Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
28 Nasty And Revolting Things Medical Workers Witnessed And Badly Wish They Could Unsee
Spending any amount of time around a hospital, clinic, or ER is a reminder that the human body is fascinating and still gross sometimes. And to be honest, a big round of applause with a standing ovation goes to medical professionals because they see things the rest of us only vaguely dread reading about on the internet at 2 a.m. and somehow still manage to eat lunch afterward.
Netizens who happen to be medical professionals were asked to share the grossest, most unforgettable things they’ve ever encountered on the job. And as you might expect, they delivered, and we’ve gathered some of the most shocking, cringe-inducing, and fascinating stories people shared online for your reading enjoyment, I guess.
More info: Threads
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
I’m an OR nurse and I had a patient with 7 maggots wriggling around in a wound on their heel. They were diabetic with a foot infection that they didn’t feel, sat on their porch in the summer and a fly laid eggs in it. Surprisingly that’s not the grossest thing I’ve seen, it didn’t even smell honestly, and I’ve smelt a lot of smelly wounds.
RELATED:
#2
A funginating cancer wound on the neck with maggots. Once the maggots were cleaned out, it looked like a honeycomb... because there were EGGS
#3
Elderly woman with apparent intestinal obstruction. Sigmoidoscopy opened an area of volvulus and the pressure head blew feces over the physician and the entire room. Took weeks to clean the room. Don’t know about the unlucky physician.
UnclePanda 7 hours ago
The last thing I saw before I conked out for a colonoscopy was a nurse wearing a full length vinyl gown, haircover, booties, gloves, and a full face shield. My last two thoughts were "I hope she gets paid extra," and "Remember this remember this remember this!"
Emergency departments are often far less "clean" and controlled than most people imagine. In practice, clinicians routinely deal with exposure to bodily fluids, infected wounds, strong odors, and other distressing sights while still needing to stay focused, calm, and respectful toward patients.
As described by Diversity Nursing, much of this work is simply part of the job whether it’s cleaning up, changing dressings, or managing catheters. Medical professionals tend to be at the center of these situations because of their constant bedside involvement, which means they are frequently the first to handle the most physically demanding and messy aspects of treatment.
#4
Not the grossest but one of the weirdest was foamy 💩. When I opened the cap on the specimen cup, it just poured over the top like that expanding insulation foam.
#5
Farm accident degloving. Beard got caught in a machine and pulled the skin like a hangnail all the way to the bottom. The medics brought his testicles in a bag.
#6
Breast cancer growing out of a woman’s chest. She was in denial about the recurrence of the cancer so she just put a big old gauze bandage over it.
(Hippopotamus hahahaha)
Beyond the day-to-day exposure, there are also cases where what looks visually alarming signals something far more serious underneath. As noted in prevention-focused medical discussions from Prevention, some conditions appear shocking because they involve rapid changes in tissue, circulation, or infection that visibly affect the body.
These outward signs are not always indicators of pain level, but they can reflect urgent internal problems such as severe infection or tissue damage. In emergency medicine, these visual cues are especially important because they often help clinicians quickly identify life-threatening conditions that require immediate intervention.
#7
ICU RN: once had a guy’s necrotic toe fall off when I took off his sock. Just PLOP onto the bed. Scooped it into a specimem cup and set it aside for pathology
#8
How to narrow it down, but this one probably takes the win.
Extensive radiation damage to the chest led to loss of the sternum, creating an open defect where the beating heart was visible within the pericardium. Could watch the heart beating as I’m talking to them.
#9
Prob not the worst I've seen but worst to me personally. Assisting in an intubation of a drunk guy. Tube was in, guy started vomiting only partially digested beef stew. I couldn't let go of the tube or we'd lose the airway. Somehow it managed to get inside my glove and all over me. And the smell, I don't know what he was drinking but it's the only time in my career I've gagged.
A major reason many of these cases become so severe before reaching care is delay in seeking treatment. Davis Adams highlights that patients often wait because they believe their symptoms are not serious enough, expect them to resolve on their own, or attempt to manage them at home.
They also note that a significant portion of critically ill patients arrive at emergency departments after more than 24 hours of delay, which can be especially dangerous in time-sensitive conditions like cardiac events, strokes, infections, and acute abdominal emergencies. What begins as something mild or uncertain can escalate quickly into life-threatening complications when treatment is postponed.
#10
A patient just covered in millions of bed bugs and bed bug carcasses. Everytime they moved a pile of bed bugs and their shells would fly off. Many many yrs ago for me but the visual stays.
Some people are dealing with so much.
Ms.GB 7 hours ago
We had a lady come it with some kittens. It was obvious she was a hoarder because even her van was hoarded, she just had a tiny spot cleared by the windshield so she could see when she drove. I went to open the carrier to take the kittens out and tons of roaches came crawling out. We had to fumigate the office.
#11
A wound on someone’s low back so large I could fit 2 fists in it. Their lower spine was visible
#12
I once cared for a male diabetic patient who had fallen asleep on his bed (that he's much taller than) and his feet hung off the bed the entire night, because he has peripheral neuropathy he couldn't feel that his toes were on his heater the entire night. My visit with him was to apply medication and dress all 10 of his necrotic toes. I still feel bad for him and this was years ago 😑
For healthcare workers, repeatedly encountering these situations also carries a personal cost. Therapist Laura Geftman explains that ongoing exposure in high-intensity environments such as emergency rooms and intensive care units can affect professionals both physically and psychologically. While infection control measures help reduce physical risk, the emotional toll can still build over time.
Even when outcomes are ultimately safe, the period of uncertainty after exposure can linger, influencing confidence, focus, and job satisfaction. Over time, without adequate support, this constant cycle of high-stress exposure can shape how clinicians cope, sometimes leading to emotional detachment or even changes in career paths.
#13
As a crime scene intern and going to autopsies, id say it’s a cross between someone who has been in the river way too long and the person we recovered on a welfare check who had to be deroached.
#14
A giant cyst on the chest right above the heart that would ooze out pus with every beat of the heart
#15
A bezoar (not from HP) the size of a softball that had been removed from a young woman’s stomach and sent down to pathology for “analysis”. (It was a ball of her hair, she would pick strands and eat them chronically) Also, very long tape worm (over 5 feet) removed from a child’s bowels and sent to microbiology for identification.
Healthcare workers aren’t just dealing with charts, prescriptions, and routine checkups, they’re often confronted with the kind of real-life situations most people wouldn’t believe unless they saw them firsthand.
What stands out most isn’t just the shock value, but the sheer range of human experience behind each case from accidents, neglect, rare oddities, to moments that kind of blur the line between unfortunate and unbelievable. If anything, they offer a strange kind of appreciation for the professionals who manage to stay calm, focused, and compassionate no matter what walks, or rolls, through the door.
#16
Old farmer put their hand where it didn’t belong. Machinery TWISTED their hand off. Family rolled them in yelling and screaming, and they just laughed it off.
Hand was eventually brought in; looked like a movie prop. 😆
#17
A factory worker got sucked accidentally into a machine that flattens out metal/lrubber. Literally saw his internal organs being crushed & popped out of the body
Same thing as road accident. A lorry pops out a woman’s brain out on the road. The woman was riding a motorcycle
#18
I worked in a psych hospital. Psychotic patient's family gave him a Bible to comfort him against medical advice. He read "dost thine eye offended thee? If so pluck it out" and he did just that.
#19
Had someone believe that tampons dissolve into your body… so she came in with cramping and wonky discharge. Top 3 grossest thing I’ve smelled in my life.
#20
The only thing that ever made me yell was a cockroach scurrying out of a little boy's ear and his parents didn't even flinch 😭
#21
A patient whose whole back was covered with moles. Like there wasn’t any normal skin 🤢
#22
Working in the ICU. Had a diabetic who refused to care for himself and things were…falling off. His fingertips were so necrotic, we couldn’t do glucose checks on his hands. Had to use his earlobes. I was checking his glucose and he swatted at me. His little finger hit my face, then fell off. I swear that spot still tingles. 😫
CommunityMember 5 hours ago
I don't understand people who ignore medical advice with something as serious as diabetes. My aunt would cancel medical appointments and not follow eating plans. Now she is in a wheelchair with nerve damage to her feet. She still ignores medical advice and she still wolfs down candy.
#23
Had a patient who was literally eating his own fingers and toes. Nurses wrapped both with a lot of gauze to try to preserve what was left, and he would tear through the gauze with his teeth to continue eating himself. I wish I was lying it was one of the saddest cases I’ve ever seen.
#24
Retired medic here. Motorcycle accident driver decapitated, passenger had traumatic amputation of both lower legs. Drove at speed through barbed wire fence
#25
Elderly lady, falls fractured lower leg. Had refused to call for help, neighbour found her about 3 days after injury and called ambulance. Had been sitting in a chair for 3 days surrounded by her 17 cats. She was drenched in urine and feaces, the fracture is open compound so bones sticking out. Cats had been licking and nibbling it and rubbing against the wounds… you can fill in the rest.
#26
We had a patient arrive from ED and there was… an odor. Began to bathe and when lifting the person’s pannus found 1/2 a ham sandwich. Rotting.
Serena Myers 8 hours ago
For those that didn't know, like me, a pannus can refer to a hanging 'apron' of abdominal skin/fat.
#27
Psych patient wanted a baby so badly, she put a Cornish hen in her vagina and safety pinned her labia together to hold it in. She thought it would turn into a baby.
Narrator’s voice: It did not.
#28
A doctor on 8 out of 10 cats does countdown was saying about this woman who was going to propose to her bf by putting a ring in a kinder egg and putting it in her vagina to find but it went sideways and she couldn’t get it out and had to go to the ER to get it out. The bf has no idea what was happening. As soon as it was out he opened it in the ER and said yes lol. Not the grossest but like ouch
Related on Bored Panda
