I'm in nursing school and was in the middle of an extremely, extremely boring clinical shift today in the ED. Suddenly...

I'm in nursing school and was in the middle of an extremely, extremely boring clinical shift today in the ED. Suddenly, the medics brought in a dude who had gone into full cardiac arrest twenty minutes earlier while at a family reunion at a nice restaurant. I got pulled in with the code team as everyone went to work on this guy and got put on chest compressions. His chest was already caved in from the firefighters working on him on the way over. I pumped for about three minutes, then alternated out with an RN, then got back on, with us switching out periodically. They blasted the patient with epinephrine four times, gave him two hits on the defibrillator, and all of a sudden his heart started again. We worked on him for another five minutes until he was stable, and then he got transferred to the ICU. I doubt he'll make it in the long (or even medium term), but last I heard, he was with his wife and kids and critical but stable. We saved the dude's life and at least gave his family the chance to say goodbyes.

I just thought this was an exciting thing to share, and was wondering if anyone else has any stories like this.

pic barely related. this is what the room looked like when we were finished, with less blood.

Nice, OP. I just finished an EMT course this summer and want to get into nursing eventually myself. Love the story.

I haven't been able to see much action yet.

I did a few clinical rotations as part of our program. One was a night shift in the ER at a hospital. Saw some pretty cool shit.

Most exciting thing was probably this psyche patient. She was screaming, kicking and generally just being crazy throughout the entire night. At around 3AM the doctor and nurse go in to check on her. The nurse lifts up the patients eyelid to check her pupils and the patient's eyeball just falls out.

Like it's just dangling on her cheek.


The doctor freaks out and left the room leaving just myself, the nurse and the patient and we're just like "Seriously?"

The best part is the patient just takes their eyeball which is dangling there on her cheek and pops it back into place like it's no big deal and it happens all the time.

Also had a dude come in one at another rotation. The story was he was on his way to a job interview when he got jumped by some guys. They beat the shit out of him really bad. He lost conciousness. Couldn't remember where he was or what he was doing apart from the job interview. His teeth were all smashed up and his face was busted. The people also pissed on him apparently. Like all over his head and face, etc. It was pretty bad.

The staff was questioning him asking him what happened, if he knew who did it etc. I guess it was all too much for him and he started to break down and cry. It was pretty crazy.

Nice OP
You may be a faggot but you weren't one today
Keep up the good work m80

...

Nice, "good" stories. That is fucking nuts with the eyeball. One of my professors was just telling us she had a psych patient bust out of restraints and scoop his own eyeball out and throw it at her.

I got into nursing because I wanted to see some crazy shit, but I figured you'd slowly start to accumulate wacky experiences over time. Literally from the first minute of the first clinical, I was seeing the absolutely craziest shit I've ever seen - way beyond what I could have imagine. On my first shift, I saw a dude who'd been bit by a Thai Spitting Cobra he owned. They'd rushed antivenom over from the zoo (I live in a major northeastern city) and he had to spend three days in the MICU intubated until he ended up on my telly stepdown unit. He told me he had 30 poisonous snakes and just got lazy and tried to feed her with his bare hand instead of using his hook. I was doing patient education later and was like, "my education to you is to feed your snake the right way you maniac."

I've also seen some wounds and injuries that are so horrifying that you realize instantly that no person who has ever made a horror movie has ever worked in the medical field. Some of the pressure ulcers and other wounds I've seen exceed any media. I had a patient last week with a Stage 4 down to her spine, and so large you could fit both of your fucking fists into the hole (and I more or less did while changing her dressing).

I cannot believe how fulfilling even the minuscule amount of clinical experiences I've had has been. I urge you to follow-through on your interest in nursing if you're interested and cut out for it. Certainly you'd be well postured academically, mentally and psychologically given your previous experience. It's not for everyone though.

I am back working on a second career at age 33 and my life was devoid of meaning before I did this. After what happened today, I feel like I was literally born for that experience and everything to come.

RNfag here. Good job keep at it. Just don't get jaded. When you enter the door your there for work but when you leave it stays there.

Had my first code this year myself after 5 years of being an RN. Dude didn't make it but we kept him alive long enough for his family to say goodbye. Gotta take the small victories when you can.

Yeah, thanks for the words.

I plan on getting into ICU nursing. Do a year or two of traveling then work on getting into CRNA school and finish out there. I feel like Sup Forums and just the internet in general prepared me a lot for working in healthcare. You get exposure to a lot of grotesque shit and it kind of desensitizes you over time. I haven't seen anything exceedingly horrible yet (apart from the eye ball thing, but that was more surreal than anything) so I'm not saying I've seen it all by any means, but I think it will be less of a shock to me than the average person.

I was bbq chicken today and totally forgot about it and they whole thing caught on fire and i had to think very quickly and i put my dog water bowl on the flames.
I saved the chicken.

stop playing god you faggots
he was meant to die
stop fucking around
that really fucking pisses me off

Sorry dawg gonna be an asshole here, if the pic posted is from a strict arrest, (non traumatic) an open thoracotomy was preformed as a last resort. Cpr is mostly boring and why the hell wasnt there a thumper on th pt?

OP did you jam your finger in his butthole?

And non specialized nurses suck ass btw all they do is tinder and start ivs

I don't think looking at nasty pictures is as much preparation as the academic component and pure motivation. Every time I see something that frightens me or disgusts me, I basically just silently tell myself, "be a man and get it done." It never fails. It's a job that most people don't want or couldn't handle, and for that reason you get a lot of respect for doing it, and it's well deserved. I don't say that to toot my own horn. I say it because my entire life that's how I looked at nurses and noticed everyone around me felt the same way - and that's why I wanted to do it in the first place. I cannot believe how impressive the nurses and professors I deal with are also, so I try and emulate them and live up to what I see them doing.

Good luck man. If you really want it, it isn't even that hard to get through.

Nice. What kind of unit are you on? Do you have an ASN, BSN, MSN, etc?

No cell phones on the unit

I don't know what that pic depicts, as stated in my OP. I assume that's a trauma situation. There was very little blood in the event today.

And I'm not sure what arena you're doing CPR in, but when you're surrounded by doctors, nurses, RNs, techs, etc, working in concert, watching them do ultrasounds of the dead heart in holds during compressions, pumping amp after amp of epinephrine and other shit into him, 12 lead, defibrillator, etc, it's pretty exciting. Also, I have never seen a "thumper" in real life, and I don't see how that's necessary when you have the necessary manpower.

Are you a medic or in a hospital?

No, haven't had to do that yet, but I have done nastier, weirder shit than that.

Nurses boring ass sluts pretending to be medics...work somewhere with proper funding... if your county cant afford a lucas youre a niggar

eiou

BSN and orthopedics.
Hips, knees and back all day. With the occasional little old lady who fell.

Gonna get my WOCN cert and become a wound nurse next.

My county is Suffolk - aka Boston. If you work in a hospital that's owned by whatever hick-ass county you live in, I'm pretty sure you're the bitch.

At the risk of sounding butthurt, I have to say I'm very curious what the anger is all about anyway. I assume you aren't an EMT, paramedic, nurse, or tech at all, and that you've only seen a CPR device in a YouTube video or when the firefighters let you climb up on the engine at the July 4th parade.

At first I was thinking about going wound-ostomy because it's so interesting and the healing process is such an amazing thing to watch up close and document on an ongoing basis. That shit is just so nasty though. If you do it, you will truly be doing God's work though.

Aw shit dood you a MA fag? Get out once you get your degree. I'm in Seattle. They paid for me to move out here from Newburyport, lots of opportunities for new grads out here. Boston is fuck hard to break into as a new grad.

how many laws did you just break by posting this shit lol have fun in jail

Zero, you retard. He didn't even violate HIPAA regulations.

actually because he didn't mention any names, he didn't break confidentiality laws or HIPAA rules

Yeah, that's my concern. I'd love to head out there. Have some friends in Philly so might head that way too.

Well done. My GF is an RN, she has a million stories like this. And yes, he likely will not make it much longer, but as you said he has a chance to say goodbye.

If you have any nursing questions I'm happy to do my best to answer them.

HIPPA is an odd beast, you can talk a lot about your day as long as someone can't figure out who it is. What that means can vary wildly from patient specific identifiers (name, don't, ssn) to rare diagnose (if it's a disease with only 8 people world wide then it's easier to figure out) or incredibly specific things (lion tattoo in a town of 100 people). For the most part op was food. Some embellishments and obfuscation is good as well.

holy fuck brooooo. (good job though mate)

It is indeed. Actually if I'm correct you can't even mention a patient's exact age if they're over 90 because that is too risky to identify them.
What kind of nursing is she in.

I'm happily married now but in an alternate universe it would be awesome to be with a nurse. She must be one freaky girl, is my guess.

Fuck me dob* op was good*
Homie I gots to sleep for my shift. Can't pass dilaudid with too little sleep. Then the IVDAers might actually like me.

I love that dirty water but it's shit to break into as a green rn. I did 5 years in SNFs and ARUs before I could get into a hospital. Go west find a new grad residency. They paid me to move, everything car, apt, flight. I'm recommending a scandanavian country in Seattle. Treated me all right.
Get your BSN.
You broke your cherry and some ribs, good start for ICU. Good luck.

She's running an Alzheimers unit atm, but she's always liked elder care best. Tried a hospital for a month or so, but hated it because the patient turnover was so quick.

Have a good night man. Good chatting with you

>girlfriend is overweight, I am skin and bones
>neither of us pay attention to our diets
>living in our first house, we bought pizza every week
>eat like a greasy king and queen
>one day her gut just inflates
>user wtf is going on I feel gross
>a bruise forms under her left rib
>She just starts fucking screaming
>I start to call the hospital
>user no, just call my mom
>wtf you bitch i'm calling an ambulance
>user no, that cost 3 thousand dollars just call my mom
>I call her mom, she asks me to hand her the phone
>Her mom:
What? What are you talking about? No it isn't. No, you're fine. Whatever! The same thing happened to me! YOU'RE MY DAUGHTER. It's completely normal! WELL I HAD MY ENTIRE UTERUS REMOVED! Whatever, if this was a real emergency you would have called an ambulance. Well I don't know what to tell you!
>Her mom hangs up
>I am asking WTF do we do
>I don't have a drivers license but I am willing to drive her to the hospital
>I feel like it's probably too late now to reverse whatever the fuck happened
>bruise is already gone
>girlfriend chugs like a liter of water
>we both go back to playing videogames