Anything But Simple
For many of us, a trip to the doctor has become a familiar routine. We walk in, get checked, possibly receive medication, and go on our way. However, for some, these visits are anything but simple.
While it's easy to empathize when a serious condition is involved, there are times when the visit takes a turn for the worse due to the patient’s own actions. We've gathered a few such stories for your entertainment.
EMT Respond
Our first story takes place at a road accident where an EMT responded to a crash involving a small sedan that had veered off a winding hill and collided with a tree. The medic was relieved to find only one person in the car and quickly assisted him into the ambulance, prepared to treat his injuries.
However, things took a strange turn when the man refused any medication, despite the severity of his injuries. Acting erratically, he managed to climb out of the ambulance and stagger toward his car. But just a few meters away, he lost consciousness, tumbling down the hill and sustaining even more damage. What began as a head injury and a broken bone escalated into a concussion, a broken arm, and a deep gash down his back. And if you think this is shocking, wait until you hear the next story.
Urologist Visit
A patient visited a urologist for a routine checkup at a hospital, but power outages caused a disruption during the visit. Backup generators kicked in, ensuring the lights stayed on, but his ordeal was far from over.
During one outage, the generator failed to turn on quickly, so the urologist left to investigate the issue. Ten minutes later, the lights came back on, only to reveal the patient still lying on the bed with his pants down. To his horror, a nurse entered and asked if he had an appointment, unaware the urologist had finished the exam and returned. The patient was left embarrassed, trying to explain himself while the nurse thought he was just another man exposing himself.
Bowel Obstruction
A patient with a bowel obstruction was instructed by his caretakers to refrain from eating, but he disliked being told what to do. Ignoring the advice, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Using his phone, he ordered a large meal from a fast food restaurant, including beef burgers, chili cheese fries, onion rings, and a drink. After finishing the entire meal, his body rejected it, causing him to vomit and aspirate, leading to respiratory arrest. The hospital performed CPR and revived him, but due to existing lung issues, they couldn't remove him from the ventilator. He spent a month in the ICU before being transferred to a long-term care facility with a ventilator and a tracheotomy.
Removing Ingrown Hair
In our next story, a patient tried to remove an ingrown hair on her chin, a frustrating nuisance for anyone. However, she unknowingly triggered a chain of events that would lead to a painful and surprising outcome.
The attempt caused surrounding pus to burst, leaving her chin swollen to the size of a large ball. Soon, she found herself at the doctor’s office, where her situation took the doctors by surprise. After calling in a colleague to assess the damage, the patient cracked jokes to lighten the mood. Despite the humor, the second doctor quickly prescribed medication, which cleared the infection in just two days.
Routine Preparation
During routine preparations for emergency surgery, two nurses made a surprising discovery on a severely overweight patient. The man had been visiting for regular checkups before needing surgery for a condition linked to his weight.
While preparing him, the nurses uncovered a dead cockroach wedged under one of his skin folds. It was unclear how long the insect had been there, but it was obvious that it had suffocated. Thankfully, the patient was unconscious at the time and spared from the embarrassment of the find, unlike another patient who wasn’t so fortunate.
Need Of Urgent Care
The patient, a prisoner in need of urgent care, found himself in the surgery room alongside several guards. Accustomed to intimidating others, he hoped to engage the surgeon, a radiologist specializing in interventional and cardiovascular procedures, with some tough words.
During the procedure, the patient confessed to being convicted of manslaughter. However, when the surgeon calmly stated, "The last person I performed this surgery on didn’t make it either," the patient was left speechless. The guards struggled to suppress their laughter, while the patient fell silent for the remainder of the operation.
Causing Her Discomfort
A woman arrived at the clinic with her husband, complaining of severe abdominal pain. Despite being significantly overweight, she was adamant that she hadn’t consumed anything that could be causing her discomfort.
After a quick routine examination, the doctor discovered something unexpected. While there was no immediate danger, the pain was actually caused by labor contractions—she was in labor and didn’t even realize she was pregnant. Stunned, the woman responded, "But I always take the pills!" Both she and the doctor were equally shocked by the surprising turn of events. But this wasn’t the end of the surprises.
Referred To A Retina Specialist
The patient visited an eye doctor for a routine check-up, where the doctor identified signs of uncontrolled diabetes in her retinas. She was referred to a retina specialist, who scheduled her for surgery. However, she opted not to attend the appointment, finding it overwhelming. As a result, her vision deteriorated, leading to an emergency surgery down the line.
Months of recovery followed, including numerous injections and eye therapy, which helped restore some of her sight. But during this process, doctors discovered that her kidneys were also failing, forcing her to make significant lifestyle changes. In hindsight, had she acted sooner, much of this could have been prevented or managed before it spiraled out of control.
Developing A Persistent Cough
A concerned daughter urged her father to see a doctor after he developed a persistent cough. Having recently returned from working in countries like China, India, and Korea, she feared it could be something serious. Despite her concerns, her father dismissed her advice, assuring her that he was fine.
However, during dinner one evening, his condition worsened. He began coughing up blood and was unable to speak due to the severity of his symptoms. Panicked, his daughter rushed him to the emergency room, where doctors diagnosed him with tuberculosis. If he had waited any longer, the disease could have been fatal. Fortunately, the daughter remained unaffected and did not contract the disease.
The Poking Pen
An ophthalmic assistant got the embarrassment of her life when she was in the middle of a procedure with an eighteen-year-old patient. Her job usually entailed poking patients in the eye with a tonometer (ultrasound pen) as part of an eye pressure test. But she had no clue what was about to happen.
Patients usually faint during the procedure due to fear or simply holding their breath for too long. Although the patient did his best not to pass out, he fainted on the assistant’s chest. As she explains, she was three months pregnant, and her chest had grown. The boy’s father, who was in the room then, came to help. When the boy came to, the dad patted his back and said, “attaboy,” sending a flash of embarrassment through the assistant.
Walk It Off
The protagonist in our next story wasn’t as helpful or cooperative as the last one. After his son had a bicycle accident, he rushed him to the emergency room. They were lucky to get the assistance they needed. But after the procedures, the hospital suggested keeping the boy overnight for observation.
Of course, the dad said no, insisting his boy was fine after the stitches they’d given him. But the following day, he came rushing in with his son in his arms, pale as a ghost. The boy’s condition had worsened, revealing he had digestive damage and internal bleeding after the accident. The doctors and nurses had to run with him to the operating room. Fortunately, he survived the procedure.
A Screech
On a lighthearted note, this patient was in the middle of a standard checkup when the unthinkable happened. Of course, it left him a different person afterward. The patient complained of soreness throughout his body and had gone in to root out the cause. The doctor started by tapping his back to ascertain the pain’s origin.
But as he reached the patient’s side, which was quite ticklish, everything went south. At first, the patient tried his best to hold off from laughing. But it got the best of him, and he let out a hideous laughter punctuated by a snort and screech. The doctor didn’t even acknowledge it, only continued what he was doing. Safe to say that the rest of the checkup went quietly and quite awkwardly. If you think that was awkward, the next story is next-level.
The Red Room
The next story is different because what happened wasn’t the patient’s fault. After a successful heart operation, the doctor forgot to inform the nurse that they had put the patient on anticoagulants. The patient didn’t receive proper care and ended up painting her recovery room red with blood. But that wasn’t half of it.
Her parents, who had traveled a long way to surprise her, were the ones to be surprised when they walked into the room. They found a panicking nurse trying to get a hold of the situation. But the patient was weirdly calm, offering the nurse advice even though it was ineffective. The emergency buzzer, blaring throughout this time, finally brought in a team of doctors who got everything back in order.
An Afternoon Of Steak
Our next patient had been involved in a gruesome car accident that necessitated several back surgeries to get him back to health. The surgeries were successful, but he needed to frequent his surgeon’s office for regular checkups. Among the people that he usually met at said office was a receptionist whom he found attractive.
Hoping to ask her out, he started digging for information. He asked the surgeon if she was seeing anyone, to which he replied that he never got involved with her personal life. The patient took this as a sign and asked the receptionist out, unaware of what he was about to uncover. Their first date went so well that she invited him back to her dad’s place for an afternoon steak with her old man. Imagine his surprise when he knocked on the door, and his surgeon opened it. It turns out the father was his doctor. Now buckle up for our next story.
It’s Not My Fault
Like the patient who ended up bleeding in her room after a heart transplant, this one had undergone brain surgery that, although successful initially, sprouted several problems for them. The patient was in a care unit for a year, which they were paying even though it wasn’t their fault they were there.
During the brain surgery, the doctors removed a large portion of the patient’s skull. Unfortunately, the skull dropped to the floor. Despite the doctor’s best efforts to clean it up and give the patient antibiotics, he still developed a severe infection in his head, likely meningitis and encephalitis. Fortunately, he not only recovered but had help in clearing the hospital bill.
A House Call
A nine-year-old boy accompanied his surgeon dad to assist an elderly patient at her home. The patient had a cast that needed removing, and since her age couldn’t allow her to drive to the hospital, the doctor decided to help. Accompanied by his son, they drove to the woman’s house, where he quickly got to work. He had no idea that things were about to go south.
The surgeon started the saw meant to cut the cast, and the woman freaked out. In her mind, the saw would take out more than just her cast. She wasn’t ready to leave her life with only one arm. Even after the surgeon demonstrated that the saw couldn’t harm her, she started screaming. Afterward, he kept giggling in the car about the procedure. But neither the boy nor the lady was amused by what they’d just experienced. But at least it wasn’t as bloody as our next story.
I Need To Use The Bathroom
The patient here had just been involved in a motorcycle accident. After hours of surgery, he was finally stable, peacefully sleeping in his room. But a few hours in and he woke up. Delirious from all the meds swimming in his system, he started pulling out the medical tubes in his chest and the IVs. The nurses had to calm him down. They should’ve known this was far from over.
The nurses were on their lunch break when they spied the man shambling past their breakroom. He trailed blood everywhere and insisted he needed to get to the bathroom. The nurses rushed to help him. They couldn’t understand how he managed to rip out the tubes and IV again. The consequences of his actions were five more weeks in ICU. Eventually, he got better, and after saying hi and thanking everyone for helping him, he left the hospital. What a trooper!
Take It Off
Our next patient had a suction lipectomy on her neck to remove excess fat. The procedure was successful, and after a while, the patient was feeling fantastic. But she still needed to visit the hospital for a few checkups. She had no clue what was waiting for her behind the hospital’s doors.
Sitting in the checkup room with her, the doctor asked her to take her blouse off. The patient thought the doctor wanted to cross-check her neck with her chest to gauge her progress but soon found out otherwise. The doctor had confused the patient with another who’d had implant surgery. He was so embarrassed about the confusion and couldn’t apologize enough. That is nothing when compared to our next story.
A Wonderful Woman
A dental hygienist had been working on a sweet old lady when all hell broke loose. The day had been going great for him until something unexpected happened. While cleaning the old lady’s teeth, the man realized he had a rumbly stomach. He tried his best to stifle the sound but to no avail. But that wasn’t the worst part.
His stomach continued grumbling until the lady noticed. Her head was on the dentist’s lap, so the grumbles were hard to miss. But unknown to her, the man was fighting the urge to pass gas. By the end of the tenth minute, he had to let one slide. But instead of being silent, it came out as a loud boom. His face went red with embarrassment before the old lady, who was bewildered, said, “There you go, honey. Now I don’t feel so bad about letting a few go in the waiting room.” God bless her soul.
Stickers From Costa Rica
Our next patient had been coming in for days complaining about finding Costa Rican postage stamps inside her. She was an international flight attendant who had visited many cities across the globe. Her doctor was concerned at first when she heard the woman’s report. She also noticed that the woman was a bit embarrassed by the whole thing and hoped it would be kept under wraps.
Having been a medical practitioner for more than two decades, the doctor had never heard of such a thing. She immediately started running tests on the woman. After several examinations, she discovered that the stickers were from bananas the woman was eating and nothing more. But that story isn’t as wild as our next one.
Hey! That’s The Wrong One!
A Patient needed his leg amputated. He’d been suffering for a few months, and his doctor told him it was the best course forward. If only he knew what was about to ensue. The patient went in for the amputation, looking to put it behind him. But somewhere between leaving the hospital bed and the surgery room, someone made a grave mistake.
Whoever labeled the leg to be amputated marked the wrong one. The doctors ended up amputating the wrong leg. They had to remove the correct leg three days later, leaving the man with no legs simply because of negligence. But that isn’t the only case.
A Little Confusion, Big Consequences
A patient diagnosed with cancer went in for her breast to be removed. Her doctor had prescribed it as the best course forward, unaware of what would happen. A few days later, the woman gets an all-clear to return home. It turns out she is healthy and doesn’t need surgery. But unknown to her, another woman in the same hospital is undergoing the same surgery.
Afterward, the surgeon asks for the woman’s specimen after the procedure. He is beside himself when the pathologists in charge find zero cancer in either of her breast specimens. The surgeon makes the pathologists carry out several tests to affirm the specimens. But he discovers that before the surgery, he’d been handed the incorrect information and had just performed surgery on a healthy woman while assuring the sick one that she was okay.
High Pain Tolerance
Our next patient is a fourteen-year-old boy who had a stomach upset that he thought was harmless. His parents seemed more alarmed than him and were speechless when he comfortably slept through the pain. But the following day, they drove him to the doctor to get checked. He thought it was an upset stomach until a nurse wheeled him into the operating room.
His appendix had burst, which was surprising because it didn’t feel like it. The doctor was taken aback by the fact he’d slept through the pain. But that wasn’t all. He informed the boy that if he didn’t come in when he did, then he probably wouldn’t have made it to the next day. Sometimes having a high pain tolerance isn’t always the best thing, as you’re about to see.
What’s All The Fuss About?
Our next patient had been suffering headaches almost daily. About a decade ago, she started seeing weird auras that would eat up her entire vision, followed by headaches. It would happen maybe once a year, and by the time she was a mom, she’d grown tired of them. After visiting an ophthalmologist and neurologist, she learned that things weren’t as simple as she thought.
She’d been having strokes during those moments and needed immediate medical attention. She was admitted to the emergency room for three days, where the doctors kept a close eye on her. She is doing better now but always jokes that she cannot understand the big deal. Maybe a high pain tolerance isn’t that bad, then. Our next patient decided to take advice from her mom, quickly learning that sometimes, mommy doesn’t know best.
Thanks, Mom. Now It’s Worse
This patient, a sixteen-year-old teenager, started getting tiny red, irritated spots all over her hands. At first, the little rash was only on one of her forearms. But that would soon change. The spots migrated to her other arm and soon her neck. Disturbed by what was happening, the teenager ran to her mom for help.
Her mom’s response was to inform her that she had psoriasis, a skin condition that causes flaky patches on one’s skin. She recommended that the daughter go tanning. Trusting her mom, the daughter did precisely that. If only she knew what she’d started. About a week later and she regretted the decision. The spots had gotten worse, attacking every inch of skin she had, including her eyelids. A visit to the doctor revealed that she had ringworms. By tanning, she’d been helping them migrate all over her body. Thanks, mom.
A Fiery Incident
In our next story, EMTs wheeled a husband and wife into the emergency room. The couple had suffered severe burn injuries, with the woman having 75% of her body damaged. She was immediately intubated to help her breathe. But a few minutes in, she started mouthing something. The doctors couldn’t determine what she was saying but knew what she must’ve been referring to.
The doctors knew she must’ve been calling her baby, which she would miscarry 36 hours later. Unfortunately, she developed an arrhythmia while the doctors were setting up a new IV. Hours later, they learned the truth about her and her husband. After discovering that the baby she was carrying wasn’t his, the man tried to harm her by setting her on fire. The police were already outside his room, waiting for the doctors to help stabilize his condition. Afterward, they drove him straight to the penitentiary.
A Close Call
Our next patient had just had a Roux-en0Y gastric bypass surgery and was looking to return to her old self. The doctors had prescribed a liquid diet for her to last a week. But that wouldn’t be the case. The patient, now at home, quickly found out that she couldn’t keep anything down. Each protein shake she drank came rushing back up.
It wasn’t long before she ended up in the hospital again. The doctors were shocked to discover that her intestine had come apart and everything she ate was draining into her abdominal cavity. She was septic and had four massive abscesses. They wheeled her into emergency surgery and had to keep her in the ICU for ten days. The doctors told her that if she hadn’t come in when she did, she wouldn’t have survived to tell the tale.
It’s Supposed To Be A Happy Time
There was a lot of pain and discomfort during our next patient’s pregnancy. Unlike the women of her family, who had a smooth trimester and delivery, she suffered a lot. In addition to being unable to stand straight, she could not walk more than ten feet from the bathroom, and she spent many days vomiting on the bathroom floor.
Her fiancé was concerned and encouraged her to see a doctor. It was discovered that she had an acute urinary tract infection which could have led to a miscarriage if left untreated. The doctors got to work immediately, stabilizing her condition before it was too late. The experience has made her appreciate her baby even more.
A Pizza Party
A young man with a stab wound came to the hospital at 3:00 am but had waited hours to seek help. Despite his injury, he and his family and friends thought it was a joke and were cracking up about the matter. It didn’t take the doctors long to discover that his blood pressure was low and his heart rate was high. He’d lost a lot of blood and would likely pass out.
The doctors were quick to start his treatment. But halfway through, he coded and couldn’t be revived. The doctors had to crack his chest open to manually pump his heart. The knife he’d been attacked with had ruptured his abdominal aorta. It was shocking to discover that his family and friends were having a pizza party in the waiting room, unaware that he was in a critical condition.