I think I grew up watching the movie Halloween II way too much…because I am TERRIFIED of hospitals.
If you haven’t seen that particular film, Michael Myers is loose in Haddonfield Memorial Hospital and all hell breaks loose.
Those long hallways still creep me out…
Hospital workers of AskReddit talked about the creepiest things they’ve seen at work.
Let’s see what they had to say.
1. Ugh!
“D**d mouse in patient’s shoe
She had neuropathy in her feet and couldnt feel anything, including weeping ulcers covering both feet, gangrenous toes and apparently a less-than-recently deceased mouse.
A few small amputations, 2 months of IV antibiotics and many wound dressings later, all was well again.
There should be a Foot Watchers group for diabetics to check each other’s feet using the buddy system. Neuropathy is serious business.”
2. Disgusting.
“I worked in the kitchen, so I was the lowly peon delivering food trays.
Delivered to one guy who had a horrendously infected foot. Most of the toes were necrotic and black and the rest of the foot wasn’t doing much better. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was waiting on amputation. His dietary requirements were Diabetic, so it was likely. The room smelled AWFUL.
Anyway, these rooms are small, with typically two beds in them. Because of the smell from his infection, the other bed is empty. I still have to squeeze by the foot of his bed, and as I’m paying attention to the tray so I don’t knock it into equipment, I accidentally brush my leg against his infected foot that he has sticking out of the covers and hanging off the bed.
His big toenail comes off onto my leg. It’s just, stuck to my leg. We look at each other in horror. I clear my throat, ask my usual questions, clear and adjust his table, give him his tray and wish him a good day. I leave calmly, and then run to the nurse’s station and ask for help getting this dude’s entire necrotic toenail (with bonus flesh) off my f**king leg.
The nurse who got it off soaked that portion of my pantleg in some disinfectant liquid that smelled like it could take the paint off a car.”
3. A jolt.
“I am an ICU Nurse. I had a patient who was declared brain stem d**d.
The family did not want him to become an organ donor so we withdrew treatment. I switched off the ventilator, pumps etc and extubated the patient. A few moments later the patient displayed “Lazarus Sign” which is a reflex that causes the patient to raise their arms in the air.
I was by no means new to the role but this really scared me as I had never even heard of it let alone witnesses it.”
4. Awful.
“We had a guy who used to call out to us at all hours of the night because he wanted his wife.
He used to shout “Darling? Darling?!” in the most mournful way, almost like howling.. when you went into him he usually thought you were his wife.
She was his world, and had d**d over a decade ago. It was very sad, and sometimes when I dream, I can hear him calling her.”
5. Being watched.
“I got a fast bleep (ie. drop everything you’re doing and attend this emergency please) one night to a side room on the ward to find no patient in the bed.
Was just about to leave the room and go back out to the nurses station, where there had been a bit of a hubbub when I’d dashed past the first time, when something caught my eye.
Looked up to see a face with wide, slightly wild “psych eyes” peering down at me from a gap in the ceiling tiles. She was a lady waiting for a bed in the psych hospital who’d clearly thought the ceiling was the best place to hide from the people trying to poison her.
Honestly can’t think of another occasion that I’ve been quite so terrified.
Worst thing was that I had to walk (well, dash) back out underneath her to get help from the nurses and security to get her down.”
6. Close call.
“I got called in one night to operate on a patient who tried to slit her own throat.
I mean, it was a dramatic slash but she managed to miss her vital organs.”
7. Body shock.
“Something that sticks with you is seeing a severely injured person in complete shock. Not like WOW my arm is off, but like body shock.
They’re barely aware of the world around them. Eerily calm. Pale, sluggish. Not at all bothered by the bustling room around them.
I remember one person who had a ruptured aortic aneurysm, and due to a communication breakdown we had incised before the patient was asleep (surgeons get tunnel vision in moments like that) and the patient was like “hey that hurts” very chill, almost bored.
It was wild.”
8. First day.
“RN here, when I was a student nurse I arrived at my first ever clinical placement, on my very first day, first thing in the morning, and the nurses had me help them put a guy in a body bag who’d d**d overnight.
Not the most fun introduction to my nursing career, but it sure prepared me for all the s**t I’d have to see and do.”
9. Out of his mind.
“I witnessed a patient of mine pull out his catheter.
With the balloon fully inflated. He made no facial expression.
He was out of his mind. It took 3 of us to get him restrained after that.”
10. Chilling.
“I was a supervisor over the admissions department of the emergency room in a VERY small hospital in a rural area. I had two people call in one night so I had to go in and work by myself.
Around 3am, EMS arrives with a patient that shouldn’t have been brought to our hospital. She was DOA. Being in the admissions department meant I had to do all the paperwork when patients came to the hospital.
I walked into the room with my clipboard and saw a woman on a stretcher with a dog chain around her neck. She had claw marks all around the chain where it looks like she had tried to get the chain off. EMS stated that in the process of hanging herself, she changed her mind but it was too late.
Gave me chills.”
11. OMG.
“I work in an operating room and we frequently get dog bite victims.
Once when I went out to the waiting room to update the parents, the child’s father hands me a trash bag with the head of the dog that bit his son in it. He said he thought we’d need it test for rabies.
Hmmmm… no, animal control would handle that particular task, thank you very much. I took it though. Details…”
What’s the creepiest thing you’ve seen at work?
Tell us your stories in the comments.
Thanks a lot!
