Hospital Horror Stories & Medical Madness

In 1998 I suffered a crushing injury to my left leg.
After more than two years the battle was lost and it was amputated above the knee.
My medical records from that time stand almost three feet high.
The things that were done to me, the mistakes that were made are staggering in proportion!

I’ll start with post-op of the first of three amputations.

I was back in my room from recovery and the nerve block was rapidly wearing off. Every one to two minutes my stump would spasm and my whole left side would seize up solid.
After say an hour or so of this the nurse finally made her second visit, that I knew of anyway and agreed to call my pain management doctor.
This doctor was and is awesome, one of the very best doctors I’ve ever had!
She walked in just as my stump went full spasm, she still jokes to this day about watching my eyes pop right out of my head.
She said, I’ll be right back and spun on her heal. In what seemed like an hour but was really only a few minutes she returned holding two hypodermic‘s.
The doctor just smiled as she stuck the first in my IV line and I felt a warmness begin to spread through me and I could feel my stump relaxing.
As she inserted the second needle her smile widened as she lowered face close to mine and said simply, ”Good Night”.
I watched her smiling face as it raced away from me as though I was looking backwards at her through binoculars and then, wink, there was darkness.
I wish the rest of my stay during those two weeks could have had happy endings like that day did.
I was on a morphine pump that I could give myself bolus’s with and I was burning through bags of the medication.
I clearly remember my doctor having a discussion to change the mix of the bags with the pharmacist near the end of my bed.
Being so long ago I don’t remember the amount of morphine to saline but I knew it then.
Later that night I remember the nurse on the 3-11 shift literally running up and down the corridor passing out the 11:00 meds to everyone. She was the only RN on a floor that had 31 patients. It’s close to midnight and she, a very sweat woman came busting in and slapped the new bag in my morphine pump. I was so happy, as I had called for meds over 30 minutes earlier.
As soon as she activated the machine I hit the bolus button.
Oh, I do remember the dose,10 mg but not the timing or the amount of the bolus. I don’t remember the mix either but I know I did then for sure. Time went on and I began feeling strange.
At one point the aide came in for the normal temp and BP check and I told her something was wrong, that I didn’t feel right. She just ignored me and tried to put the BP cuff on me anyway. I yanked my arm away and said again, somethings wrong.
Now, I am NEVER a combative patient, ever, unless of course meds have turned me into a demon. (don’t give me ketamine, that’s my cuckoo juice)
The aid threw the cuff in the cart and stormed out saying, “ if I have time I’ll come back”.
I got worse and worse.
I’m pretty sure I had given myself at least a couple of bolus’s after that and I remember the pump sending a timed dose.
Then next thing I remember there was vomit everywhere and I know I went out again. I think in my confusion I actually gave myself another bolus that did it.
Again I woke up and grabbed the garbage can.
It was then the the image hit hit me.
The doctor and pharmacist talking about changing the mix.
I reached over and grabbed the morphine pump turned it around and yup the mix was different.
That poor nurse, in her frantic racing around to care for her THIRTY ONE patients she had missed the script change in the notes and on the bag. I was getting TEN TIMES the amount of morphine I should be.

This one incident created shockwaves across the country. Standards of how meds are handled changed country wide. Now TWO people are required to inspect and sign off on all meds before the meds can be given to patients.
Some of you doctors may remember this....
In one way it was a blessing.
If that had happened to ANY other patient on the floor the hospital would have had a corpse on their hands.

The aide quit the next morning and I confronted the chief administrator in my room the next day as well.
I told her that if that nurse had a single black mark put on her record or was punished in any way I’d sue the hospital and create a nationwide scene. It was the hospitals fault for severely under staffing that floor. As I said, that poor nurse ran herself ragged that night trying to care for her patients.
I can still hear her feet pounding up and down the corridor.

Got a story of a Hospital Horror?








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originally posted by: PiratesCut
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Definitely a terrifying hospital horror story man, assuming you're trying to post from a hospital and the post was eaten. Is the Hospital Monster related to the Sock Monster?

a reply to: PiratesCut
That's what happens when you write out your title and then "click". The thread uploads automatically without waiting for the text. Your first "click" needs to be in the "text" field.

Don't worry, you have loads of time to edit the post and get your text in.

Ignore the jokes of the members who have seen this happen before.

a reply to: PiratesCut

+30h labor, three PDA's, the last PDA tube they botched and it slipped out while they transfered me to the operation room over the patient bridge. Doctor came in in the 29h hour checked down there and scrambled for the operation room shouting why this has not been seen before.

After around 18 hours I already begged for a cesarean because I felt that something isn't right. I was told they don't do cesareans that fast, from a freshly bed raised midwife, at 10pm. With a tone that makes me still angry and want to punch her fat ass for it.

Down in the operation room, I told them I can wiggle my toes and that I feel them several times, they ignored it and they cut into me, doing the cesarean. I shat myself from pain and the last thing I heard while screaming for my life was a surgeon saying "yuk".

Then lights went out and I woke up not even knowing where my newborn was. Later that day, they wanted me to pee but I could not so they held me down to forefully insert a catheter there. Because of the 30h labor and refused cesarean, we both had to spend two weeks in ICU.

a reply to: PiratesCut

I had to get my gallbladder removed, guess I was born with a tiny tiny mis-shaped gallbladder.
While I was getting prepped for surgery I was asked if I wanted to be an organ donor. This lady came in, all smiles.
I said no, if looks could kill I’d be dead. There was nothing subtle, she was angry as the devil. I actually believe they would have killed me if I said yes.

My dad had a soldier in the army, he needed to have his leg amputated. He went in for surgery at the military hospital, and they amputated the WRONG leg. This is not a joke, and is 100% true. So he ended up losing both legs. His son had some mental issues and that happening to his dad didn’t help, so the son committed suicide. Super super sad situation.

I saw a young lady come in for the vid test.
They put a hood over her head and sprayed a fart spray(I'm spitballing her)into it.
"Could you smell that?" The nurse said.
"Yeah"
""OK, your good!"

I giggled a bit. Much better than the brainhole dissolving cancer swabs with the nano worms on them forsure, I thought.

Sorry guys, I blew it.
At least this time I did not delete but carried on and wrote it up....

Enjoy!!! 😎

OK, so you’ve been here 11 years and are a Pro....
How many mistakes did you make your first month or so?
Remember getting chewed on for making the simplest?
Yeah, I see you....

Thanks for the reply though.

Sincerely.......😎







a reply to: Nyiah




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Jeez op. That sounds like a pretty traumatic experience.
You sound pretty tough.

a reply to: PiratesCut

Had a giant cyst behind my knee for years, went to several different doctors, no one did anything about it, as the years rolled, it made it impossible to straighten my leg entirely, this had an impact on my ability to walk, was out of balance, this created a chain reaction in my spine as i already have lots of damage there, eventually, after the cyst had exploded and filled up multiple times and i was in a condition that people could have just called me "the crooked man" i marched in to the hospital one last time, and told the doctor to give me a knife, cause i am going to operate on myself, he agreed to cut my leg open and remove the cyst, after a couple of years of physiotherapy i have gotten my about 90% back on the mobility and function of my leg and spine.

It left some damage that can not be fixed, and the giant cyst was creating enough pressure to cause nerve damage in my knee.

If only they had just removed it when it first appeared and i went to the hospital for the first time.

When my oldest son was 5 he was in after school care that thy held in the gym of the school.

And they had carpet mats spread out on the floor and the kids were jumping over them, well my son hit one and it slipped and he fell back and slammed his head hard .

He was sent to the nurse who basically said he was fine and sent him back to the gym.

We were told that he hit his head when we picked him up. But that he was fine according to the nurse.

We took him home and he went to bed a little early and woke in the middle of the night screaming to my wife that his head hurt.

And he was in and out of consciousness so we rushed hm to the emergency room .

The doctors looked him over and said d he seems fine because he was able to answer some of their questions while he was
awake but would fall right back to sleep awake

And tried to send us HOME my wife said no this is not normal at all from him please do something

they said the only thing they could do was a cat scan ? And they did not have a tech there and would have to call one in who lives 30 minutes away and did we really want to go through all that and tried to send us home again.

My wife said get the tech here now we are not leaving.

Well we wait while our 5 year old child is literally dying and when the tech finnaly gets there and gives him a cat scan all of a sudden every one is ancy and running around taking him into another room and giving him a catheter

While he screams out Daddy my pepe and Im like WTF as security and doctors come to me and wife to tell us he an epidermal Hematoma or bleeding in his brain.

He was life flighted to children's mercy hospital in KCMO and had to have emergency surgery

ILL tell you what I dont care how Athiest or anit god or church or religion your are

When your 5 year old son is dying and in emergency brain surgery you >YOU START PRAYING

a reply to: XipeTotex

If only they had just removed it when it first appeared and i went to the hospital for the first time.

There is this show called Dr. pimple popper. Yes sounds nasty, but most of the cases are not pimples but people with cysts and other lymphatic issues. Some of the cysts are enormous and greatly impact the quality of life of these people. Many just like you have gone to dr. After dr. Without help.

a reply to: XipeTotex

Glad it did not turn out worse.

I could write horror stories for hours.

The day they first gave me ketamine as a pain med up at Mass General in Boston was crazy.
I tore the hand railings off my hospital bed and destroyed it to a degree it was unrepairable. I then went into the bathroom after having gotten my wheelchair and tour the sink off the wall. I then left my room sent a crash cart flipping down the corridor.
Did no one hear me tearing my room apart?

According to my wife and a nurse it took 8 men 30 minutes to get me under enough control for someone to inject me and knock me out.
I dislocated an elbow on one guy, broke three fingers on another and knocked one guy out cold.
I remember nothing of it.

Spending all those years on commercial fishing boats made me stronger than most people can imagine...









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“When your 5 year old son is dying and in emergency brain surgery you >YOU START PRAYING”

FACT!!!

I am so very happy you did not lose him!


a reply to: sciencelol

I was the guy everyone came to when something needed to be lanced or stitched offshore. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for the boy’s.
Again, A subject I could spend hours writing about....


a reply to: JAGStorm

originally posted by: PiratesCut

“When your 5 year old son is dying and in emergency brain surgery you >YOU START PRAYING”

FACT!!!

I am so very happy you did not lose him!


a reply to: sciencelol

Well 25 years later Im not so sure

Just kidding damm

I have sent that dr from children's Mercy so many tys over the years

originally posted by: PiratesCut
I was the guy everyone came to when something needed to be lanced or stitched offshore. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for the boy’s.
Again, A subject I could spend hours writing about....


a reply to: JAGStorm

People forget in the old days this is how EVERYTHING was taken care of, cut or burnt out.

We had a big scare about ten years ago. Sarge says 10 yrs.
My oldest daughter dropped in a rock climbing gym and broke her back.
She had major surgery but has since married and now has a son. She had to have it by cesarean section.
She will have lifelong consequences but she was not far away from being a paraplegic

a reply to: sciencelol

I have seen men horribly maimed, lost overboard, guy caught up in the winch when it was hauling back and decapitated.
Stitches, broken bones, Cysts, boils and bunions.
Guy blinded in the engine room by hot diesel fuel, Guy fell from the mainmast landing half on half off the hatch cover, he died. The guy on the Massachusetts went under the dumping deck without properly securing the brake handle it was smashed flat by it before my eyes. etc etc etc
I’ve not even begun to talk about heavy weather...Phew



a reply to: JAGStorm

a reply to: PiratesCut

Well that sounds pretty horrific!

Makes you appreciate being safe and double checking everything right!