10. Just reading this makes me breathless

"When I was in med school we were shown a patient who had both lungs fully collapsed, yet he came into the hospital all by himself and was only complaining about it being slightly difficult to breathe."

haestrom

9. Syrup for blood sounds like it would be painful

"As a med student, I saw an asymptomatic diabetic patient with a blood glucose level so high our portable glucometers couldn't quantify it. When I did a blood draw (students do procedures here), I noticed that the plasma looked pretty syrup-y. Hyperglycemic hyperosmolar state is a very dangerous condition that usually leads to mental obtundation and neurologic deficits yet this guy was sitting and chatting with everyone who came to monitor him, without so much as a headache."

Doctor_Doo

8. This lucky fisherman

My father is a doctor , we live in a coastal area , and fishing is pretty common . Not just fish , fishing for whales and stuff . I am unsure of the details , but a man came with a spear passing through the back of his neck . He came out safe after hours in the ER . It went on the local newspaper.

sweetremedy01

7. The average is around 120/80, by the way...

"I was on rounds in the outpatient clinic with our internal medicine doctor. A patients walks in and complains of blurred vision. Routinely one of us, the students, would get up and check the blood pressure manually for practice. It was my turn. Mind you this is the first time I practice on real person that's not one of my friends.

I confidently wrap her arm and place my stethoscope and start pumping. I hear the first throb on the reading too fast.. I pause .. and start again. Again, the first throb comes too fast and I check the reading again. I slowly lock eyes with our doctor. She finishes explaining something to our round group and makes eye contact with me, 'So? What's her bp?'. I pull down my stethoscope and slowly pass it to her, 'Ummm..not sure..but I THINK you should check it out yourself' Her face went pale, it was 240/120."

destinysdaughter

6. ... And a normal blood sodium level is between 135 and 145

"Doctor here. Alcoholic dude brought by EMS after being 'found down', which is doctor speak for anyone who is unconscious. Homie had a serum sodium of 104! Basically that should have killed a regular person but this dude slowly diluted his body's solute over years to finally get a sodium that low. Dude spent a week intubated in the ICU and then another week on the floor. Homeboy walked out of the hospital after 2 weeks"

Jefethevol

5. Medics see a lot of insanity out there

"Medic here. Had a dude wrap his car around a tree, split it in two, and the front half rolled down a 20ft cliff and landed in a tree. Broke his pelvis and an arm. What saved him was him being drunk as a skunk. Also scared us because he was borderline unconscious"

oculus77

4. This patient should buy a lotto ticket

"We had someone with three pieces of rebar in his chest and it missed everything vital. It was fascinating and utterly frightening to work on"

mangoscape

3. Glad to here that this new mom survived

"We had a lady come to the ER with a couple days of headache and blurry vision. We saw this on MRI.

About two weeks prior, she had an epidural while giving birth. She ended up having a CSF (Cerebrospinal Fluid) leak. The pressure in her central nervous system was so low that she developed bilateral subdural hematomas, compressing on her brain from both sides. She went to the OR and had Burr holes placed on both sides. She made a full recovery."

mhc-ask

2. This patient was tougher than most

"Not in the medical field anymore but I met a guy in clinic with a hemoglobin of 3 and a hematocrit of 12. He walked in on his own power, was talking, seemed totally normal except he was tired and we couldn't find blood pressure. Then the labs came back and it was like "hahaha GO TO THE ER RIGHT NOW YOU NEED A TRANSFUSION"

We also couldn't figure out how his blood levels got so low"

deliriousgoomba

1. Is this a horror movie?

"Guy with diabetic neuropathy so bad in his feet they were starting to rot/obtain gangrene. His cat started eating his toes and he didn't realize bc he has no feeling"

michelleoelle