prescribed drugs (as he is supposed to) into his penis for impotence (can't get an erection). He tried the recommended dose which did not work. He then did 10 TIMES the recommended dose. Then proceeded to wait for 16 hours to come into the ED because "my lady friend was over so I did not mind." He had an erection for over 16 hours which had become incredibly painful and had to be taken care of. This means a needle into the penis to take out blood...

Story 2: A man was having some fun with his girlfriend when she squeezed his testicle, a little too hard. That lil guy popped straight out of the scrotum and was hanging out of the sac. The GF was advised to ease up on the foreplay a little bit.

 

[Isoval]

Psych or peds?

Med/Surge aka internal.

 

[DrRiker]

Jesus thats nuts. How does a ruptured aorta pump blood out of her mouth though?

This I do not know. I can only tell you what I saw and what I was told by the CICU nurses. Perhaps there was a trauma with associated GI bleed, MVA type of thing?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

This I do not know. I can only tell you what I saw and what I was told by the CICU nurses. Perhaps there was a trauma with associated GI bleed, MVA type of thing?

Yeah, I've never seen that in the AAA ruptures I've scrubbed in on. Something else going on there. Hopefully she made it, but by the sound of it, I'm guessing not.

 

[Crabbygas]

Shadowing a neurologist. Brain death exam on a 2 year old beaten by the babysitter's boyfriend. Mom says she can't be dead she's still pooping. I didn't faint, barf, or move a muscle. It sucked but in that moment I knew I could handle being a physician, something I wasn't sure of until then.

 

[DrRiker]

Yeah, I've never seen that in the AAA ruptures I've scrubbed in on. Something else going on there. Hopefully she made it, but by the sound of it, I'm guessing not.

She was rushed into surgery, but I don't think there was much that could be done unfortunately. Given that she was already in the ICU, I wonder if a recent aneurysm repair failed

 

[Oso]

Story 2: A man was having some fun with his girlfriend when she squeezed his testicle, a little too hard. That lil guy popped straight out of the scrotum and was hanging out of the sac. The GF was advised to ease up on the foreplay a little bit.

Damn, that's nuts.

 

[DrRiker]

Damn, that's nuts.

You should know that puns make people a little testy

 

[getdown]

Jesus thats nuts. How does a ruptured aorta pump blood out of her mouth though?

I don't know about AAAs but pulmonary artery ruptures definitely present like this as do esophageal variceal bleeds.

 

[Medic741]

Guy flipped his car going ~100 mi/hour into the woods. Looked like a can of red spray paint had exploded in the vehicle. Only intact remains were what looked like a half slab of ribs

This I do not know. I can only tell you what I saw and what I was told by the CICU nurses. Perhaps there was a trauma with associated GI bleed, MVA type of thing?

Ruptured esophageal varices

 

[freedoctor17]

This girl was in the hospital for swallowing batteries. She said she needed them because she was a cyborg.

 

[calivianya]

I watched someone die once.

I mean, I've seen a lot of people die, but 99% were already unconscious, so it was more of a coma -> death transition than an awake and talking to me -> death transition. I've only seen that once.

She was a dialysis patient, known DVTs in her legs. She was also a DNR. I noticed her heart rate jump up and went into her room. She started telling me she couldn't breathe and was in the middle of a full blown panic attack. I figured she'd turned one of those DVTs into a PE, and yelled for one of my coworkers to page the doc while I was putting a nonrebreather on her. She stared me right in the eyes and had a grip on my arm so hard I had fingernail marks the next day. I watched her mouth go from gasping to totally ajar and watched her pupils blow, and of course, felt her lose her grip on my arm. Didn't even need to look at the monitor to know what just happened.

Extra points for her looking like that scene with dead Elise from Insidious after she died, facial expression frozen in complete fear, like she'd seen something really horrible. Sort of wondered later if the afterlife was real and she'd seen what hell looked like as she'd gone.

0/10, would not recommend, didn't sleep well the next day. I've seen a ton of crazy things but literally making eye contact with someone while her pupils blew was by far the most unsettling.

 

[extramilemed]

One time a kid came in tripping on some drugs to the ED and bit a police officer. We were looking for his dad, who happened to be high too and kept reaching into people's pockets when they were not looking.

There was another time this boy came in with a whole necklace stuffed up his urethra. The chief of the urology department said that was the first time he had ever seen that.

 

[Dr. Brightside]

Ablation gone wrong in an EP clinic. Somehow he ends up bleeding into his pericardium, goes into arrest. They start doing chest compressions and scramble to find a surgeon. Finally the surgeon comes and cuts the guy open - they can't get an OR so they do it in the procedure room. The surgeon has to literally scoop the clotted blood around his heart with his hands. He ended up living.

That was my first experience in any clinical setting. I now work in a primary care office where the most intense things we see are low-grade fevers.

 

[frosted2]

This isnt quite a shadowing experience but when I was UG circa 1979-1980, I worked on the campus volunteer ambulance corp as well as the ER/ED when the new University Hospital opened up. During the summer, a few of us worked for the New York EMS, which was overwhelmed and underfunded in a city that made the wild west look like a church picnic, before Times Square became like Disneyland. On a warm summer night we went to a shooting victim on the street who. later I found missed the brunt of a shotgun blast getting a few pellets in arm/shoulder. There wasnt much of a crowd gathered but I saw a guy in a longer trench coat which struck me as odd at it was a warm night. Later at the ER, the paramedic was talking to a police officer at the desk and I noticed down the hall of the hospital was the guy in the long coat. I nudged my partner who nudged the cop. The cop looked up and pulled out his gun, still a revolver. The coat on the guy opened a little and he was carrying something. The cop took aim and yelled something. I saw the guy pull out a sawed off shotgun but before he could get it up the copy fired blowing him away in the hallway of the ER. I found a new job a few days later

Holy crap. Talk about importance of situational awareness!!

 

[mimelim]

Jesus thats nuts. How does a ruptured aorta pump blood out of her mouth though?

I don't know about AAAs but pulmonary artery ruptures definitely present like this as do esophageal variceal bleeds.

Aneurysms can erode into just about anything, just need to be in close proximity. Rupture into cava you get a fistula, rupture into retroperitoneum you get belly or back pain +/- hemorrhagic shock, rupture into your GI track you get a GI bleed.

I will say that it is hard to imagine that the bowel would be stuck down on the aorta and not simply be pushed aside by the aneurysm growth. When people with AAA get an associated GI bleed, it is usually from a proximal suture line issue or some sort of endograft issue. I did have a case 3 or so months ago where we literally had GI with a scope + balloon tampenoding the esophagus trying to maintain control while I was spinning the hybrid table c-arm around him. There was maybe 10-12 units of blood on the ground, the c-arm and gastroenterologist. I got a balloon up in the Kommerell's and we finally stabilized. Stented both the esophagus and the Kommerell's and got the patient back to ICU. The family withdrew care several days later, which was a little upsetting given how insistent that we go about the previously mentioned fairly 'heroic' measures.

 

[DoctorSwagger]

I shadowed a neonatologist and one of the pre matures babies had part of his small intestine sticking out of his umbilicus. They had to wrap it to keep it erect to make sure there are no kinks.


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[CharmCity94]

All 3 of my craziest story's were from a 4-5 week shadowing "internship" in Spain.

1. I saw a leg amputation on a guy that was awake during the procedure. The surgeons were cracking jokes with each other during the surgery, which was a little disturbing since the patient was awake. I got to hold the amputated leg afterward though.

2. Brain surgery was super boring actually, having to wait hours for the brain activity to go down before the surgeons could proceed. It was super cool seeing someone's brain though.

3. Probably the saddest thing I've ever witnessed was when I was shadowing Oncology. I was in the room when the patient was told she had terminal cancer... I don't think I'll ever forget the crying and screaming. Meanwhile I'm dead-silent awkwardly standing in the corner.

Last one was in the states, observing my first knee replacement. Bone. Flying. Everywhere. I loved it.

 

[857770]

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?"

I did a rotation and witnessed something similar: the patient was very compliant, but she disagreed with the doctor a lot. The doctor said, "okay, it is your funeral." The patient responded, "I'm not dying because I am switching to a much better doctor." Other doctors and patients did not care for this doctor.