" Had a patient who had just had a major surgery have himself out of bed because Freddy Krueger told him to do so . "
If you’re close friends with a doctor or a nurse, chances are, you’ve heard at least one wildstory about a patient.
One of my nurse friends has told me countless stories about patients grabbing and screaming at her, and it seems like that’s not even the full extent of it. Inone Reddit thread, medical professionals shared the scariest things they’ve seen patients say or do, and I’m honestly spooked.
Here are 19 of the wildest stories:
1.“Not a doctor, but a nurse. Once a psychotic schizophrenic patient got me. And it was because of how “normal” she said it.”
" Screaming , threatening to stamp out me and then sitting on the commode …… and then sedately look at me and says in the most normal and monotone vocalism , ' I ’m sorry , I know I ’m not well and being meanspirited to you . I ’m in hell , and I do n’t acknowledge how to get out . ' I will never forget that or how it made me feel . It ’s like she had a 10 second lapse of her frenzied episode to apologize and enjoin me how she felt . Made me super empathic to my psych patients . "
– BassAssasin13
2.“During my med school trauma surgery rotation, our 16-year-old patient said ‘my stomach hurts’ right before he was intubated for an exploratory laparotomy. He had gotten shot in his abdomen.”
" Intra - op , we mention that the bullet tear a hole in his aorta . He did n’t make it . Such devoid last words to hear a fry say . He fully did n’t grasp his fate at the clock time . And intelligibly so . I will never forget it . "
– DiggiNotes
3.“One of the most gut wrenching moments in my career was when I was treating a 9-year old boy who was the victim of significant blunt force trauma.”
" He was mentally ill but awake and talk . With little terror in his eyes he started thrashing around in his bottom and screaming , ' Do n’t let me die ! I do n’t want to croak ! ' It made us all unquiet and tense . He went to the OR and survived but that was 5 years ago and I can still see his face . "
– Helpful_Intention_20
4.“As a resident, a patient was super angry and signing his papers to leave Against Medical Advice. He looked at me and said, ‘I know what time you sign out, and I know where you all leave the hospital.’ Looked over my shoulder the entire walk home.”
– Unhappy - Order7950
5.“A patient once looked at me with a completely calm face and said, ‘I know you’re trying to help me, but I’m going to die today. I’ve made peace with it, and you can’t stop it.”
– Creepy - Desk-468
6.“As a resident working off-service, looked a woman dead in the eye before we were about to intubate her. She had the saddest look in her eyes and said ‘don’t let me die.’ She had awful esophageal and rectal varices that were never successfully treated and passed away that night in the OR. Still see it in my thoughts from time to time.”
– PharmCatUk
7.“Doctor here. First one that sticks to mind isn’t so much what the patient said, but more her body language that clued into what was going wrong.”
" Story : I was a aesculapian student at the time and the metropolis my school was in is a hub for human trafficking . I noticed a patient role in the ER who had a fairly bad injury to her cheek was with a sketchy expect guy wire who was not colligate to her . She was n’t my patient , but I brought my gut feel up to her doctor who then made up some excuse to talk to the patient alone and got her to serve . Turns out she was a victim of human trafficking . I never babble to her myself , but I could n’t shake the vibe I got from bet at her and the human race she was with . "
– PMME_ur_lovely_boobs
8.“Had a patient who had just had a major surgery throw himself out of bed because Freddy Krueger told him to do so. He was on a ketamine drip for pain management at the time.”
– ambulist
9."‘I can see death standing behind you.’ Still haunts me and he passed away 2 days after."
– bikingimbiking
10.“Nurse here. Had a patient going through opioid withdrawal. Asked if I could give him an injection of a certain blood thinner— he said yes.”
" He did n’t like that the injectant hurt . He jump out of layer , backed me into a corner , and threatened to “ smash in [ my ] skull . ” He reiterated he once defeat a police officeholder by beating him to last , and he want to do the same to me . He was 6’2 ” . I am 5’0 ” . I manage to deescalate the best I could ( gave him his opioids , encouraged him to go for a walk off social unit to let off some steam ) . It worked . But before he walked off unit he told our charge nanny he was going to pour down me . Management , security , and the doctor did make love all . Had to pass the next few sack worried I was about to get my ass beat . "
– Throwawayawaworth9
11.“One of the scariest things I’ve heard as a doctor came from a patient who calmly said, ‘I see the man in the corner again.’ There was no one there.”
" The patient was amply rattling and oriented , but their vitals were doss fast . moment later , they inscribe . Another eerie moment was a affected role who came in after a traumatic chance event . decent before operating room , they grab my radiocarpal joint and said , ' Do n’t allow me die , doc . ' Their vitals were static , but despite our good efforts , they did n’t make it through the operation . The things patients say , especially in their final moment , can stick with you everlastingly . "
– 19toofar
12.“I was a very new intern, working in the ED. I got asked to see a young woman patient and the diagnosis put beside her name by triage staff said ‘SELF HARM.'”
" So I fill her into a consult room and tried my best to involve her about what was go on . She said to me ' I recollect someone was in my room last night , ' and I was like , hmm that ’s a eldritch way to start to babble out about self - harm , but I answer “ oh … ok … why do you say that ? ” And she countermand up her shirt to show me the words ' HELP ME ' carve into her venter . The baseball swing individually were very thin , made by a razor steel , but each alphabetic character had been go over many times so they were bass and quite novel , still phlebotomize . I reckon up at her horrified , and she said “ I do n’t have intercourse who but someone must have done this to me while I was asleep because I do n’t commend doing it to myself . ” The head-shrinker she attend after me thought the affected role might ’ve had dissociative blackout but I ’m not sure what happened after that . That was like , 20 years ago , and I can still feel the uneasiness of that brush . "
– noyoureshmoopy
13.“Plenty of times I have had patients with psychosis tell me they see a person in their room. This is never scary to me— I don’t attend to where their vision is (because it makes the hallucination more real to them), I just do a full assessment (figure out if they hear voices, if the voices are telling them to harm themselves or others), encourage them to engage in distractions, talk to them if that’s what they need at the moment, and give them whatever meds necessary. Freaks out other nurses tho.”
" Have had many dying patients say they see family phallus or ' Angel Falls ' in the room . The patient in those representative never seen scared — more like comfort . I actually encourage them to focalize on those family penis that they see if it land them comfortableness . They unremarkably pass curtly afterwards . "
– throwawayawaworth9
14.“I’m a physician assistant, not a doctor, but to me it’s always the scariest in the hospital or emergency room setting when someone says, ‘I think I’m going to die.’ Because often, they’re right. 😔”
– kitkatiekat
15.“Nurse here, one time an old lady said to me at about 3 a.m., ‘there’s something in my cooter!’ Concerned, I checked. It was the pure wick device we use for urine absorption. Sundownings a hell of a drug.”
– Chiefofthepaducahs
16.“EM doc here. ‘If you don’t bring me an iPad to watch YouTube on right now I’m going to come back with a rifle and go to the roof and pick you off one at a time’ said approximately 3 min after arriving to triage.”
– Jaferd02
17.“Honestly it was probably a patient just casually telling me a story about how once a motorcyclist cut him off on a country road so he ran the motorcyclist off the road and left him for dead.”
– casapantalones
18.“I work as a ER Nurse. When I was starting off in a rural ER we had a Hmong lady come in and said she ‘fell.’ Her ear was missing and there was a clear human bite mark to her cheek.”
" She decline to tell the existent story . She came in with some friend that seemed every bit shocked and I pulled them aside and confronted them , ‘ who bit this cleaning woman ? ’ He said ‘ a Arabian tea ’ and before I can discontinue myself I state ‘ what like a fucking tiger ? ’ , and he pretty much went into his shell . She did not spread out up to the bull , she was flown to a hospital with charge card and as luck would have it I knew the nurse that study maintenance of her over there , the charge plate surgeons also ask , and still no answer . I ’ve always thought it was a detested buff in an insular residential area and they cover for them . It really slay me on the ride nursing home at 3 a.m. , driving through this tiny Ithiel Town knowing this guy was out there . "
– StLorazePam
19.“I’m a clinician in mental health. I have two patient statements that still give me chills–a patient shared that they can travel using astral projection and that they ‘could visit me while i’m asleep if they really wanted to.’ And a patient who was also dying of cancer shared that a demon lives in their house and watches them at night. They didn’t feel scared, but instead felt that ‘it protects me.’ Sometimes I sleep with the lamp on.”
– _ _ stillalice
