The most disturbing things seen in the ER, a recently posted article, inspired a lot of reader comments.
And because the things that are most disturbing to EMS providers are often very different from the public, we asked our fans on Facebook to list the most disturbing things they’ve seen while treating patients. Here are some of their disturbing (and gross) responses.
And if you haven’t already, be sure to add your most disturbing comment below.
1. “GI bleeds. Just about to the hospital and the patient covers the inside of the rig with … no sense going into details. That smell hangs in the rig forever.” — Mike Straw
2. “Transported an elderly women with significant acid burns and open sores on her legs from her own urine. She had also used rubber bands to hold up the three pairs of tube socks she had on each leg. The rubber bands had cut their way down to the bone yet she still had a pedal pulse. It’s been 20 years and I still remember the smell.” — Meggan R Sommerville
3. “Wound vacs gross me out. It’s weird because I don’t mind suctioning airways or other cavities. Just specifically wound vacs. I don’t even like handling them with gloved hands.” — Chris Collins
4. “Code Browns. I dry heave every time. The trick is to wear a mask with some deodorant or hand sanitizer inside it.” — Devon Hughes
5. “It’s mostly the smells I can’t stand sometimes. But that diabetic homeless guy with the maggot party on his leg was pretty nasty though. I couldn’t eat rice for a while after that one.” — Red Dove
6. “I don’t find anything deeply disturbing. I guess the closest would have been the burn victim that was burned on 36 percent of his upper body.” — Jake Hammonds
7. “The sweet smell of pseudomonas oozing out neon green from an abdominal wound.” — Morgan Leigh
8. “Snot!” — Aleta Mahnke
9. “Skin flakes. All the skin flakes.” — Thomas Blackston Jr.
10. “Large splinter of wood impaled in eye. The guy kept looking around, back and forth at everyone.” — Josh Haney
