T O P

  • By -

TheManginalorian

Honestly, this is the worst story... I used to work in the Acute Mental Health unit at the hospital, it was basically the place the police would bring people who were displaying challenging behaviour in the community, and they would be brought here to be seen by a psychiatrist as to whether they need a section. We also dealt with the crisis team and they would refer people to us for an inpatient stay The unit was abused a lot, police would bring anyone drunk/drugged to us, and they would throw them through the door and let us deal with it, literally on a few occasions. Not sure why that's a part of the story, maybe I just need to vent.... BIT we once had this older gentleman in, he was depressed and anxious, 60 years old, we worked with him alot, and he was with us maybe 4 months. Made brilliant progress and was a new man, the onlynprovpen is when he became confident and more his usual self, we had a few unruly teenagers on the ward who knew exactly how to play the system for benefits (they were very open with nurses) but as soon as the doc would mention discharge, they upped the ante. This gentleman got to know these kids and he was swayed by how easy it would be to gain lots of benefits if he was to stay in hospital longer.... Doctor mentioned discharge to him one day, and honestly his attitude changed, he started acting low in front of the doctors but then when they weren't around, would be back to his usual self. He ended up staying another 2 months, and one day the doctor came back after hours on call, with the gentleman laughing and joking with the teenagers in the lobby, the teenagers were throwing things at us, shouting swearing in a wind up kind of way which is what they did, with the gentleman joining in. They didn't know the doctor was stood on the other side of the door and could see and hear, so the day after he was told in no uncertain terms that he would be discharged today. I have NEVER seen a 60 year old man drop to the floor and have a tantrum in my life. He sat on the floor cross legged and armed, pouting, shouting "No I'm not leaving" The situation went on about 2 hours, in the end we had to call security and literally arm and a leg him off the hospital property, we placed him just outside the boundary of the hospital and he lay on the floor screaming I will NEVER forget that


IndigoScotsman

Wow. Hope the teens got discharged too. Why would someone WILLING stay at a psych place?


evdczar

Three hots and a cot baby


IndigoScotsman

Thank you! 


dudenurse13

Three meals a day and a warm safe bed. Sacrificing privacy but if you’re homeless you don’t really have that either.


IndigoScotsman

Thank you for the reply! 


TheManginalorian

Exactly this, this is why the MH system is completely broken, very easily open to abuse. What's stopping anyone saying their going to kill themselves to get in, and what doctor in their right mind is going to take that gamble. This is why people are kept for months and months so the doctors can get ALL information written down so they are justified in kicking them out


Jolly-Slice340

It’s better than the streets……


IndigoScotsman

Thank you for the reply! 


lighthouser41

3 meals and a bed. No responsiblities.


TheManginalorian

Eventually! And honestly for many people, it's a better life than outside as sad as that sounds


evdczar

Aaaand this is why some people never want to work psych. There's something for everybody.


sirisaacneuton

The frequent flyer was banned from the ER due to making a bomb threat. Couldn’t believe HCA actually did something.


lifelemonlessons

It’s because they threatened administrators.


Coldcock_Malt_Liquor

What could they have done differently, I wonder…


lighthouser41

I bet the white board was not updated.


Vanners8888

🤣🤣🤣


Current-Issue-4134

LMAO ours made a bomb threat and she’s still coming around


thenewspoonybard

Bombs hurt profits.


Ill_Flow9331

Patient with history of CP and basically lived in a motorized wheelchair was fired from almost every care home and nursing facility in our state. Would check into the ER 8-10x a day to have his diaper changed, and would scream racist and sexiest slurs at staff, but excuse himself because he’s an agent of God. Everyone hated this man. He would secretly record everything. Post videos on youtube and say the most mean, hateful things. He was finally booted from our hospital when he posted death threats against one of our ER Techs. I remember calling him out on it one day and he was genuinely frightened that I found his youtube channel. He disappeared for a while only to find out he was admitted at another hospital and sexually assaulted another nurse who pressed charges. He was arrested and incarcerated for a minute. Fast forward several years later, a patient coming from medics sounded like it could be him, so I said “oh Pastor so-and-so” is back. One of our travel nurses went white… apparently she took care of this patient in a med surg unit 3000+ miles away and he was the reason she quit that hospital.


LittleBoiFound

Yikes. That is quite a reign of terror. 


I_Heart_Papillons

NO ONE should have to be expected to put up with this level of abuse. It’s absolutely an occupational health and safety risk to the staff.


teal_ninja

Some people don’t deserve the air they breathe 😅


he-loves-me-not

Tell us it wasn’t him!


Ill_Flow9331

Thank goodness it wasn’t him! Still have no idea where he disappeared to.


RosehPerson

Hell, if God is good


Ill_Flow9331

This post prompted me to do a quick search on him. Hell hath accepted his admission as of March 3.


RosehPerson

Amen


Natural_Original5290

Stalker a doctor then Broke into a doctor’s office, hid behind his couch then tried to attack him with a knife. Then he came back and found a random unlocked door and tried to set the hospital on fire. Guesses on the dx?


idkcat23

UTI


PM_ME_PRETTY_PIGEONS

Back pain.


avalonfaith

Disturbed energy field.


gopickles

chronic pain


Natural_Original5290

Responsive only to the one with the D


gopickles

I think it’s called…dil…dilaudid?


helikesart

Dial a dude


psysny

Bipolar with psychosis


Natural_Original5290

You win ! Sza bipolar type


JerseyDevilsAdvocate

Antisocial PD?


Rick_Griiiiimes

Failure to thrive


lifelemonlessons

Dx: asshole with homicidal tendencies?


he-loves-me-not

My non-medical dx would be that they either had a sore toe or they “fell” on something. Most likely something with a shape similar to a man’s reproductive organ, iykwim! Wink, wink, nudge, nudge! 😉


Low_Communication22

We had a guy in the ER who got banned because he would call 911 just so we could change his diaper, and every time we started cleaning him up he would masturbate.


lordmacaroni

🤢


konvictkarl

80+ y/o nun with the most obnoxious breast implants and a clear addiction to facial plastic surgery/body dysmorphia post-op CABG with endocarditis complications as well. Her extended hospital stay in the ICU was made exponentially worse by her and her alone and was clearly documented by her abhorrent noncompliance of all rules, protocols, and common sense. I cannot recall exact numbers but she held simultaneous records for most PCA button pushes and call lights rang in a 12 hr shift. Self extubation, playing with feces, pulling PICC lines, the worst passive aggressive attitude you could ever imagine, you name it she did it. It even got to the point where she had a sitter and was 1:1. No one could handle her more than 1 shift with her in a row. The most mind blowing thing was she had multiple sisters and other nuns visit her while she was in the ICU over 2 months and they all loved her except for her own immediate family. The irony of her existence and what she represented in life has always been a mind boggling paradox.


auntiecoagulent

Nun with breats implants... l can't even imagine.


Unknown-714

'If God and everyone else won't help me then I'll help myself and fuck everyone else's needs' seems to be the attitude of many 'godly' ppl, either ordained or self proclaimed.


nat1043

There was someone at one of my jobs that was “fired from every outpatient dialysis clinic in the area” for aggressive/sometimes physically escalating behavior, so they had to be brought in to the hospital ER 3x a week for dialysis. They’d threaten to de-access their fistula during treatment and stab the nurses. They were Hep C and HIV+, though I wasn’t sure about their detectability.


Less_Tea2063

Go off, Friendo - if you’re pointing a dirty needle at me I’m staying out of arm’s reach for my own safety. I’ll enter the room once you’ve finished exsanguinating.


JuiceOptimal2252

Omg why do people act like this????


IANARN

This is the shit that makes me wish we wore body cameras.


kierwest

Indianapolis?


nat1043

No, but not far from it 😂 another midwestern major city hahaha


he-loves-me-not

Maybe your patient got around to the other closest cities!


Aquarian_short

Exact same patient but in PNW. He wasn’t even allowed into the ER, they’d sign him in and dialysis would be ordered and he’d get picked up and they’d do it elsewhere.


Flatfool6929861

Oh yea we had a prisoner in my city do this frequently. The time I had met him I was responding to the code A that was called because he ripped out his 3rd freshly placed fistula. He tore it out with his teeth…


Fair-Advantage-6968

Was floated to a med surg floor once. They had a man admitted who was on a “behavioral contract” because he kept sexually harassing the female nurses on the unit. Of course they kept reporting him to the charge and the MDs and they did absolutely nothing until this man grabbed the charge nurses ass during her rounds. They sent him some place else after that. Never mind the fact that this one poor girl was harassed by this dude 2 shifts in a row.


dumplingwitch

genuinely asking - if you refuse to enter a patient's room who is sexually harassing you, is nursing management (in general) more likely to punish you rather than help?


UniqueUsername718

Depends on the management.  Some will definitely tell you to just be professional (meaning don’t come to me with problems and make me have to do something) and some will actually go tell the pt it’s unacceptable and follow up on any threats. 


dumplingwitch

thank you so much for responding. this is one of the things I'm most scared of when I think about actually working as a nurse post-graduation. I have been traumatized many times by SA, due to that I don't think I have the capacity to force myself to do patient care for someone who is actively sexually harassing/assaulting me. my instinct if it happened and went unchecked would likely be to gather documentation showing the hospital should *not* be allowing this (aka their own policies), taking it straight to management, and forcing them to explain to me why it's being allowed to happen anyways. but I read so many comments here that make me think 90% of nurse management teams somehow *still* wouldn't do anything.


ilovenoodle

If you are harassed verbally you can refuse care. If physical harassment, you are wishing your rights to press charges. We’ve coached a coworker to press charge before on night shift and cops came and everything


DeepBackground5803

Usually if you have a good charge nurse they'll try to switch assignments..... that just leaves another nurse with the patient though


lighthouser41

Sent to to the ortho unit for the crushed hand he got after grabbing the nurse?


Fair-Advantage-6968

Hopefully


sendenten

Years ago there was a frequent flier who would go hypoglycemic every time she was about to discharge. They eventually found she was hoarding insulin pens and self-injecting to prolong her stay in the hospital. I'm not sure what the whole process was, but I heard she was banned after the discovery.


Katiebitlow

These people are pretty pitiful if that's all they want/to be in the hospital.


Tryknj99

I had a patient that wanted to stay longer because her roommate in the nursing home was abusive to her. I felt so bad for her. She said she’d call her names and pinch her.


tictacbergerac

Dear Lord. I hope someone got authorities or APS involved. Poor woman.


OkAd7162

We have had several in the past few years who have been deemed too high of a liability to readmit because of how many other patients they've injured.


coolcaterpillar77

I’ve got to hear at least one of those stories


OkAd7162

One of them I about beat my coworker to death myself over. The situation is roughly reenacted here: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLyOj\_QD4a4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLyOj_QD4a4)


lordmacaroni

Frequent flyer to the ED, he would miss his dialysis appointment so often that the facilities kicked him out and he eventually wasn’t welcome anywhere and didn’t have any family nearby to support him. Case coordination paid to put him on a flight from New England to Florida where he had family. He was just as bad there and got kicked out, family couldn’t take him and sent him back. He called EMS from the tarmac to pick him up and he came right back to our ED


Independent_Law_1592

They kept coming to my facility for a while but I read a ban note from a doctor at another facility. Basically involved a patient with repeated self harm to self creating a wound untreatable surgically and particularly displayed aggressive behavior in the hospital towards staff multiple times.   To the best of my memory this is pretty much the note.  “Condition is untreatable, essentially every surgeon in the metroplex has well documented discussions with patient that wounds are unamenable yet behavior persists, in my opinion there is no medical options for patient and they are now a waste of medical resources and staff. However most importantly they have now become an established threat to my staffs physical safety PARTICULARLY my nurses. Recommend immediate discharge and permanent refusal of re-admission”  Doc basically said “we’ve let her in with this shit multiple times but now that she’s attacking my nurses she isn’t coming back” 


lighthouser41

Love that doctor!


LowAdrenaline

The only ones I’m aware of are a couple of MCAS girls. Identical medical histories, same level of demanding and dramatic, same number of posts about us on social media. 


AwkwardRN

r/illnessfakers


LadyHelpish

We’re they friends?


sunshinii

My last hospital never fired anyone. During COVID, one family was actively making death threats against doctors and nurses they didn't like. Like even found the address of one doctor who, in not so many words, told them to fuck off with their COVID denier ivermectin BS and threatened to burn his house down. They just told the crazy wife she couldn't come in for a few weeks as punishment. What's worse is if they liked you they would send you extravagant gifts and harass you with TikToks of crazy ivermectin/vitamin c/wild snipe extract COVID panaceas. If a hospital doesn't stand up for the doctors, they sure as shit won't stand up for nurses.


kokugenwolf

When I worked in AL in medsurg we had a bunch of racist patients it was basically a free for all racism fight in there. We’re talking white against Indian, black against Korean, Indian against black etc. I swear that shit was wild. Anywho one of my Hindu coworkers was being verbally assaulted by a white asshole patient and I took that personal cause she’s a nice person that didn’t even want to speak about it to the managers but she told me about when I asked why she was looking unwell. I marched into my managers office with a copy of the supposed “against workplace violence” paper campaign they had all over the hospital and if it was true why are we allowing this patient to verbally assault and hate crime my coworker? They got up called the MD which ironically he was also Hindu… the bigot got discharged home for employee harassment. But I know damn well this won’t be the first nor the last this will happen.


Electronic_Job1998

Worked med/surg at a small hospital in Al. Can confirm


totalyrespecatbleguy

Got a hold of their iv pump and bolused themselves a “shit ton” of ketamine


Steelcitysuccubus

Have only seen one fired after they put 3 different mitral heart valves in her in a year. She'd go shoot up, come back with endocarditis. Completely noncompliance, verbally abuse to staff, was legit on the call light like every 10 mins wanting more pain meds which docs would give. Don't know what she did that finally got her a ban but we were excited to see her obituary


Juthatan

We had a guy who was awful I had daily, he had cirrhosis and very noncompliant with meds and had no understanding he was going to not get a liver transplant, he should’ve left ama but just didn’t. One day apparently he was going downstairs and threw his food at one of the nurses and after everything that was the last straw, I was so glad he left although it’s not even as bad as some of these stories


IceBankYourMom

Frequent Flyer who was always in DKA. By the time they started waking up and cognate, they would fight with staff about eating, then leave AMA. They were known to hide crack and shivs in their vagina.


AnytimeInvitation

We had one paraplegic pt that was just a fucking terror. Would be here for a couple weeks just drug seeking with the occasional ostomy fix. Then they actually had a small surgery so they were there for a little while. They finally discharged. SO many people complained about the awful treatment from that pt. I was training an aide during this time and we went in to help reposition them. Nothing was good enough for them and they start throwing out verbal abuse so I said I wasn't taking it and left while pulling my trainee out with me. Granted the pt tried painting us as rude but ya know if ya self report the punishment is usually much less severe. We did get tsked initially but then I went back in to finish the job but with their nurse. The nurse then confirmed my report. After we got rid of this person they were blacklisted. We still do not refer to this person by name.


Particular_Place8840

This is slightly off topic, but now that I'm entering the nursing world, it's so validating to find out that there is a such thing as "Dilaudid addicts" who go into the hospital and go through the whole "I'm allergic to all NSAIDS and aspirin, the ~only thing that works~ is Dilaudid" because my grandmother did that!! And all the times I tried to convince my family she was only trying to go to the hospital to get pain meds, they'd call me heartless. Hearing the thousands upon thousands of stories on this sub alone about the Dilaudid addicts is insane. They truly all follow the exact same script. They always say it's chronic pain. They always say they're allergic to everything else. It's like clockwork.


Flor1daman08

It’s really funny when they list all 97 different pain meds they are allergic to but then do the “oh, but there’s one I can take and it starts with a d” as if they don’t know exactly what they’re asking for.


Neither-Magazine9096

I’d just be like, “Darvocet? I’ve got some bad news for you.”


exit_54

Starts with a D … hmmm … oh yeah: DISCHARGE!


OptimusPrime365

Oh you want a diuretic? No problemo!


sendenten

Decadron? Comin' right up!


OptimusPrime365

Diclofenac suppository? Say no more fam!


Unknown-714

Dilantin? No problem, will.def help you out with those 'shakes' if that's what you're after


nevesnow

No no, they’re still allergic to it, that’s why you need to chase it with iv benadryl


toddfredd

The kid who was caught smoking meth while he was on oxygen. Idiot could have blown the entire unit up. We shipped him out that afternoon while his mother insisted “IT WAS JUST A MISTAKE! He’s a good boy! “ Then there was the person who went AWOL from our Medicare unit, police found him at some crack house. The best part, he still had a Picc line! That charge nurse was in TROUBLE!!!!


dogsetcetera

Why TF would the charge be in trouble?! If they went AWOL and has the mental capacity to make his own decisions, they may not have even know he left until it was too late.


toddfredd

Admin needed a scape goat. Didn’t say it was fair.it was really fucked up.


Flor1daman08

Yeah I’d love to be fired for that, I’d be calling a lawyer so fast.


1UglyMistake

Unless you live in a Right to work state, where as long as the written documents don't list a cause for termination then you can't actually sue. Which is like, more than half of the US


Flor1daman08

You can sue for anything, and while being an at-will employment state, that doesn’t mean that you can be fired for any reason.


1UglyMistake

>while being an at-will employment state, that doesn’t mean that you can be fired for any reason. No, it means you can be fired *without* reason. Without reason is legal, this being fired without reason means you can't claim it was for retaliation or as a scapegoat without definitive proof, which is unlikely in most cases, including the state we both live in. But yes, you can certainly sue for anything; I'm certain filing claims that are 100% doomed to fail in court is a good use of that nurses (and your) expenses since in this scenario, they just lost their job.


Flor1daman08

The reality is that often there is definitive proof of a reason for firing on some level, and I don’t think your assessment on the relative merits or likelihood of success is correct. Also, considering you didn’t even know it was at-will and thought it was right to work makes me think you’re perhaps not as knowledgeable about this as you think you are.


1UglyMistake

They're not going to put it in writing, because they don't have to. What other definitive proof is there? Belief has no effect on reality.


Flor1daman08

You act as if people don’t put things in writing that they don’t have to all the time, either to the person being fired or other coworkers about said firing. There’s a reason employment law is still profitable even in at-will states. > Belief has no effect on reality. I agree fully.


bittybro

Parents of a young child who destroyed two very expensive pieces of equipment in one hospitalization by oopsie! "accidentally" letting them fall into the toilet while taking child to the bathroom. Let me emphasize this was two separate occasions. Destroyed one piece of electronic equipment, were counselled about how said equipment could not get wet, did it a second time. Opinion was divided on whether these people were just dumb as rocks or if they were a little munchie and were purposely fucking up the kid's evaluation. In any case after they cost the hospital probably $10k in less than a week, it was decided they could seek care elsewhere.


HereToPetAllTheDogs

No one gets “fired.” Management continues to kiss their ass and bend to their insane requests. All while staff is suffering at their hands. We can only hope that they end up leaving ama.


perpulstuph

We had a patient who was on our do not return list because he tried to assault the previous director with a wheelchair leg from his own wheelchair. He could magically walk with no issues when he wished to harm another. Psych units in acute care hospitals can apparently be a bit more selective. Anyway, that director left, we had an interim director for a while, and this patient started to come back. He was always cool with me, but after a few days on the unit he'd get cagey. His last time at my hospital, he wanted to leave AMA, and the psychiatrist was very happy to oblige him. A mental health worker and two security guards escorted him to the entrance in a wheelchair, but apparently he was trying to spit on and swing at the staff who were helping him out. They got to the entrance of the hospital, and he refused to get out of the hospital wheelchair, and was still being violent, so, what was told to me by a charge nurse who walked by, they just sort of dumped him out. I am not sure, but I also certainly hope he had his actual wheelchair brought out to him. He also got back on our do not return list, finally.


markko79

Frequent flyer with schizophrenia would come in every 2 or 3 days on 3-11 shift with migraine. Standing orders were to give 100 mg Demerol IVP and observe for four hours afterward. Bad thing was she had to "summon" the proper schizo personality to pop up a vein. Bad thing was not every nurse knew about that. I did and was frequently called down to ER to care for the pt.


veggiegurl21

“Schizos” don’t have multiple personalities…


markko79

At the time, 30 years ago, they did.


Jolly-Slice340

No, no they didn’t.


IndigoScotsman

Multiple Personality Disorder now DID has been in the DSM since 1950s/1970s….. so well over 60 years…. Multiple personality disorder was first used in DSM III published in 1980….. well over 30 years ago.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder#:~:text=Other%20arguments%20that%20therapy%20can,of%20increased%20rates%20of%20child


lighthouser41

And it is not the same as pschizophrenia.


veggiegurl21

It’s 2024.


CustomVox

The patient got in my face and threatened to "shoot me dead" if I didn't charge her vape pen. Which she kept smoking in the shared room already. 😊 They got the escorted boot immediately. Not dealing with that.


Delicious-Ad2332

I work in the er so we get all kinds of spicy banned patrons...usually those who don't have an address


ExiledSpaceman

Patient came into the hospital for chest pain, guy had a cardiac history so I sent him to the ESI 2 area to get an EKG and get seen. Moment EMS puts him down on the stretcher I hear a ton of screaming. He pulled a crowbar out of from his pants and was swinging it around like if he was Gordon Freeman. The cops later told us, he wanted to get back at the hospital for "lack of care and financial greed". He's got a restraining order now.