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People Don’t Realize ER Stands For ‘Emergency Room’ And Came With These 53 Ridiculous Complaints
Most people will do anything they can to avoid a trip to the emergency room. If they need stitches, they’ll insist the injury was just a scratch. And if they have a broken bone, they’ll claim that they just need to walk it off. But there’s a separate subset of people who seem eager to ride in an ambulance for some incomprehensible reason…
Emergency room workers have been recalling the most bizarre and ridiculous reasons why patients have come in, so we’ve gathered their most amusing stories below. From patients who were perfectly healthy to those who made idiotic decisions that led to health complications, these stories are all over the place. But we hope you get a laugh out of them, pandas, and be sure to upvote the ones that you can’t believe are true!
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#1
Patient came into our ER with obvious anaphylaxis, swollen everywhere, but suspiciously had huge and very tight but swollen lips and blood spots on her forehead.
She claimed in triage that she ate a can of Progresso soup from Costco and it must have had botulism. Doc orders Benadryl while we draw blood, start a line. All of a sudden, patients lips swell further and becomes tacky at 192. EKG abnormal. I could barely get the oxygen mask over her lips. HR erratic. Doc comes back to give Epi and stabilize HR, questions patient about substances other than Progresso soup. Patient now seems nervous… insists she only ate the soup, is asking for her daughter.
I tell the Doc, I think this woman injected something all over her face, this isn’t from food poisoning. He agrees but says let’s wait for the bloodwork, we can’t accuse her obviously. We are monitoring the HR, but her face keeps beading drops of blood. I give her a towel and some privacy, knowing she’s lying. Patient seems to calm down, but facial swelling remains. Again, asks if her daughter was there yet. I said no, do you want us to call her? She says no, and if she comes, please don’t let her see me like this.
Doc comes back, after running into daughter outside the room ( we previously were looking for her, so he didn’t know she wasn’t wanted). Daughter comes into to the room, takes one look at mom and starts yelling “I told you not to go to that Botox party! That woman said she gave you over 26 botox injections plus she put filler in your lips! So and so passed out and you are here now, what the HELL, Mom!”
Patient was admitted to CCU for botulism poisoning- from multiple injections done by a non medical professional, and for an infection in her upper lip from filler that was unsafe and injected with an improper needle. She spent 4 days in the unit before discharge.
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#2
A mother and daughter came in together. Mom for a pregnancy test, daughter because she was having a miscarriage.
During the assessment questions daughter was asked why she thought she was having a miscarriage. She stated she had started bleeding. She was asked when her last menstrual cycle was and she said something that amounted to about 4 weeks prior. Pelvic exam and pregnancy test were done. Congratulations, you got your period. Discharged.
During the assessment for mom she was asked why she thought she was pregnant. She said she had a positive pregnancy test. Congratulations, you’re pregnant. Discharged.
#3
A man came to triage holding a Dunkin’ Donuts bag and demanded we test a sandwich for poison. He said that he ate the sandwich from there twice in the last month and both times he got sick (stomach ache, nausea). He was convinced the store was poisoning his food. So he went back and bought another sandwich as “evidence.” To be clear, he was not sick that day, he had last eaten the sandwich days before.
I tried to explain to him that we are not a CSI lab and cannot test miscellaneous objects for poison, and there’s not much we can do for him if he isn’t sick today. He insisted on getting triaged anyway. He waited hours for a doctor to tell him the same thing, and that if the same sandwich keeps making him sick then he should probably just not eat that sandwich. He stormed out cursing at all of us.
Edit: He had no other signs of mental illness, and you can’t force someone to get a psych eval just because they believe something weird.
#5
Bit by pet baby alligator. Brought alligator with him. Wanted it tested for rabies.
Jorge Gonzalez 15 hours ago
. It is better to be told the particular animal that bit you cannot give you rabies than err the other way around.
#6
Not ER, but L&D triage. Patient is late preterm and an OR nurse at our hospital. She comes to L&D saying she’s bleeding. We immediately take her back, go into a triage room.
Ask her the other emergency questions and she responds negatively. I ask how much she’s been bleeding. She says quite a bit but it seems to be slowing down. I ask her to undress from the waist down and give her a pad to sit on. The patient looks confused and says, “why do I have to do that?” I explain to her it’s to see how much bleeding is on the pad and she finally says, “I’m not bleeding from ‘down there!’ It’s my nose. Here’s all my tissues.”
She then pulls out a few tissues with spots of blood on them and I’m literally standing there trying not to laugh that this girl came to L&D triage for a nose bleed. The worst part was that she was also a nurse!!!🤦🏻♀️.
#8
I brought one into the ER as an EMT.
Guy calls 911 and we get the cole’s notes version.
Guys heart stopped. Alright. Let’s go boys. Lights and sirens.
Another chime. “I was taking my pulse, and then all of a sudden, my heart stopped. I couldn’t feel my pulse so I’m calling.”
Not chancing it. Still coming in hot.
Get there. Dude in his early 20’s. Sitting upright. Looks very restless. I start doing a medical history.
Overweight. Heavy smoker. Heavy drinker. Zero exercise. Poor diet. Hook him up to the 12 lead. To no one’s surprise, normal sinus. So I tell the guy. Your heart doesn’t stop because you can’t feel a pulse. What do you want to do with this?
Demands hospital. I explain why it might not be needed in this situation but we can if he’s cautious. We agree and take him. This was the first call of the day.
He was in the waiting room for the rest of my shift until the last call of the day when I asked the triage nurse “what happened to the guy whose heart stopped? He finally go in to see someone?”
“He complained every 30 minutes and eventually just left. Nothing wrong with him.”.
Midoribird Aoi 1 hour ago
Mom tells me the medical staff at the doctor office have a hard time getting her pulse for some reason. I checked the pulse points in her neck and wrist. Correctly got her pulse. Mystified.
#9
He wasn’t my patient but I saw in the ER tracking board that he came in for chapped lips.
Papa 5 hours ago
I grew up in a rural area. We had pigs, cattle, chickens, etc. When my sister or I had chapped lips and would mention it to Dad he'd tell us to go to the chicken house and get some fresh droppings, and rub that on our lips. We'd ask "How will that make my lips heal faster?" He'd say "It will make you stop licking them."
#10
Too many to count but recently a guy who was bit by a dog last year and had gotten 3 rounds of rabies shots, came in because he felt that he needed to do another 3 rounds of rabies shots. No new dog bite.
sturmwesen 9 hours ago
who would go for additionally rabies s***s willingly? I hear they suck monumentally
#11
Sore throat for an hour. In a huge Ed with a 4 hour wait. She came up to triage to complain that I hadn’t even offered her a cough drop 🫠.
#12
Dry hands. During winter. One of the nurses was kind enough to give him a small pump of hand moisturiser and sent him off to a shop.
#14
A woman thought she had a wart inside of her nose. She decided to put a Dr.Scholl’s wart pad in her nose to treat it. She went to sleep and woke up and couldn’t find the wart pad. She made herself vomit in case she swallowed it. She still didn’t see it. She wanted us to look in her lungs for it.
Meow McHissing 18 hours ago
When I was about 4 years old I found a Roley Poley bug and smelled it. Bug instantly disappeared. I assumed I had snorted it up my nose and my mom took me to the ER/ED for them to look in my nostrils for a bug that was not there.
#15
Paramedic but:
"I was at the hospital last night and forgot my wallet so I want a ride back to pick it up"
"I was diagnosed with strep yesterday and my throat still hurts"
"I was diagnosed with pneumonia, haven't started my antibiotics, and I'm still sick"
"I've had gastro for 3 hours and still feel sick".
#16
Patient came in because he saw a snake. Not because he was bit by said snake, but because he was in close proximity to a snake and wanted to get checked out.
#17
I was in my intern year of psych residency and on my EM rotation. Around 3am one weeknight a woman in her 50s/60s came in to be seen with a chief complaint of "finger pain" in one of her pinky fingers. When I went to see her she admitted that the finger didn't hurt, but she wasn't sure how to describe the problem to the triage nurse. She described mild episodes of a couple seconds to a couple minutes in length where "my finger just kind of itches, not bad or anything, just something I noticed." She reported that it came up randomly "a couple times a year maybe," and had been happening for about 20-30 years. She denied any other symptoms accompanying the 30 seconds of mild itching on her pinky finger a couple times a year- being an intern I wanted to be thorough and avoid missing something because the chief complaint sounded ridiculous, so I did a thorough interview and exam- all normal. She admitted that the itchiness wasn't currently happening and hadn't happened in several months. She had a PCP that she saw a couple times a year.
When I asked her what made her come in to the ED now about this issue, she stated that she was up watching TV, was reminded of the episodes, and "I wasn't doing anything, and thought I might as well get it checked out." She was somewhat upset when my attending and I explained to her that given that nothing was currently happening and there was no emergency, she would be discharged to follow up with her PCP. She asked about getting an MRI and full Neuro workup, and asked how we could discharge her without figuring out the root of the episodes. I explained to her that the purpose of the ED is to assess for and treat emergencies, but she argued that because we weren't super busy at the moment we should have at least tried to investigate. .
#18
Hungry and had not eaten for 12 hours
A teenage girl with a very small pimple x 3 days
“I’m cold”
Elementary aged child “might have gotten hit on the head with a pebble on the playground”. No KO, no marks, no swelling. Mom insisted the child be taken by ambulance to the ER for evaluation. Nearest pediatric ER was a 45 minute + drive in traffic. Mom followed ambulance to the hospital in personal vehicle. ER waiting room was wall to wall full of patients waiting to be seen. Get child checked in and told the mom it might be a few hours before her child is seen. She left with the child.
#19
New parents take their babies into the ER for all sorts of stupid reasons - which actually puts them at risk for contracting dangerous illnesses. BUT that baby made a weird sound, or it ate bananas for the first time and had a weird poop, or it sneezed and cried so it must have hurt itself, maybe it hasn't peed in 3 hours or its toes look a little red - ERs see a lot of newborns and end up telling a lot of new parents to go home and get some rest.
Upstaged75 16 hours ago
This is why you call the nurse advice line before needlessly taking your vulnerable infant to a building filled with deadly germs!
#20
Food poisoning from pizza after 7 shots of vodka. Came in with EMS.
#21
Had an older lady come once to “check in” because she was told she could rent a hospital room during a storm if she was scared. I’ve had a patient come by ambulance once for a stubbed toe. Her family followed the ambulance in their car. When I questioned why she didn’t just arrive in the car instead of calling an ambulance, she said it was because she thought it might be broken. I had a patient check in once because they saw a tick crawling on them. I could probably name so many more.
#22
Guys wife made him come in after a business trip because he was tired and nauseous ... after flying in from Florida ... where someone in Miami had been diagnosed with Dengue Fever.
Patient didn't know this person, nor were they near Miami, nor did they have any bug bites.
#24
Not my story but a nurse friend who works the ER in a Chicago hospital. This happened back in like '08 or so.
Sometimes the homeless come in faking symptoms so they could get a bed and a hot meal for the night. The ER was packed one evening, and a frequent flyer came in. Whatever he complained of, they told him to just sit and wait.
Instead of waiting it out, the guy leaves. A few minutes later he walks back inside and makes contact with her and the other nurse working the front. He then pulls out a gallon jug of window washer fluid and begins chugging it while keeping eye contact with her and giving her the finger. Buncha staff and security rushed to stop him and bring him in. 😩.
#25
I once saw someone who came in for jet lag.
#26
I was an X-ray Tech working in the ER when I got a request to X-ray a 50yo man's big toe. The reason for the X-ray? Great toe pain x 20 years. He waited until 1am on a Saturday night to be seen because he wasn't going to put up with the pain a minute longer.
#27
A man took an ambulance in to request that we laser off his stretch marks. After being told no and getting grilled on misuse of resources, he immediately requested that EMS drive him back to his house. They were big mad lol.
Upstaged75 16 hours ago
The ambulance should be allowed to refuse a ride for people like this!
#28
Patient was from a country that didn’t routinely consume apples. She had eaten the whole apple while visiting, core and all. She presented to the ED because she ate 2 apple seeds and was afraid, after a Google search, she may have cyanide poisoning.
#29
Scratch on forehead. Wanted me to call plastics from our sister hospital to urgently assess her.
I told her not a chance. It was so superficial it would be gone in a couple days. She hit the roof so I put a very special scar preventing wound dressing (wink wink) on her less than a paper cut scratch and she walked out all smug and happy.
#30
Not me, but my wife (an ER nurse). Woman comes in nervous about a “bump” she feels on her left side. My wife asks her to show her what she means. She lifts up her shirt and proceeds to point to one of her ribs…..
#31
One time a girl came in with darkening blue hands. Everyone was thinking some sort of circulatory problem, and some tests were run. But as she nervously rubbed her hands on her knees over and over again while we were speaking, I realized what it was. I asked her to wash her hands real quick, and then suddenly they were no longer blue. It was dye from the jeans — both the outsides and the inside of the pockets. We all had a good laugh.
#32
Not a worker but had a kidney specialist send me to the ER to run labs to make sure that my kidneys were still functioning properly. I asked office worker repeatedly why couldn't I just go to the lab at the hospital and they could send them the results and the office could contact me if I needed treatment. They insisted that I needed to go to the er because if something was wrong I could get treated right then. I asked does the doctor feel like something is wrong got told no but they want me to go to the ER to make sure. I went and waited 12 hours to get these stupid labs just to find out my kidneys were still fine. I apologized to the nurse and doctors repeatedly for wasting their time and resources over something this stupid. They said it happens all the time!
#34
We have a frequent flyer. She has been hospitalized 14 times this year for swallowing objects. Girly has no gag reflex. She has swallowed a straw, croc charms, forks, a pen, an expo marker, flip-flop and the handle of a fork. I see her name pop up and I feel dread.
Lukas (fuck/transphobes) 16 hours ago
From OP: "She doesn't like the home she lives in and will swallow objects to get out of there. She thinks the hospital is a safe place." I really hope CPS is looking into her home life if she's that desperate to get out of there. It could just be attention seeking, yes, but needing to escape that badly and seeing the hospital as safe is worrying. I hope the poor girl gets help.
#35
A guy came in carrying a 2L Pepsi and a large pizza, came up to triage saying he needed to see a doctor as he had “multiple lawsuits” in the works and needed to show his lawyer a doctor saw him, said he didn’t even need an exam just a paper saying a doctor saw him, it was explained he’d probably be waiting 8+ hours and would need an actual issue, he asked if a doctor could pop out to the waiting room and quickly just chat with him, we said no, he agreed to wait, he then left after 15 minutes.
#36
My sister had a patient turn up convinced he had H1N1 from eating Taco Bell, biggest hole in his theory was he wasn’t sick. In the slightest.
#37
A woman came in after she cut her hand pretty bad making dinner. Instead of putting any pressure on the cut to stop the bleeding, she was just letting herself bleed into a large kitchen bowl.
#38
Head lice. The weird thing is our quarantine protocol for that was more strict than for someone with COVID symptoms.
#39
I'm not an ER worker, but I'll tell you my own ridiculous reason I went to the ER. Pink eye. Because I was temporarily living out of state for school, broke AF, and my insurance company would only pay for ER out of state - not a doctor's office. Between the $50 ER copay or $270 doctor visit, I chose the ER. I felt like such an idiot.
#40
This is not a health care worker but I slammed my finger in the back hatch of my car and couldn’t get up when I fell so eventually my finger made a hole in the tail light. They called it “degloved” (which is pretty much exactly what you saw a picture of in your mind after hearing that term).
My neighbor came out and called 911 and said “I think her finger is missing. It appears to be. Lots of blood” and the dispatch put it to “closed hand in car door”. When they FINALLY showed up the cop who also came for some reason got super mad about “playing around with the sheriffs deputy dispatch”. So I unwrapped my finger tip and istg the look on their faces was the most satisfying justification.
Chaotic Good 7 hours ago
If you have ever worked in a machine shop, you don't have to imagine what a degloved finger looks like. The safety posters on the walls don't hold anything back.
#41
Came into my ER complaining of insomnia....while falling asleep on my triage chair at 3am, and demanded a bed. Sorry sir...you can have a seat in the waiting room.
#42
Friend of mine spent a good few hours in a bar cheating at pinball, as in lifting up the front end of the thing. She woke up in the morning with " unexplained " bruising on her upper arms and went down to emergency in case it was something serious.
#44
A guy called an ambulance for 'chest pain.' He arrived at the ER. Then stated, ' I just needed a ride into town.' Then he walked out.
#45
When asking what brought him in today he said he was arguing with his sister about the car and how much this costs and carrying on, had to stop and ask him again why is he here, his reasoning was he was tired of arguing with his sister and would rather be admitted to the hospital..
#46
I’m a cop and was posted at the ER on night shift once and a woman came in because she got bit by a snake in her yard. She was panicking because of it. Her hand was really swollen. One of the nurses asked if she saw what kind of snake it was and she said no. A couple of minutes later these two boys, maybe 12-13 came running in holding a decapitated snake in pieces inside of a ziploc bag. They had rode their bikes from their house to the hospital to show the doctors the snake that bit this lady. Like these kids heard about what happened and went on her yard to slice the snake just to do this. It was funny and oddly heartwarming.
#47
A doctor at a freestanding ER thought it was me because my hands and feet were tingling, and tried to tell me I was having a panic attack. (I was falling asleep. I’d just worked 12 hours.)
I mentioned that I’d had low potassium a couple weeks before and he said he’d do a blood test just to ease my mind.
Yeah, my potassium was 2.7 (scary low) and I went to the hospital by ambulance.
#48
Parents brought their 5 month old to the ER at 11pm because he was sleepy. Me too bud. Me too.
Also: threw up once yesterday, fever 2 days ago of 99, sore throat for 4 hours, 911 ambulance ride to get a refill on an inhaler - not actively symptomatic.
Part of me wishes that to gain access to the ER you had to define “emergency” But also yay healthcare in the USA. .
#49
29F. Was having chest pains and racing heartbeat while at work so I stopped at Urgent Care on the way home. After an EKG came back normal, the Dr. asked me what was going on in my life. I burst into tears and told her my boyfriend was a jerk. She kindly told me that my body was reacting to the stress of being in the wrong relationship. I felt sooooo stupid!
Daniela Keks 21 minutes ago
Stupid would be to ignore chest pain and tachykardia. You can absolutely be in the wrong realationship AND have heart issues, even as a woman under 30.
#50
When I worked in the ER, it had to be the work notes. As I’m doing the admission they would say “headache for 2 days but really I need a work note”. Some wouldn’t even give a health concern and straight out say they just need a work note. Some would wait 3 hrs on a busy night, just to get that work note.
#51
Not an ER worker at all,but my mom used to work with the EMTs in my area and she told a story about two big drunk brothers that were fighting and and brother 1 put a sickle into the top of brother 2s head and brother 2 after arriving at the hospital just walked out,sickle still in head because he wasn't done arguing with brother 1.
#52
Had a homeless man come in insisting he had fresh frostbite. It had been above 30c for several days.
#53
Guy came in refusing to cooperate in triage. Got roomed, since we weren’t full. Chief complaint(s): Pages of his dictionary are stuck together and he’s wearing his girlfriend’s pants.
He apparently was trying to look up a word, but “the pages were stuck together man, they were stuck together.” He said the ED “needs to do surgery on my book man.” When asked which word he was looking for, he said that was a stupid question. He then started crying saying “And I’m wearing my girlfriend’s pants.” That actually tracked because the sweatpants were skin tight and ended at his knees.
He got super upset after realizing he forgot to bring the dictionary. Calmed down after a turkey sandwich, hot chocolate, warm blanket and a nap. Woke up, told us we all sucked, he hated the sandwich, and stormed out via the ambulance bay. Saw him a week or 2 later… still no dictionary but his pants fit.
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Earonn - 7 hours ago
Technically I once got a sick note (no hospital though) because of sunshine. Yean, horrible and stupid, innit? Except that my epilepsy was flaring up, and in order to get to work I would have had to do a 40 minute train drive through rural areas with lots of trees next to the train track, which caused flickering shadows in the carriage. That flickering would have most likely caused a seizure. In Germany you only can stay at home for 3 days before you need a doctor's note, so there we are. It's not always as 'stupid' as it looks... (for the non-epileptics: no, closing your eyes and even the eye masks don't help because still some light = some flickering reaches the eyes)
Earonn - 7 hours ago
Technically I once got a sick note (no hospital though) because of sunshine. Yean, horrible and stupid, innit? Except that my epilepsy was flaring up, and in order to get to work I would have had to do a 40 minute train drive through rural areas with lots of trees next to the train track, which caused flickering shadows in the carriage. That flickering would have most likely caused a seizure. In Germany you only can stay at home for 3 days before you need a doctor's note, so there we are. It's not always as 'stupid' as it looks... (for the non-epileptics: no, closing your eyes and even the eye masks don't help because still some light = some flickering reaches the eyes)
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