Growing up I remember the idea of "stranger danger" being drilled at me intensely. Strangers were all kidnappers just waiting for you to say hi.
But what if they weren't?
What if strangers were full of potentially life-changing moments that DIDN'T involve major felonies and bodily harm?
Reddit user Himmel001 asked:
"Is there a stranger you've never seen again with whom you've shared a memorable moment you'll always remember?"
I'm not saying let's teach kids to just go running off with whoever, but look at all of these impactful moments! Look at the stories these people came away with, look at the ways lives were changed...
Some Drunken Advice
Drunk Parks And Recreation GIFGiphy"A man stopped in the street once and talked to me. He was a young guy, a bit drunk I think."
"I was wary cause I'm female, I was alone and it was dark - but he talked a bit about life and then said 'don't do it, it's not worth it, love' and then walked away."
"Which was weird, because I was planning on killing myself that night."
"Didn't do it obviously, and now eight months later, I'm the happiest I've ever been. I think I might owe my life to him and I want him to know that."
"Thanks dude."
"Better Than Normal"
walt disney dance GIFGiphy"Yes. I worked at Disneyland in my late teens - early 20s. I was a character host while I worked there, meaning I walked around with the characters and facilitated interactions."
"I'm 38 now and I remember this like it was yesterday even though it was actually 20 years ago. It was just about Christmas and I was working with the princesses. Back at that time, they were sort of free-roaming around the castle instead of having a set meet and greet location."
"I was walking Belle and Beast offset for a break. Suddenly we heard a voice yelling 'Belle! Wait! I love you!' Something about the voice made me turn and there was a man with downs syndrome running towards us with his caregiver."
"Typically the rule is that once the characters are on their way out, they don't stop for anyone. Just wave and keep going. But we stopped for him."
"His name was Stephen. He told us how much he loved all of the princesses but Cinderella was his favorite. But Belle was his second favorite and he loved her too."
"As his caregiver and I talked, I learned that he hadn't had much luck getting to see the princesses but that they were having a nice time. I was so touched by his genuine excitement that I asked if he and his friend would meet us up by the Christmas tree on Main Street in about half an hour so I could give him a special gift."
"It was getting to be the end of the day and the princesses all used to do their last set at the town square by the tree. So I rushed Belle and Beast inside where I knew Cinderella was waiting to go out and say goodnight to everyone."
"I told her about Stephen and asked if we could spend some special time with him. Of course the answer was yes."
"Then I ran to the shops and got an autograph book and ran to all of the nearby break rooms to get as many characters to sign it as I could."
"Just before it was time for Cinderella to come out I went to find Stephen and his friend. They were sitting on the curb, just in front of the enormous tree."
"We spotted each other at the same time and his friend gave him a little nudge. He came jogging over and gave me a huge smile."
"I gave Stephen the autograph book and he was SO excited! Then I asked him to come with me to the area where I knew Cinderella would be coming to and we waited together."
"His face lit up when he saw her. He gave her the biggest hug and told her how much he loved her."
"They spent a little time together and then she saw some other folks. But by some miracle she wasn't bombarded with a ton of people so she had time to walk around the square with Stephen."
"He told us about his work, and his friends, and the movies he liked. We stood and watched the carolers in front of the windows of one of the stores with a warm golden light glowing around them."
"But then it was time for Cinderella to go."
"At Disneyland you never say that a character has to go on a break or end their shift. You tell guests something more true to their character. So I said that Cinderella had to go have tea with her fairy godmother."
"She turned to give him a hug and say goodnight. He went still and quiet for a moment."
"He looked up at her and said, 'Can you ask for a wish for me?' "
"Cinderella smiled sweetly and told him of course."
"He stood quietly for a moment longer and then said, 'Can you please ask her to make me normal?' "
"It was like someone knocked the breath out of me. My heart broke for him."
"He kept looking up at her with sad, hopeful eyes. I immediately started sobbing."
"Cinderella tried to compose herself and gave Stephen a hug and a kiss on the cheek, leaving a pink lipstick mark behind. She looked him straight in the eyes and told him, 'You are so much better than normal.' "
"She and I had to then rush away so we could get her off stage before she lost control."
"I tried to go back and find Stephen and his friend again once I got Cinderella settled. But they were gone by the time I came back. I never saw them again."
"But every year, around Christmas time, he pops into my mind and I hope that he is doing well and remembers that he really is so much better than normal."
Clara
Sad Twin Peaks GIF by Twin Peaks on ShowtimeGiphy"I was on the way out of the store when this old man just gave me the biggest hug."
"Came running up to me, called me Clara. I tried to tell him I'm not Clara, but he was too busy telling me how proud of me he was, how I don't call enough, he misses me."
"He kept telling me to stop worrying about something, that I'm smart and beautiful and whoever it was he thought I had a problem with will recognize that."
"This apologetic older lady comes up, all she says is sorry, he's confused. Meanwhile he's just going on and on telling her how proud he is of me."
"Obviously I told her it's okay. He was clearly having a dementia moment, lol. He thought I was his daughter."
"I think the wife (I presume it was his wife) was trying to tell him. He kept insisting that I was and getting upset that she said I wasn't. Finally I just blurted: "
" 'It's okay, dad. I have to get back to class but I loved running into you. What a surprise!' "
"He stood and watched over me get in my car, and waited until I left the parking lot before he went into the store (presumably). I could see his wife still trying to drag him in and him, I guess, saying he was waiting until I was out of sight, it took a while because I was at a light."
"I look for him, both of them, every time I go to the pharmacy."
"That was, 2 years now? Obviously, the thought has crossed my mind... this pandemic, the elderly, the really elderly."
"I haven't seen him again but I do look."
Subway Fairytales
Pas De Deux Dance GIF by New York City BalletGiphy"I'm a big, African-American guy & I was on my way home one night after work when a torrential Spring downpour flooded half the train station on 42nd & 8th in the city".
"A petite, Caucasian woman, probably late 50s, was stuck with no way to get past the newly formed lake at the subway entrance. I strode up to her in my black leather boots, gave her a Hollywood bow and said 'Madam...May I?' "
"She gave me the biggest smile, threw her arm around my neck & did this ballerina pose thing when I carried her to safety."
"You'd have thought we were on stage the way we moved across the water. Even though we hammed it up a bit she held me close and was so incredibly light in my grasp."
"When I put her down on the nearest dry step she gave my a hug and a smile that blew my mind, even to this day!"
"I'd like to think that she was part of one of them Broadway shows above ground because she DEFINITELY had the aura of a performer, y'know? The whole experience was fairytale as fu*k."
"I honestly would LOVE to have that same warm, fuzzy, accomplished feeling again. I hope I made her night. She certainly left me with a good impression I'll never forget."
"I Always Wanted To Be A Rainbow"
My Little Pony Film GIFGiphy"Waiting for the bus one day, minding my own biz."
" 'Ohh, girl, I looove your bag!' "
"I turn and see an older woman, the first thing I notice is she has rainbow eyeshadow, which stood out amazingly against her dark skin. Literally all the colours painted on her eyelids, with a lovely maroon lipstain and a golden blush."
"Her whole outfit was a mix of tie-dye and pastel."
"My own purse was kinda tan with some pinks and blues mixed in, my brain told me to give her the purse to complete her outfit. I said thanks and she asked me where I got it."
"We chatted a bit while we waited for our respective buses. I told her I loved her make-up, and I wish I could pull the look off. I'll never forget what she said:"
" 'Honey, you can do anything and be anything. I always wanted to be a rainbow, so I'm doing just that.' "
"Then she strode away and got on a bus. Never saw her again, despite me going to that bus stop every day for 3 years."
"It felt so prophetic, and unreal. I hope that lady is doing well."
Expecting An Attack, But...
Denzel Washington Reaction GIFGiphy"Back in late 2007 we were in a place in Iraq called Diyala in a couple smaller towns, with barely any dirt roads. We mainly ran night patrols, over-night SKT's, etc."
"That means we mostly worked at night. There was a 2100 (9:00 pm) curfew, so anyone out past that time was going to get rolled up, period. No questions, no excuses."
"So we're rolling through this palm grove nearest a small town called Muqisha, and we started hearing:"
" 'Ameriki? Ayn Alamerikan? Adhhab wahdarhum!' (American? Where are the Americans? Go get them! My Arabic may be a bit off, if so, I'm soooo sorry)."
"This kid, maybe 9 or 10 years old comes out and starts screaming for help, for the Americans, that the Americans need to help and some other stuff I couldn't for the life of me understand."
"Well ok, keeping it low-key is a bust and we're probably gonna get hit with bomb or something now, so we take a tactical pause and sat there for a few minutes with our balls in our stomachs expecting an attack any second."
"But this kid is just having a breakdown on this dirt road, and we were like 'ok…we'll we're not getting attacked, so let's go see what's wrong.' "
"The kid sees us walking out and starts running towards the house he came from. We followed, and no sh*t, the kid was trying to find help because his mom was giving birth."
"So me and my best friend David (our platoon medic, and the one who gave me instructions - David was killed four days later in an area close to this town), got down in there and literally delivered this baby in the middle of a backwater Iraqi town, on a dirt floor."
"She named the little boy Lee-Alan."
"After everything that's happened since then I wish was able to find out what happened with that kid. I have a lot of questions about my time in Iraq, but that moment was worth it."
- 2ID11B
These Actors Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The Role | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
The Actors Who Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The RoleFew people bought into the idea of Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White before Breaking Bad..."Go Find Your Son"
Video Games GIF by Far Cry 6Giphy"Almost a decade ago I was riding in a taxi from the airport talking to the police at my son's University."
"I'd gotten a call the day before that he'd failed to return to his apartment after his last exam. He'd waved to a friend as he finished his exam early, walked out and simply vanished."
"I was coordinating a search effort and was obviously distraught on the phone."
"When we stopped at my son's apartment, I pulled out my wallet to pay."
"The taxi driver grabbed both of my shoulders, looked me in the eye and said in a thick Russian accent 'You no pay. Go find your son.' "
"Then he gave my shoulders a shake and a squeeze and off he drove."
"That was the first of many examples of the kindnesses that were shown to my family as we searched for him. Sadly, a fisherman spotted his body on the seventh day of our search and we were able to bring him back home."
"We had a very fun 3 hour Skype with our son on a Sunday night. Two days later he was gone."
"Hug your kids as often as you can."
It Takes A Village
game show shopping GIFGiphy"One time, perhaps 9 years ago..?? I was at the Grocery Store pretty late, around 2-3am."
"It is a blizzard outside. The snow is coming down thick and wet and fast. There's probably 6 people in the entire store."
"One of those six is a frazzled looking young mother. Her 4ish year old, draped over her, fast asleep, with a hospital band around his wrist."
"Her cart has pedialyte, popscicles, children's tylenol, and a shopping list probably 15 items long. She's struggling to carry her child, push the cart, grab items, not wake the sleeping sick toddler."
"She also looks like she's gonna just break down and cry."
"I made eye contact with another shopper. We connected, we spoke with a look."
"I set my basket down. They abandoned the cart. We bombarded this young woman with nearly silent love."
"The other shopper was a grandmotherly sort of woman, who came up and with a look and a gesture, invited this woman to hand over a sleeping, sick child, and take a load off."
"There was a hesitation, but you could see the exhaustion realize, 'this is my village, this is what they talk about...' "
"There was a swift handoff. I've already grabbed the list, and the cart, and a surprise hug."
"Within 5 minutes, the list has been completed. Check out has happened. The Mom has had a chance to breathe."
"The toddler hasn't even stirred."
"We make the way to her car. I load the groceries in for her. They get her son into his booster seat. I brush the snow off her vehicle. The 3 of us share a hug."
"And then she takes her child home, and the other lady and I go back to our shopping. The whole exchange, start to finish, was maybe 15 minutes??"
"There were barely any words spoken, all things considered. But I know that we changed that Mom's night."
"We became her village. And I'll just never forget that."
Touring Rome
Art History Lol GIF by Acorn TVGiphy"In 2010, I randomly met a girl at a hostel in Rome. We toured around the city for 2 days together."
"She was an art-history major who really knew her stuff. The trip to the Vatican museum was like getting a private tour, with facts and insight about each painting, sculpture and tapestry."
"2 years later, I searched her name on Google and found out she died from cancer."
- gachunt
A New Shirt
sad iron man GIFGiphy"I was in the mental hospital 3 years ago. There was a man who had left on my 3rd to last day there."
"He had anger issues but otherwise was a distant person so I hadn't spoken to him much."
"If we did speak it was because he was asking when our next cig break was (he was beyond addicted to those) or talking about how amazing his daughter is."
"On my last night he came back. Covered in scratch marks."
"He had clearly ripped his shirt somehow and the marks were all over his chest, back, arms, and legs."
"The next morning there he was. Sitting where he always did in the morning for the smoke break but this time…this time he looked broken."
"He was wearing a scrub top and sweats. They didn't even look like his clothes."
"I remember sitting down next to him and asking if he was okay and that's when he told me. His daughter died in a car accident shortly before he was admitted into the hospital."
"He said he was the one who scratched himself up and without his daughter he wasn't going to have a new shirt soon."
"I offered him one of the shirts my mother had brought me. It was some band I didn't listen to anymore."
"The way he held my hand and the way he spoke to me. I don't think I'll ever forget."
"He is exactly who I think about when I start to get bad thoughts. I don't want my mother to feel the pain that I saw that man going through."
"I really hope he is doing okay now."
Werewolves In The Night
teen wolf 80s GIFGiphy"Several years ago I was going through a haunted house attraction with a group of friends. A random guy in a werewolf mask came up and held my hand and we continued like that through the whole thing."
"I didn't know who he was or what prompted him to do it but it made me feel at ease since I was the 5th wheel of the group and everyone else was clinging to their partners."
"When we exited, he just walked off into the night like we didn't just have this moment."
Flowers
flowers bouquet GIF by Tove LoGiphy"I was walking down the road to get something to eat during a lunch break when this old lady walked by. As I passed her, I greeted her (it's common here to great strangers when walking by.)"
"She turned around and told me to stop."
"Then she looked into the window next to us pointing at some flowers the house owner had put there. She spent half of my lunch break explaining to me why these flowers are the best and most durable and how nice they look."
"She then smiled as she said: 'whenever your planning to buy flowers for your girlfriend just buy her these and they will last her a pretty long time' before she ended the conversation and left."
"I was standing there looking at these flowers for a couple of minutes smiling. She never told me what these flowers were and I never saw that old lady again."
"I don't like flowers, to be honest, but I saw how happy she was to have someone to talk to so this made my whole week."
"So to that old lady talking to a young guy on his way to lunch break about some flowers. Thanks for making my day :)"
- Anton_Germany
Holding Space For Grief
sad leonardo dicaprio GIFGiphy"The Greek family I met randomly."
"I got lost after leaving the funeral home when my young son died. They made me a tea and we talked about our loved ones."
"They had some baby things in their car, a coincidence because they had nobody having babies at the time. They just happened to have stuff."
"They gave it all to us, saying God sent us to them for a reason."
"There was a pink towel with bunny ears."
"3 years on, I have my rainbow baby; a daughter. I use that towel and remember my son, and that family."
"Wherever you are, thank you. You helped me survive the first few weeks after my sons death. You bearing witness to my grief and sitting with me holding space is something I will never forget."
- zieaendaire
Passenger Prayers
prayer GIFGiphy"About five years ago, my father and I were leaving a Wal-Mart parking lot when an SUV in front of us stopped abruptly and blocked a small intersection."
"We honked politely after a few seconds, but nothing happened. Since I was sitting in the passenger's seat, I hopped out and walked up to the car."
"I waved and walked up slowly, but the person did not seem to notice me. I tapped on the glass and could tell the person behind the wheel was not moving. After more polite, urgent knocks, I opened the driver-side door and saw a young woman passed out behind the wheel."
"I tried to wake her but she was unresponsive. By now another person had walked up and I told her to call 911 and request an ambulance."
"I remember during CPR training from work they recommend not moving the person if you cannot physically wake them."
"I did panic a little when I noticed the vehicle was in drive, but I was able to reach across and get it into park and also turn off the ignition, just in case."
"Anyway, by now a small crowd had formed."
"It didn't take very long for the fire truck to arrive (yay first responders!!!) and after telling my short story it was time for me to leave. I hopped back into the car with my dad and we drove home."
"I never heard about that woman again, never learned her name. I never found out whether it was drugs or a medical condition or whatever else could have caused her to pass out behind the wheel."
"But I will always remember standing there beside a short Hispanic woman who was praying in rapid Spanish."
"She had one hand on my shoulder and her other hand on the unconscious woman, and I didn't know what else to do besides return her gesture."
"Before long there were half a dozen people standing there with us, touching each other and praying (this was long before Covid). I'm not a religious person, but I like to hope that we made a difference that day."
"That woman will probably never know who any of us were, and none of us will probably ever see each other again. But I hope she is alive and healthy somewhere."
- IrrationalFly
Chaperones, Race Day, and No Kidnappings!
Giphy"About 20 years ago, I took my then 11-year old son to see the Le Mans 24 hour race."
"I had a backpack with a tent and our sleeping bags and planned to just buy tickets at the gate and then to pitch our tent somewhere around the track once we were in."
"Whilst waiting outside the station for a taxi to the course a breathtakingly beautiful, fragrant young woman dressed like she owned a fashion brand approached me and asked, in French, if we were going to the race."
"I said we were and she immediately switched into English (I'm going to blame my accent because all I actually said was "Oui" so I can't have got THAT wrong)."
"She asked if we would like to share a taxi with her as it was some distance. Clearly she could afford the cab ride on her own but despite my son's (inexplicable) reluctance, I agreed and we shared the next available cab."
"During the ride over, she explained that her boyfriend was a driver (in the Peugeot Courage team) and that she was meeting him at the track but had been warned that some women had been assaulted in the past there by taxi drivers!"
"So, she saw my son and me and thought: 'They're my chaperones.' "
"OK, so chatting (in perfect English) on the ride over - which she INSISTED on paying for herself (in full) once we arrived - she heard our 'plan' and said no chance. It was ridiculous."
"She pulled out her (and her partner's) 'All areas' passes from her handbag and said 'We will use these!' "
"So now, I'm walking into the participants entrance with a pass round my neck that read "Pilote" (French for racing driver) whilst she holds my son's hand and just confidently waves her own pass to the guards for both of them."
"I was in jeans carrying a back pack, she couldn't have been more than a dozen years older than my son but they smiled and beckoned us through."
"So, now we are in and I thank her and go to return the pass."
" 'Doesn't your son want to see the pits? You must meet my partner, you can give HIM his pass. The story will amuse him.' "
"After our tour of the pits her (infuriatingly cool) boyfriend then showed us how to get through to the Grandstand (with no ticket - honestly) where we watched the famous start to the Le Mans 24 hour race."
"Painfully loud, by the way. My lousy 'planning' also meant I overlooked packing ear protection."
"Anyway, after a couple of hours, we made our way out of the Grandstand and I tried to re-enter team area back the way we came to thank Stephanie (pretty sure that was her name) but the race had begun by then, so they wouldn't let us back."
"I left a message of thanks with the humourless guy at the barrier, but don't know if she ever got it."
"Peugeot didn't win the race that year (I think Bentley did) and I have never been back since but I will always remember that remarkable encounter."
"My son is now in his 30s and we still occasionally reflect on it. He explained to me subsequently that he was reluctant because thought she was going to kidnap us!?"
- Modestboaster
Puppy Love To Poopy Love
"I was in 3rd grade and was invited for my classmate's birthday party. I really felt so pretty that time because of my outfit. I was also wearing a sandal with 1inch heels."
"Then, I saw this cute boy who I think is the same age with me. This handsome stranger would be my boyfriend."
"I don't know if you guys experienced that phase during childhood where you feel like you're SO pretty that someone your age will suddenly catch a love-at-first-sight crush on you... but I did."
"Anyway, so as a little kid who's wearing a heeled sandals for the first time, I felt like a model and planned to walk in front of him so he could notice me."
"So I walked confidently towards my target, convinced we were about to fall in love. But exactly as I stepped in front of him, I suddenly farted WITH SOUND!!"
"Take note that he was sitting, so he probably heard it. It's possible he maybe smelled that amazing aroma of puppy-love-turned-into-poopy-love almost near his face."
"When I finally stepped past him, I nervously looked back at him, praying that he didn't notice."
"Unfortunately, he was looking at me too. Frowning. Because I had just crop-dusted him."
"Probably memorable because it's my most embarrassing moment. Kinda grateful that we never met again."
"It's been 11 years and I don't know if he still remembers that, but I hope not."
"I've never known his name and can't even recall his face. All I know is I've never been so humiliated."
- ailili7582
Okay, we've had lots of "moments" but we can say with 100% honesty that we've never had a supernatural love connection in a haunted house.
And we're a little jealous.
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"What is the hardest part of dating after 30?"
Not Everyone Wants A Package Deal
"Realizing that the number of single parents is larger than you’d expect."- dhabo1030
"Some people have kids or want them soon."
"And emotional baggage."- Psyblade0_0
"Kids, whether you have them or not, is something to talk and consider immediately before starting anything."- Crisb89
"For me, it was finding someone who didn't have kids, and didn't want them."
"At that point in my life, I was (and still am) 100% sure I don't want kids."
"Finding a long-term partner who wants the same was pretty tough."- Toiletpaperplane
Playing Happy Children GIF by MOODMANEveryone's In A Hurry
"'Dating after 30 is like catching a city bus after midnight'."
"'There aren't as many, but they're faster'."- civex
How Long Have You Got?
"Online dating sucks and all my friends are married or dead or single fathers."
"So I am on my own for the most part."- somedude-83
"It's not all fun and games anymore."
"People feel late or behind."
"First dates often: are we compatible, do you want kids, are you OK with my kids, are you ready for a serious relationship, do you make enough money, do you own a home, politics?"
"Religion."
"I don't have time to mess with you if we aren't a match because I'm in my 30s and supposed to be married and having kids."
"The days of just light fun dating are less common."- ZLVe96
Kill Me Now Season 1 GIF by FriendsGiphyEmotional And/Or Excess Baggage
"Geez."
"You sometimes pay for what their ex did to them."- JJJAAABBB123
Rising Standards And Expectations
"You have your preferences narrowed down a LOT more than you did in your 20s, thus finding a compatible partner is more difficult."
"Especially if you dislike kids."- Clintman
"Many people want 'high value' partners while having no value."- Zetterburger40
Sassy Red Wine GIF by Married At First SightGiphySolo routines Can Be Hard To Shake...
"I've learned I prefer my own company."- PrinceEnternalStench
Alternative Methods...
"The summoning rituals you have to go through."- AdCareful5654
Wait Till Your 40s...
"Wait until they’re over 45."
"Most are divorced and have been alone for a while."
"It‘s a reset of dating and they’re open to try something new."
"That person who was out of your league is now squarely in your court."
"Go for it!"- macgiv
See Ya Goodbye GIF by MaxGiphyGood Luck Getting A Good Night's Sleep...
"CPAP Machines."- Reddit
As long as you are single, finding love is one of the many things you think you might never achieve with each passing year.
However, when you do finally find that one true love, no matter when or how old you are, you will realize in no time at all it was definitely worth the wait.
We all like to rant and rave about our workplace annoyances—but what about workers in medical professions?
These poor souls face terrifying, heartbreaking—and mostly just plain disgusting—experiences, and they have to attend to them STAT. These Reddit stories, however, come with a warning: only the brave, and those with stomachs of steel, should read on.
1. She Was Lying In Wait
woman in red shirt wearing blue gogglesPhoto by MedicAlert UK on UnsplashI got a fast bleep one night to a side room on the ward. A fast bleep means “drop everything you’re doing and attend to this emergency please.” When I entered the room, I found no patient in the bed. Not anywhere in the room. I was just about to leave the room and go back out to the nurses station, where there had been a bit of a hubbub when I’d dashed past the first time, when something caught my eye.
I looked up at the ceiling—and couldn’t stop myself from screaming. It was a face with wide, slightly wild “psych eyes” peering down at me. She was a lady waiting for a bed in the psych hospital who’d clearly thought the ceiling was the best place to hide from the people trying to poison her. Honestly, I can’t think of another occasion that I’ve been quite so terrified.
Worst thing was that I had to walk—well, dash—back out underneath her to get help from the nurses and security to get her down.
2. This Is Why We Have Two
While I was in training at an army hospital, the doctors would provide free medical attention to civilians that couldn’t afford it on their own. One story was about a woman in her seventies who came in complaining about a problem with her anus. And that’s not even the bizarre part. When the doctors went to roll her onto her side, one of the guys grabbed her arm, and it just flopped freely like it was just hanging on by skin.
They freaked out and asked her if she was okay and if her arm hurt. She said that it was no big deal, and that it was just her bad arm. As it turns out, when she was 16 years old, she fell down and completely dislocated her shoulder. They didn’t have access to medical attention, so she just lived with it like that for over 50 years.
She just conceded that she would never use that arm. He said that it could have been reset very easily without surgery, if they would have taken care of it when it happened. This story makes me so sad every time I think of it.
3. Right Angle? Wrong Angle
man riding on gray road bicycle during daytimePhoto by Beau Runsten on UnsplashOne of my students was a nurse. She was a really pretty girl, about 30 years old, and quite conservative. So when I asked her about horrible things she’d seen on the job, I thought she would share a pretty tame story—especially considering there were three other students in the class, two of them 22. I couldn’t have been more wrong. She started by telling me that a guy came into the hospital and he was “swollen” down there.
Was his scrotum inflamed, I asked? “No, no, not swollen,” she said. “My mistake. More like…” and here she made a hand gesture which I will never forget. First, the hand raised, perfectly straight, as if to initiate a karate chop. Next, the hand folded in the middle. 90-degree angle. At this moment I began making horrified expressions and the other students, all women, began laughing hysterically.
The best part? His mistress did it to him, not his wife. He ended up telling his wife that he had been riding a bicycle after work and had fallen off and done this horrible thing to himself. His wife, crying and agonized, pleaded with the doctors to save her poor man’s little man. However, he told the real story to the stone-faced doctors and nurses, who proceeded to inform the wife of the truth.
4. Location, Location, Location
I work at a hospital, and one day I got a script for a dewormer with a ridiculously high dose. Higher than I had ever seen before. I thought for sure it was a mistake, so I called the doctor just to be sure. He said that it was no mistake, and then told me what was up. I must say, this is the most disturbing thing I can remember in recent history.
It turned out the patient was someone with Cysticercosis, which is a tapeworm infection. While this isn’t that unusual, what was unusual was the location. The tapeworm infection was in her brain. The doctor and I both agreed there was very little chance of it working, but he said there were absolutely no other alternatives.
5. I’d Like To Lodge A Complaint
person in blue gloves and blue denim jeansPhoto by Clay Banks on UnsplashI’m a student psychiatric nurse. While on a ward for the elderly suffering from dementia, I had one experience I will never forget. I was helping a client eat, when I got a call from one of the rooms in the corridor. The client I was helping was pretty much done, so I went to investigate, hoping that it wasn’t a fall as the call was from a room belonging to a very unsteady lady. Oh god, how I wish it were just a fall.
The lady who called—let’s call her Betty—was in the corridor outside her room. The first thing I noticed were her hands. They were covered in what could only be excrement. I asked her if she’d had some trouble in the bathroom. Hey, it happens, sometimes when you’re older you may be a bit shaky or confused, and I’m not one to judge the unwell.
So, I move into her bedroom to help her clean up: that’s when the smell hits me. For a second I just stare and try to take in what has happened. What follows is how my brain tried to process what I saw. There were traces of excrement everywhere: on the walls, on the wardrobe, on her clean clothes, on her bed, on the door. I think: that’s okay, we can clean this. But there was something strange.
The thing is, I can’t see any major, er, “movement,” from which it would have come. Then I notice there’s something on the floor. As if someone had defecated on the floor and…picked it up? Yes, there’s slide marks from someone obviously moving…Oh my god. She has taken a dump on her dinner plate. I saw, on her bedside table, a plate piled high with excrement.
And I just stood there. I stared for what felt like an eternity—more like five seconds in reality. Eventually, I called someone to give me a hand. Perhaps it was a political statement about the state of the food in the hospital, I don’t know. Regardless, I now have the best dinner table story.
6. This Dora Over-Explored
I was seeing a three-year-old little boy in the clinic. His mom noted that for the past week she had noticed a foul smell around this kid’s face when she kissed him, brushed his teeth, or got anywhere near his mouth. I examined him a little closer and saw that his right nostril was clogged with something whitish, but obscured by mucus.
I pulled out the alligator forceps and recruited two nurses to hold this kid down—he was actually quite strong. I eventually pulled a wadded-up sticker out of his nose. It was soggy and coated in green slime, but the smell was the worst, just putrid. His mom then told us that she’d recently bought him a set of Dora the Explorer stickers at least a month ago and some were missing. Mystery solved.
7. I’m Still Standing
On a night shift in a psychiatric ward, a patient somehow got out his window and jumped from the second floor. We all ran out and were surprised to find him still standing on the lawn outside. It was an incredible miracle. Mind you, he was screaming his throat out, but he was still standing upright for some inexplicable reason.
As we got closer to him, we realized why he was standing. He’d snapped both his legs straight off in the fall. This caused his splintered shins to impale the soil. It was kind of like a couple of organic javelins. Even years later, I still shudder when thinking about the blood, the creaking of the bones, and the screaming.
8. He Was Missing A Head
man in red shirt driving carPhoto by Mat Napo on UnsplashEMTs got called to the scene of a bicyclist that got hit by a bus. Upon arrival they found him without vital signs at the scene. This was no surprise, as he’d been decapitated. The EMTs searched for his head, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Eventually, they gave up and took the body to the hospital. The doctors there X-rayed the guy and were shocked. The mystery of the missing head had been solved.
The head had been pushed straight into his chest cavity and was sitting where his lungs and heart were.
9. It Broke Her Heart
I’m in veterinary medicine, and kids are what get me the most. Don’t get me wrong, adults can be big babies too, but I guess I just feel terrible for the kids because I got to keep all my beloved childhood pets until I was at least well into my teens. The worst one was when I was a receptionist. We had a puppy with a parvo infection dropped off that was already in bad shape. In addition, the family was dirt poor.
It was a cute little lemon beagle. When the owner came in to pick the dog up and heard that even with the best, most expensive supportive care, this puppy might not make it, she opted to just take him home for the short time he had left. There was a little four or five-year-old girl waiting in the waiting room, and when mom came out with the beagle she lit up, ran over, smiling.
She thought the puppy was okay and she’d have it for a long time. The look that went over the mom’s face absolutely destroyed me. Horrible.
10. His T-Shirt Predicted It
man sitting on the motorcyclePhoto by Harley-Davidson on UnsplashI’m a respiratory therapist in a Level One Trauma Center. One time we had a man come in with an open leg fracture. There was a literal bone, the femur, pointing up and the rest of the leg hanging off and partially resting on the bed. He had been in a motorcycle accident with his wife, who had been riding on the back. The wife didn’t survive the accident.
The worst part of the story was that he was wearing one of those biker shirts that read: “If you can read this, the wife fell off”. Pretty horrible stuff.
11. They Just Fell Off
I’m a medical student. I was in the ER one shift and a rather obese man was brought in by his family, who said he’d been very confused lately. I went to go see the patients while the lab results from a standard blood count and chemistry were being processed by the lab. Being a medical student, I didn’t have a clue what was wrong with the guy.
After rapidly exhausting my line of questioning on an incoherent patient, I started doing a physical exam. As I removed his socks to check his pedal pulses and reflexes, I noticed that the sock I just pulled off felt like they had rocks in them. Big rocks. Curious, I emptied out the sock onto the bed, only to see that they were his toes. Three of them. It was the most disturbing sight I’ve ever seen.
The lab results came back, unsurprisingly, with a screamingly high blood glucose—totally off the charts. We figured out what happened. He’d had severe diabetic neuropathy and chronic, extreme hyperglycemia. Because of this, he couldn’t feel his toes become ischemic and was too confused to regularly check them, so they had just fallen off.
12. This Coffee Tastes Funny
StableDiffusionOne time, in the Intensive Care Unit, a patient was coughing up loads of sputum and, between changing the apparatus to catch it, the nurses caught some of it in the only thing they had handy: a Styrofoam cup. After a few moments, when the craziness was over and everyone went back to their day. One nurse, mistaking the cup of sputum for a cup of coffee, took a drink.
13. Teenagers Bad, Aunt Good
I’m currently a vet tech, but heading to nursing school soon. Once I had a 75 kg (160 lb) mastiff/St. Bernard mix brought in for a supposed tapeworm problem. One of the female techs lifts his tail to take his temperature and squeals then runs away. I look and see maggots around his tail. I start to shave and see that his skin is full—and I mean full—of little holes that maggots are crawling into and out of.
I keep shaving his very thick fur and reveal more and more skin that looks this way. I shave the entire dog up to his last rib before I found healthy skin. The maggots are everywhere. I have him on a grate above a bathtub so I can spray the maggots off. I spent four hours shaving and cleaning him and removed no less than two gallons of maggots from this dog’s skin. We know there were more because his entire gut was infected with them.
Later we found out what had happened. It turns out that the owners of the dog were in Europe on vacation, and their four teenage children were responsible for the dog. The wife’s sister was watching the children but was terrified of dogs, so she didn’t handle it directly. They were leaving this rather large dog with super-dense fur in the rain during a Charleston spring, which means it’s hot and muggy.
The dog probably got a small area of moist dermatitis that got infected and was left untreated and slowly spread through half the dog’s body. All four children were present when the veterinarian told them what happened and said that there wasn’t anything we could do but euthanize. Not one of them showed the slightest bit of remorse or acted as if they cared.
Only the aunt, who is terrified of dogs, remained with the dog as we gave the injection. She cradled the dog’s head in her lap and wept because of how the dog must have felt. He was so good during the entire ordeal and wanted nothing more than for someone to pet his head.
That is the only time I ever cried because of my job.
14. It Just Spilled Out
man in blue topPhoto by Payam Tahery on UnsplashPharmacy guy here, but I work with anesthesia during surgeries at night and the worst surprise I had was on a simple operation. An obese woman was having a boil on her arm lanced and drained…simple enough…but the minute the tiny incision began there was this popping sound. To our shock, the skin from elbow to shoulder split wide open. Black goo and puss then seeped out from where she had developed compartment syndrome. It was all over the table.
There’s just not enough peppermint gauze in the world to cover up someone’s necrotic flesh smell.
15. Thank You For Sharing
I’m not a doctor or a nurse, but I work in a pharmacy and have heard some pretty awful things. Some people have no shame. One morning, our pharmacist got a call from a long-time customer who wasn’t quite right in the head. She had gotten an upper gastrointestinal done and was prescribed pills to stimulate her bowels to get the radiation out of her body.
She proceeded to explain to our pharmacist loudly—the pharmacist put her on speakerphone so we could all enjoy—that she had been up all night on the toilet. And then it suddenly stopped, and it wouldn’t come out. And, she added, it hurt. So, out of all the things she could use, she grabbed a metal nail file and made “it” come out.
Well, at that point she was bleeding quite a bit, so she decided to stick a tampon up there and call it good. She was not seeking any medical advice, because—according to her—she was just fine. She just wanted to share this story.
16. There Was A Direct Link
A patient came in one day with a dire sore throat. Midway through the examination the patient started violently gagging, opened his mouth and vomited what seemed like every single pint of blood out of his body. It turns out that the patient had a condition in which the esophagus rubs against the nearby artery and, if left unchecked, the membrane will fuse together opening a direct link between mouth and heart.
17. It Went Nuts
A pleasant middle-aged lady was gardening one day when her dog went nuts and went for her in the yard. The ordeal apparently went on for quite some time until finally a neighbor heard, came over, and shot the dog to get it off her. I would have sworn no dog could do what that dog did, it looked like I would imagine a tiger attack.
The worst part was her arms and hands, which she had been using to ward off the dog. She lost both hands. It was, quite simply, horrific.
18. There Was A Boy There
A couple weeks ago an old man, around 90, was brought into the hospital by ambulance, which he’d called for himself. I was reading through his background notes and noticed that he lives alone as many older ones do. It turns out this guy had stopped taking his medication for his dementia because he forgot about it. He then also began to get dehydrated and confused as he also forgot to drink water or eat meals. But here’s where the story gets freaky.
The old man said there was a boy living with him that week, and he was staying in his room with him. He said he didn’t mind because he just sat there on the bed and didn’t say anything. After about the third day of this boy staying with him, the old man began to get worried because the boy had not eaten or had anything to drink. So, the man dialed for an ambulance saying he was afraid the boy was going to collapse.
The ambulance staff turned up and the guy toured them around the house for 20 minutes trying to find the boy. They see his meds are untouched and take him away to hospital for treatment. Poor guy, but his caring for his imaginary friend may have saved his life!
19. Zombie Pirate
I’m an activities director for an elderly home. One morning, I was delivering morning newspapers, when I heard a lady call from down the hall of resident apartments. She asked me, as sweet as could be, if any nurses were here yet. Before I looked up I said I wasn’t sure but I could take a peek for her. Then I looked up.
The woman was holding onto a support beam that we have on the walls like a ballet bar but sturdier. Her left foot is attached only by ligaments and is dragging behind her. She is literally walking on her exposed bone. I tried my darndest not to react and scare her. I gingerly helped her sit on the floor, before running for emergency services and my boss.
I guess at some point in the night she had fallen out of bed and didn’t think it was serious enough to bother a caregiver or someone about. She slept on the pad on the floor that is there in case anyone falls out of bed. Then, when morning came, and she heard me in the hall, she dragged herself up and asked for help.
I feel like a terrible person, but when I calmed down I had to admit for half a second I thought she was a zombie pirate.
20. A Living Anatomy Lesson
person in blue denim jeans with gray and black metal padlockPhoto by Ashkan Forouzani on UnsplashI was working in a hospital in Nepal for a month. A lot of people ride motorcycles there for transportation, and they also have minimal road laws and enforcement. As a result, they see motorcycle accidents at a much higher prevalence. Anyways, during one of my shifts in the ER a man was brought in with bloody sheets covering his whole lower half.
I gathered from the family that he had been in a motorcycle accident. I lifted the sheets up expecting to see a partial amputation or a crush wound, only to see what the doctors would later describe to me as a “degloving”. This is a fairly common injury in Kathmandu. Essentially his leg had got caught in a rotating tire. The torque of the tire and the friction it caused with his skin ripped his skin off and sent it hurling away. The rest of the leg was intact, just without the skin.
His leg was essentially a living anatomy lesson—till they amputated it.
21. She Couldn’t Speak
I’m a medical student and the most distressing thing I’ve seen is a lady who had multiple strokes within days. These strokes left her with many neurological deficits. She had the classic hemiplegic stroke leaving her unable to move her entire right side. She had lost all sensation in her arm as well. The lady was also in constant pain.
The worst part is, she then had another stroke which made her lose her voice. She couldn’t even tell anyone for two days that she was in so much pain.
22. Oh, That’s Where I Left It
man in white thobe standingPhoto by Sasun Bughdaryan on UnsplashAn obese lady came into the hospital and was complaining about a pain that she had in her lower stomach. We asked her where, and she gestured toward the area just above her crotch. We pulled up her shirt, and the pain was coming from below one of her folds of skin. When we started lifting the folds, we found a 20 cm (8 in) splinter stuck inside of one of the folds.
Not only was this piece of wood long, but it was wide too. The end was splintered on it, and that was the pain she was feeling. So, we carefully removed the thing and showed it to her. What she said next floored us. “Oh that’s my plank! I use my plank to hold up my stomach so my husband and I can make love. It must have broken.”
23. He Wasn’t Licking His Own Wounds
I’m a social care worker and care for people in the comfort of their own homes. I went to a job about a month ago and was told in the description that he had a few bed sores. When me and my colleague rolled the service user over, the sores were about double the size of a tennis ball. Also, you could see all the way into his hip bone each side.
The sores were really fresh and still weeping. All I could smell in the air was rotting flesh, not only all this, but I turned up a week later to do my shift again to find the dog had got on his bed and was licking his wound! Poor bloke couldn’t even move his arms. I blame the district nurses for neglecting him for so long.
24. Driving With The Top Off
red vehicle in timelapse photographyPhoto by camilo jimenez on UnsplashA man got in a freak accident driving a convertible. The top of his skull got completely cut off, exposing his somehow unharmed brain. When he arrived unconscious at the hospital, he was being treated by a mass of nurses and/or doctors. As he was lying on his back on the operation table, he started throwing up. Now, I’m sure all of you know how gravity works, but I’ll explain what happened just in case.
He was lying on his back: face up. His brain was exposed. He started throwing up. The vomit traveled in trajectory landing on his brain. In short, he was vomiting on his own brain.
25. I Heard Everything
A few years ago I was visiting a friend in the ER. He’d had some minor heart trouble and was resting in one of the rooms, which he shared with an elderly woman. Shortly after I got there, a nurse came in with a bedpan and pulled the curtain dividing the room in half. I wish the flimsy curtain had blocked out the sound of the old woman’s mostly liquid bowel movement, or at least the nurse’s comment.
“I know that feels like a bowel movement, but it’s mostly blood.”
26. Car Crash Changes Life
black steering wheel in carPhoto by Marek Piwnicki on UnsplashI’m neither a doctor or a nurse, but at one time I was aspiring to go to med school. I loved biology and anatomy and had received the Boy Scout first aid merit badge and CPR certification. I was convinced that my calling was to heal people, and I was leaning toward becoming a surgeon. This changed after I came across a car-car-truck-motorcycle collision on a highway.
The accident was a long ways away from the closest city, so no emergency services had gotten there yet. Bodies were littered everywhere. Mostly the bodies were still. Some, as I later found out from a newspaper article, were already deceased. One woman will haunt me more than the others. She was being held down by three other motorists.
She was screaming and struggling to get away from them and stand up, which wouldn’t have been too successful if they let her, as she was missing most of one of her legs. As much as I thought I was waiting for this kind of situation to prove my medical knowledge, I just couldn’t handle getting involved. Some people helped, some people did a U-turn to avoid the accident.
I did the latter while weeping in shame and frustration. As a result, I ended up majoring in computer science.
27. It Was The Size Of A Grapefruit
I’m not a doctor, but I worked at a hospital in the histology lab. I saw some slightly disgusting things (amputated leg of a morbidly obese person with clogged arteries, that the manager used as an anatomy lesson), but nothing rivaled the teratoma. Oh god, the teratoma. For those who don’t know what it is, it’s a type of malignant tumor that accumulates genetic material from many different parts of the body, leading to some pretty nasty surprises.
So, I was working, filing slides and whatnot, and in came an entire ovary with the teratoma. For reference, the teratoma was the size of a grapefruit. The ovaries gave the impression of a pale small stocking. So yes, it looked like someone had attached a small pale stocking to a pale grapefruit. That should have been a warning as to what would follow next.
My lab manager went up to operate on it, and as soon as he made a scalpel incision into the teratoma, it literally exploded. There was literally fluid everywhere. He had to change everything: the scalpel blade, the tabletop mat, even his gown. He later drained everything into the sink, which took a total of about five minutes.
After opening it up, we saw that it had to have been containing some sort of secretory gland, as there was this grayish stuff lining the inside of the teratoma—complete with strands of hair. He went further, and found a round bony core at the center of the teratoma. We had to bring out a bonesaw to cut through it, while my lab manager told me about the times he’s cut open teratomas and found fully developed eyeballs at the center.
Eventually, we cut through the dense core, and found a fully developed incisor tooth at the center. I was thoroughly disgusted by all that we had seen.
28. Maybe Someone Needs To Define “Lucky”
a person in a hospital bed with an ivPhoto by Olga Kononenko on UnsplashI worked at a hospital for a few years. One night there was a five-year-old kid who came into the emergency room who had apparently been playing with one of those yard marker flags. Well he was running and tripped, and the metal pin went into his mouth and punctured all the way through the back of his throat and out the back side of his neck.
When the kid came in, we had to literally tie his hand together, so he wouldn’t move the wire and possibly cause nerve damage. We ran all the tests and realized that this little kid was so lucky. You see, he had narrowly missed his spinal column. Basically, this meant that we were able to sedate him and just pull the wire out.
29. It Feels A Little Dry Down There
A girl comes to the hospital, and she’s complaining that she’s unusually smelly “down there”. The doctor takes a look, and sure enough there is something not right there. Upon further inspection, the doctor notices that there is an object deep inside her. The doctor asks her if she knows why there is something stuck inside her. And also if she knows what it might be.
The patient says that she knows what’s up there. It’s the cap to her deodorant. The doctor doesn’t even ask why the cap is up there, but just tells the woman that he’s going to take it out. It was her answer that shocked both the doctor and me. She said: “No please don’t touch that. I’m keeping it there as a contraceptive”.
30. I Had To Pick Them Up
yellow round fruit on pink surfacePhoto by Allec Gomes on UnsplashI’m a nuclear medicine technician and last week I was performing a Lung V/Q scan on a man who had congestive heart failure. Due to the buildup of fluid caused by congestive heart failure, each testicle was literally the size of a grapefruit. The reason I know this is because I had to pick them up and set them on a pillow—because them sitting on the table was too painful.
31. He Was Big But Also Small
I wasn’t a doctor or a nurse, but I worked as a patient transporter for almost five years. One of the responsibilities of the job was taking deceased patients down to the morgue. One evening, I was called to the ER to take an expired patient to the morgue. Another transporter and I entered the room to find something very strange.
The patient was extremely obese, yet also extremely short. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I would guess he was about 120 cm (4 ft) tall and 155 kilograms (350 lbs) which left him almost as wide as he was tall. There were pockets of air under his skin. I am guessing his tiny lungs collapsed under all the weight.
We couldn’t fit him onto our morgue cart, so we ended up having to cover the body under blankets and take his bed all the way to the morgue, escorted by security. The problem was that the weight distribution/balance on the bed was so different that we had a hard time steering in the hallways.
32. He Couldn’t Control Himself
I once did a wet-to-dry dressing, then placed a wound vac on a man that got flesh-eating disease on his thigh. In an emergency surgery he had received a fasciotomy from just above his knee to his hip and groin. It was rough at first but kinda like the body world exhibit so fairly manageable. I was able to dehumanize this portion of his leg.
That was when he lifted his leg up, so I could get to the underside. To my horror I saw that the thigh meat hung like an old person’s tricep. At about the same time, the man was overcome with uncontrollable gas. So what had previously been more like an exhibit in Vegas, had just become a man who has been skinned from balls to knee and is now farting all over me.
If you’re having trouble imagining this, look down at your thigh and just imagine no skin. No fat. Just muscle, tendon, and a light layer of blood. No, it’s not disgusting like some of the stuff I have read about, but there was just no way to compartmentalize that thigh. I was sweating profusely as I made my way through the long process. I kept my voice together and chatted with the guy, who was way cool, and got the job done.
Based on my limited experiences that was the worst thing I have seen yet on the job.
33. He Kept A Chunk
person in blue long sleeve shirt holding black and white trayPhoto by Quang Tri NGUYEN on UnsplashSo, my dad’s a dentist, and one night we get a call at home from the local ER asking if my father is willing to come in and deal with a patient because…well…they have no idea what to do with this woman. My dad is a rather stand-up guy, so he goes and opens his practice to treat this woman. I go along with him and help set up the room.
An ambulance pulls up and wheels this elderly woman into the clinic. From the get-go, the first thing that hits us is the smell. Her face is bandaged up pretty well, and we can see blood seeping through the gauze and all down her shirt. We both put on the double gloves, and double masks and my dad dives in. He discovers that she has something penetrating her lip. It’s mustard yellow, and has the consistency of rock candy.
My dad plays with it a little bit, and a large chunk breaks off. What’s attached is four of this woman’s teeth or rather, the decayed remains of her teeth. Apparently, this 78-year-old woman had never brushed her teeth a day in her life. What had penetrated her lip was an obelisk of plaque. My dad continued to clean away what he could, but the plaque buildup was so massive that she had literally rotten away all of her teeth and most of her gums. One spot was abscessed clear down to her jawbone.
To this day dad keeps the chunk in a jar in his office, and scares little children into brushing their teeth everyday.
34. He Can’t Forget
I’m an MD here. While in residency I was rotating through two months in general/vascular surgery, where amputations were very common. I was assisting with a bilateral below-knee amputation on a poorly controlled type 1 diabetic. Basically we were severing both legs a little below the knee. The patient had terrible circulation and hardly bled during the procedure.
The staff surgeon commented that we’d likely have to perform another amputation higher up in the future as the poor circulation would not allow healing. After the surgery, the patient promptly had a massive heart attack and was sent for stenting and a trip to the ICU. Several days later we were following up as the wounds were not healing well as predicted.
In an attempt to examine the amputation sites, myself and the surgeon began to unwrap each bandage. As we lifted the upper leg to make this easier, the 10 cm (4 in) of lower limb below the knee on each leg clearly began to separate from the leg above it as each side was mostly gangrenous, lifeless tissue. I’ll never forget the sound and smell.
35. Scouring Pads Are For The Kitchen Only
a room filled with lots of shelves filled with boxes and boxesPhoto by Árpád Czapp on UnsplashI work in a community pharmacy, so I don’t see the most disgusting stuff, but I do see the general public’s stupidity now and then. A regular came in one day. He had been complaining of anal itch, a bit of blood in his stool, and painful defecation—all of which had lasted for a long time. I told him it was likely hemorrhoids that were bad enough he shouldn’t self-treat it, but should have it looked at ASAP.
I guess he didn’t listen to my advice. He came back a week later and was asking for 90 or 99% isopropyl alcohol. I decided to ask why he needed it. It turned out, to deal with his anal itch/hemorrhoids, he was using a wire scouring pad to his entire anus. He was worried it might be infected so he wanted to kill off the germs with 90% isopropyl. I just pray I kept the horror off my face.
He then went on to say that the Crown Royal he was using was too painful and not working, so he needed stronger stuff. I told him NOPE!! NOPE!! As he walked away, I noticed the back of his sweat pants were stained with what looked like blood/pus/excrement. I called him back and told him to wait while I called an ambulance.
I later found out he had the beginnings of cellulitis, which is an early form of a bad skin infection that can progress to flesh-eating disease, on his anus/bum skin and a bacterial infection of the blood was beginning.
36. There Were Two Snakes On That Picnic
There was a couple who were having a romantic picnic out in a field and things got a little…hot and heavy. So, while they were occupied, they failed to notice a large red-belly black snake (rarely fatal, but intimidating-looking thing) coming closer. Well, this snake isn’t without a sense of humor and decides to go for a strike. But wait! Where do you think it bit him?
Yep, right on the poor guy’s shaft. So the guy and his girlfriend run all the way into the emergency ward. He’s got his junk in his hand, and both of them are naturally freaking out. The nurses treated him quickly and, thankfully, all was fine. I’ll tell you one thing: there wasn’t a straight face in the whole hospital for a week after.
37. He Was The Creepiest Creep
I won’t say it’s the worst thing I have ever seen on the job, but when I was a medical assistant, I assisted my boss, a doctor, in an autopsy. He was looking for the cause of a patient’s passing because another doctor made a diagnosis my boss wasn’t comfortable with. The entire procedure was quite a shocker at first seeing the woman I had known as a patient lying there completely opened up.
To start with, there wasn’t any blood, because she had already been drained. Also, she was morbidly obese and the amount of fat under her skin was amazing to see. When my boss began exploring her intestines, he tied off the ends. You can imagine what it would have smelled like if he hadn’t. He took samples and placed them in plastic containers.
I think the worst part for me was having to look at the mortician who was there working on other people. I swear, he was the creepiest dude I’d ever seen in person. He was very nice, but he reminded me of leather face from that horror movie. He had very bad acne scars, dark, dark eyes, dark hair, and was wearing a thick, white rubber apron with blood all over it. Gawd!!!!
Another thing that freaked me out was when I asked him who the person was covered up close by and he told me. It was my dentist! I didn’t even know he was deceased!
38. It Was Moving
a black and white photo of various mri imagesPhoto by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThis story is creepy: about a dude I saw on neurology when I was an intern. He was from Southeast Asia with altered mental status and abdominal pain, and altered liver function tests. The pictures of his belly on plain films, CT scan, and MRI showed a mass, but the mass kept looking blurry and like it was changing shape and size.
We sent him for an ultrasound and the tech nearly had a heart attack, because the “tumor” was moving. Turns out the guy had picked up some nasty parasite on his last trip back to visit the family. We finally saw the 8 cm (3 in) worm moving and swimming around inside its little ball of goo on the recording of the exam. The whole team almost blew chunks that morning.
39. Tires Would Have Saved Him
I’m not a doctor, but I’m a firefighter so I see my fair share of trauma. About a year ago, we responded to a call that went out as an “individual who had a car fall on his face”. He was hotboxing in his garage while working underneath his car that was supported by scissor jacks. Something to note, the car didn’t have any tires on the front end where he was working.
One of the scissor jacks had slipped out from underneath the car, and the whole weight of the car landed directly onto the side of his head with no tires to stop the fall. We got our rubber airbags out, lifted the car, pulled him out, and got him onto a stretcher. After taking over a thousand kg (2,500 lbs) of weight to the head, he somehow got out of it with only a fractured orbital and a laceration on his cheek.
40. He Couldn’t Stop It
red round fruits on white and blue surfacePhoto by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashThe first year of my core surgical training, I was on call in a very small rural hospital. This hospital only had two doctors on at night, me and a medical trainee, and no emergency doctors.
It was about 11 pm and this guy, about 26 years old, came in after being in a fight. Blood was pumping from his nose, which was clearly fractured.
I suspected he probably had other facial fractures underneath, but he was awake and talking to me. Otherwise he seemed fine. I spent about 45 minutes trying to stop the blood, using all sorts of nose packs, pressure, and even tried a catheter balloon to try and tamponade it. Nothing was working, and he was starting to go into shock. I was getting really scared at this point.
Based on his vitals I’d estimated he’d lost almost 1.5 liters (50 oz) of blood so far. The nearest proper surgical hospital was 45 minutes away, and my consultant was at home, which was 25 minutes from the hospital. Eventually, I got four bags of O neg from the lab (the lab tech happened to be in, which was very lucky), put this guy in the back of an ambulance, still bleeding, and sent him blue lighting to the surgical center in the city.
I got a phone call about three hours later from a surgeon at the other hospital, saying he had brought the patient to the theater and was able to control the situation. He was probably 15 minutes from dying. If you come into that kind of small hospital with that much bleeding, all stats say you’re in trouble. The guy was very lucky his friends got him in so quickly.
41. He Carried Him In
I was a junior doc on the trauma team. One day the doors to the emergency ward fly open to reveal a man carrying a second blood-soaked man in his arms. We get him onto a stretcher and it is clear he has been shot in his chest and has gone into cardiac arrest. Chest compressions start, and within minutes the senior doctor is cutting into the guy’s chest in order to start cardiac massage.
Cardiothoracics join us quickly and get to work on the heart, where a hole in the right ventricle is identified and plugged with a Foley catheter. All the while, bag after bag of O Neg is being pushed into the patient in an attempt to replace everything that had pumped out of his heart and into his chest cavity.
After 15-20 minutes of this the impossible happens: the heart starts beating on its own. The patient is taken directly to the theater, where the hole is definitively repaired and bilateral chest drains are inserted to drain the blood filling his lungs. Somehow his heart continued beating and after a couple weeks on ITU, the patient is returned to the trauma ward awake and alert.
Several weeks, some mild hypoxic brain injury, and a gnarly chest scar later, and he walks off the ward with his dad, the man who carried him in.
42. They Used Her As A Case Study
black car headrestPhoto by Alexandria Gilliott on UnsplashI’m a researcher rather than a doctor, but during my undergrad my anatomy tutor told us of an interesting case study. A woman in the same department had been in a car accident going at a considerable speed. The seat belt failed to lock, and her face flew into the steering wheel. Her mouth, nose, cheekbones and forehead were shattered, yet she suffered no brain damage.
Apparently, the front of her face acted as a crumple zone, and the fact that her skull shattered meant the cranial swelling didn’t cause any damage because the brain had more space to swell into. Of course, she needed significant reconstructive surgery, but a year later she and my tutor teamed up in a research project.
They used her case as the basis for looking into new ways to treat severe head injuries and developed new treatment protocols depending on where the skull had taken damage. They basically found out that, if you’re going to have a head injury, try and get hit in the face and not the temples because you’re much more likely to survive.
43. He Just Had To Squeeze By
I worked in the kitchen, so I was the lowly peon delivering food trays. I delivered to one guy who had a horrendously infected foot. Most of the toes were necrotic and black, and the rest of the foot wasn’t doing much better. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was waiting for an amputation. His dietary requirements were diabetic, so it was likely. The room smelled awful.
Anyway, these rooms are small, with typically two beds in them. Because of the smell from his infection, the other bed is empty. I still have to squeeze by the foot of his bed, and as I’m paying attention to the tray, so I don’t knock it into equipment, I accidentally brush my leg against his infected foot that he has sticking out of the covers and hanging off the bed.
To my horror, his big toenail—with bonus flesh—comes off onto my leg. It’s just stuck to my leg. We look at each other in horror. I clear my throat, ask my usual questions, clear and adjust his table, give him his tray and wish him a good day. I leave calmly, and then run to the nurse’s station and ask for help getting this dude’s entire necrotic toenail off my leg.
The nurse who got it off soaked that portion of my pant leg in some disinfectant liquid that smelled like it could take the paint off a car.
44. Don’t Be A Baby
woman in red dress holding white penPhoto by Nylos on UnsplashA woman came into the emergency room with complaints of abdominal pain. She wouldn’t stop screaming: “My baby’s gone! My baby’s gone!” There was one really weird thing though: her record showed absolutely nothing about even being pregnant. After having her change into a gown, the most ungodly stench filled the room.
My doctor began a pelvic exam, with me as a standby. I will never forget his face as he removed a pinkish-brown clotted mass: it was a huge chicken leg. It turns out that what she was calling her ‘baby’ was actually an uncooked chicken she had chopped up and inserted into her hoo-ha. She may not have lost a baby, but she did gain a chicken.
45. Our Jaded Jaws Dropped
I was working at an emergency room in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. This is a resort area, with pristine white beaches, sport fishing—you know the drill. I was taking a body down to the morgue with another medic, and the shift supervisor, who had the drawer assignment and paperwork responsibility. We pulled open the huge metal drawer, expecting there to be nothing—or maybe a body—and saw something that made our very jaded jaws drop.
Inside the drawer, there was a monstrously large sailfish. This thing was so huge that it could hardly fit without its body curved and sail pushed down. We stood there in surprise wondering what our procedure should be. We had no idea. The NCO said, “It would be a very good idea not to remember this. I’ll deal with it in the morning.” He then moved on to the next drawer.
Later it was rumored it belonged to one of the senior surgeons.
46. It Was The Size Of A Bagel
person wearing gold wedding bandPhoto by National Cancer Institute on UnsplashAbout thirteen years ago, when I was in medical school, I saw a lady who had flown in from South America to have US doctors help with her breast cancer. She was pretty well off but apparently her family had been picky and choosy about her treatment. By the time they got her to the states, the situation had turned horrific.
So what we discovered was that she had a metastatic tumor on her arm that was the size of a bagel. Also it smelled of necrotic tissue. Even worse was the fact that her chest wall was replaced by a tumor. In fact, you could actually see her rib cage. Her family got mad that we couldn’t just cut the tumor off her arm. The whole ER smelled like rotten flesh.
47. Get Back In There
There was a primary care physician, PCP, who went to some part of Africa—I don’t remember where specifically—for the Peace Corps. When he came back, he found he was always more tired than he was when he left for Africa. The cause was straight out of a nightmare. One day he felt a pulsation in his eye and went to the ER. Once there, the doctor found a small worm wriggling around in his eye.
Apparently, this kind of worm normally lives near the brain, but had somehow made its way out from there and into his eye. The emergency room doctor hadn’t seen anything like it, and so he called in another doctor to come and look at it. By the time the other doctor got there, the worm had made its way back out of the eye.
Cut to about a month later and the PCP feels the pulsation again, but instead of returning to the hospital, he decides to take care of it himself. He takes a needle and heats it up using the stove. He then puts it into his own eye in order to remove the parasite. Over the course of the next year or two, he removes—if I remember correctly—around five of the worms this way before feeling better.
48. Not Your Ordinary Blackhead
person in white and black stethoscopePhoto by Ashkan Forouzani on UnsplashI was working at an old folks center near our house, and I was with this one older gentleman. On his hip, was a blackhead the size of a dime, on top of a decent-sized lump, about 5 cm (2 in) long. So, I threw on some gloves, made sure I had the permission of the man of course, and squeezed the black head. To my shock, out popped this roll of gauze that was left over from his hip surgery 10 years prior that he never bothered to get removed.
The smell was horrid and I will never forget it.
49. A Repeat Offender
So there is a homeless guy that comes to my emergency room regularly. Apparently this guy had a major surgery in the last 10 years where they removed something from his stomach, or that general area. After the surgery, he woke up and just left the hospital without letting himself heal. He proceeded with his drug habit, and his body was never able to heal properly.
The guy comes to the ER about once every week to get his intestines re-bandaged. The nurses have to rinse and sanitize the intestines and re-bandage him up every time he comes in. They simply take a large bandage and wrap it around his midsection. He has been seen many times outside the hospital holding his intestines with a plastic bag pressed to his stomach—having a smoke.
50. This Experiment Went Very Wrong
person wearing orange and white silicone bandPhoto by Jon Tyson on UnsplashA kid, about 13 years old, and his mom came into the emergency room. The mom had dragged the kid in because he was complaining of real bad ‘digestive’ problems. The kid had convinced her he was fine, until he couldn’t hide the bleeding coming from his rear end. We take him in for X-rays—but never in a million years was I prepared for what we found. There on the X-ray, clear as day, is a 14-inch black rubber phallus.
Of course, we didn’t know it was black then, but we found out later, obviously. This thing had wedged itself up far—most likely due to his efforts to remove it. It was pushing on the walls of his intestine and had three days’ worth of excrement piled on top of it. We take him into a private room and ask if there is anything he wants to tell us before they discuss specifics with his mother.
The kid didn’t want to say anything, so we told him that whatever is up there had to be removed surgically. The kid said no, and that he just felt sick. We then asked him again, what could possibly be in his lower intestine. His response almost made me laugh out loud. He said he may have sat on a marker.
