"What is the strangest reason you ended up in a hospital?"
There were things you just don't see coming.
Must've Been Quite The Cough
"I coughed and broke 2 ribs."
– BearJewKnowsBest
Bad Plumbing
"Noticed at some point in my early 20s that fluid leaked out of my belly button."
"Thought it might be a pimple or a small cyst and waited it out, but it was still leaking like two weeks after."
"Went to my GP and he examined it, stuck a q tip in my belly button, smelled it and was like 'in my XY year long career I've maybe seen two or three cases of this in adults... Usually this is diagnosed in infants and it gets fixed then....'"
"What he diagnosed was a 'urachal fistula' a tract between belly button and the... yep, bladder..."
"I had pee dripping out of my belly button... nice."
"He called one of the chief surgeons he knew and is befriended with and got me an exam at the hospital the next day."
"The chief surgeon and multiple residents examed me - they were unsure because this usually doesn't occur in adults. In the end we agreed on surgery, because whatever it is, it needs to be fixed."
"And in the end, it indeed was a urachal fistula..."
"Not a life threatening condition in and of itself, but a risk to nasty infections and a higher risk of cancer long term - also pee dripping out of your belly button, duuhh.."
"Had to have surgery a few years later again, because the fistula reformed (known risk) but since then I haven't had any problems. :)"
– 6800ultra
Gutted
"I dropped a ceramic chef’s knife and it bounced off the counter and stabbed me in the stomach. It took longer to convince the medical staff and social worker (I am a disabled veteran) that my SO didn’t stab me, than it took to close the wound."
– LordInventus
Things happen, but these could've been preventable.
Expensive Ride
"I got the tip of a Q-Tip stuck in my ear and my roommate at the time went to pull it out with a pair of tweezers and hit a nerve or messed with my equilibrium or something and I passed out. She freaked out and called 911 and I woke up in the ER. Was absolutely fine until a couple weeks later when I got a $2k bill for an ambulance ride that was literally down the block."
– Equivalent-War-2378
Toy Cut
"Lacerated scrotum after getting it stuck in a PEZ dispenser."
– BurlHead
Playing Stupid Games
"Was chasing chickens for no apparent reason and caught my shoulder on a piece of sheet metal. 38 stitches."
– cabllc
Kitchen Hazard
"Cut my wrist on the cutter thing on a box of Saran Wrap. They had a counselor come and make sure I wasn’t suicidal. 'No. I was wrapping ham.'”
– Sasquadtch
The body works in mysterious ways.
When The Body Fails
"Had a ct scan… 1 hour later the guy called and told me to go the hospital now. Rock up to the ER with a swelling in my neck, pushing on my jugular vein, vomiting, headaches, severe pain in collar bone neck area. After days of blood test and blood cultures I got a diagnosis of some rare as f'k severe illness called 'Lemierre’s syndrome caused by the anaerobic bacterium, fusobacterium necrophorum' and I also had necrotizing fasciitis in my neck from the really bad case of tonsillitis I had 2 weeks prior that spread beyond the infected site. Got straight into the ER, practically no wait in the ER .I ended up with septic shock, Blood pressure was super low. 70/60. never felt a thirst like it. Got 5L of fluids within the first couple hours( mind you I’m only 47kg) I couldn’t pass urine, ended up with a catheter. Stayed in hospital for 5 days and left with a PICC line in my arm. Had 4 weeks of intravenous antibiotics 24 hours a day, had to carry and sleep with a little bag to hold my antibiotics. Had a nurse visit me every day for 4 weeks. Worst part about it is I didn’t even want to go to the hospital and I thought I’d be fine to just sleep it off. If you feel so sick you feel like you’re slowly dying you probably are."
– Low-Promise1628
Intense Cinema
"Saw Mel Gibson's Apocalypto in the theatre. Movie stressed me out soon much i fainted or had a seizure. The date I was with apperently freaked out and she started screaming that Im not breathing. Two solid guys carried me out. Ambulance was called... my date was a doctor lol"
– eduwhat
No wonder why medical dramas on TV have no shortage of ideas when it comes to featuring bizarre cases involving patients.
They're most likely inspired by real-life hospital situations.
Kudos to all the medical staff who've seen it all and still manage not to pass out like yours truly, who gets very light-headed at the sight of blood from a pricked finger.
Yes, I had blood drawn from finger when I was a kid and I passed out.
I eventually woke up in a hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around my head after I apparently fell off the chair and landed on my forehead.
That's one way I was kind of admitted to the hospital. Not a strange reason at all. Just a a really embarrassing one.
Redditor Still-Tangerine2782 wanted to hear from all the healthcare workers out there.
"Doctors of reddit, what’s it like when you go in for a doctors appointment? Do you and your doctor discuss what’s wrong with you like it’s a group project? Do you not go at all because you’re your own doctor?"
Sounds like it's time for the medics to take their own medicine.
The Community
Doctor GIFGiphy"My mom's a GP and she usually just self diagnoses most of the time but will sometimes get a second opinion. She doesn't really go to another doctor, just calls them to ask about stuff. Her contacts are filled with all kinds of doctors. It's like a secret underground community. For stuff like getting ultrasounds etc, then yes they do discuss stuff like it's a group project."
JustChard
The Internal Monologue...
"I was at a lecture a couple of years ago, performed by two doctors who’d undergone treatment for breast cancer and written a book about it together. I remember her talking about her diagnosis. She was a breast cancer surgeon herself, you couldn’t make it up."
"She walked into the room, saw her own scans with the doctor and her heart dropped, she barely heard a word he said because she couldn’t stop the flood of information she was getting. Looking at the scan she knew if she’d need surgery, chemo, radiotherapy, how long it would be, what her estimated survival was."
"I don’t think they discussed it like a group project, but I suppose she couldn’t stop herself from listening to her own internal monologue since it was her own field. I remember her saying she’d found it, in hindsight, an incredible learning opportunity regarding how to interact with patients, and that she thought about it a lot."
Pain_Free_Politics
Specialties...
"It depends on what I'm going in for. As a background, I'm an oncologist so I've trained in internal medicine before. For most internal medicine type stuff, I don't bother going in unless I need something that I can't easily get for myself (e.g. labs or images). For specialty stuff I wasn't trained in, I go in and try to give them the best history I can, but let them do their own thing."
alkahdia
30 seconds flat...
"I don't get involved in the management. I let the Doctor seeing me lead that, unless they missed something huge and i would just double check. The main difference is i can present the whole history and relevant info in about 30 seconds flat and the doctor with that info can just give me the management plan in about the same time. Fastest consultations ever. Very methodical."
triple_threattt
I Stay Away
"Doctor here. In general, we are not good about going to the doctor."
"For me it’s physicals about half as often as recommended and that time I had strep a year and a half ago that didn’t resolve with 'whatever antibiotics I had in my medicine cabinet.' When we do go in, it is like a group project. We usually hash things out together but ultimately I am going to defer to someone with more expertise than me in that area who can make an objective decision."
nellyann
In general, none of us are good about the doctor. So I feel ya.
New Bits
Chicago Med Episode 6 GIF by NBCGiphy"I was sat in in a consultation between two doctors with one needing an ultrasound. They knew each other through work already so it was very friendly and casual between the both of them. The patient doctor trying to figure out what was going on on the ultrasound screen and the doctor doctor was teaching him the bits he didn't know."
kr4kenz
Language
"Doctor here (neurologist)." I'm not good at going to the doctor. I don't go often but when I do I usually just STFU, especially if it's a field of medicine I have no idea about (like say... derm). That being said, the doctor usually knows I'm a physician as well, and so the language terms to be more technical. I also find that we practice less defensively with each other since we can be more open ('We could do ABC tests but honestly what you probably have is X so take this and if it doesn't get better then we can do ABC')."
Telamir
Participation
"I hope you get some doctors in here to give personal answers. Paul Kalanithi did address this a bit in his book When Breath Becomes Air. At first in his cancer treatment he was very involved in the decision making and the way he described the conversation with his oncologist was more like a collaboration."
"Later, she reminded him that he didn't have to participate in the decision making and that he could just let her be the doctor and focus on himself. He ended up taking her up on this offer. So even between the same patient and doctor, the relationship varied."
aaoch1
generic conditions...
"Dr here - it is a bit dependent on the field of medicine involved. For example I don't know much about neurological issues so if I went to see a neurologist I certainly wouldn't be chipping in. For more generic conditions I have previously offered my thoughts to my doctor about what it could be. Ultimately I still go to the doctor as they can prescribe drugs/order tests for me that would be difficult/questionable for me to do myself."
drbigmac69
Strangers
Sunglasses Hiding GIF by Soul TrainGiphy"I always go to someone who don’t know me, and I wouldn’t say that I’m a doctor as well. On the other hand, my SO is a doctor too, and whenever we feel something we do discuss it like a group project in which he always refuse any treatment until his symptoms got to the very worst."
eatfart420
It can be quite the enlightening experience when the tables are flipping.
Any other medical professionals what to chime in? Let us know in the comments.
I haven't really been under so deep I expressed these kinds of thoughts. I'm ok with skipping surgery, actually.
Fingered
Kung Fu Wtf GIF by A24Giphy"I ask a patient after surgery how he feels. He opens his eyes, stares me dead-on and says 'with my fingers.' Then he goes right back to sleep."
DrBarbotage
'hand... hand please'
"I had an ovarian cyst removed a year ago and woke up from the anesthesia saying 'hand... hand please.' and making 'grabby hands' with both my hands until the nurses finally came over and held my hands for about five minutes while I just smiled and tried to go back to sleep. I hadn't done that in a decade. I used to do it to my dad all the time as a kid to express that I wanted to hold his hand while I slept."
mercyinreach
'Ooo ithh a robot'
"My boyfriend at the time had just gotten his wisdom teeth removed, on the ride home with his mouth full of gauze, he gets a call on his cell phone. He answered it and just starts talking away, whoever it was on the other side could not possibly understand a word he was saying with all the gauze in his mouth. But man, he had a lot to talk about and they apparently didn't hang up..."
"After about 5 minutes of this unintelligible phone conversation, he looks at me and says 'Ooo ithh a robot' and gives me the phone. I put it to my ear, and the whole time it's been the Walgreens pharmacy automated notice simply stating his prescription is ready for pickup, playing on repeat. Probably for the best."
December_Flame
Slurred...
"I’m an anesthesiologist. The best story was a 40-some year old woman for appendectomy, said while I’m giving the propofol to induce anesthesia. She said 'oh I don’t remember it tasting like that before' (slurred). I said 'what does it taste like?' Since propofol doesn’t usually elicit a taste reaction. She almost yelled 'DEEEZ NUTS,' and was promptly under anesthesia thereafter. There have been other stories, but this one has the entire OR staff rolling laughing for minutes after she was under."
Zefside89
“AHHHH”
Oh My Love GIF by WWEGiphy"After an operation on a patient's neck, he woke up and yelled 'AHHHH' then grabbed his junk with both hands and was like 'oh thank God it’s still there' then immediately passed out again."
tv__doctor
People are funny with no censor. And dialogue dangerous...
Beauty
"My personal story. When I had my wisdom teeth out, I kept holding a fake camera up to my face saying 'you're beautiful' and making clicking noises while I was under. I'm a professional photographer and my dental surgeon ended up booking a session with me a year later."
cassiecas88
Nasty
"I woke up from gallbladder surgery confused as to why my mom wasn’t there (I was 18 and looking for my mom). The nurse informed me I had cussed out my entire family and they sent them home and put me on a no visitor list, only for me to wakeup at 2am with no memory making them call my mom back. Another time I woke up and made horrifically inappropriate jokes."
"I told a nurse she was pissing me off because I didn’t like the automatic blood pressure cuff. Another I refused to listen to followup orders until I had a chicken sandwich (my negotiations were not met). I’m a real treat after anesthesia but I get a lot of this done at the office my mom works at so she can warn them lol."
__hill
'That's my wife for ya'
"My aunt got rushed to the hospital for abnormal heart rate - but it wasn't a heart attack or stroke, but her heart was going at like 200 beats per minute or whatever it was. They had to put her under so they could shock her heart back to normal. As they're taking her under, the doctor says something like 'Okay, in it goes' and she immediately quips with 'That's what she said.' All the doctors and nurses busted a gut laughing and told my uncle when he got there. He just shrugged and said 'That's my wife for ya.'"
StrawberryPeachies
Treasures
"One summer I was home from college and my dad needed me to pick him up after his very first colonoscopy. He was nervous so I got there early. The nurse called me back and asked me to help wake him up, as they were having some trouble. I go back and am making chit chat. 'Oh dad, you’ve got those cool booties on!' He raised his head a little bit to look at them then yelled, 'Booty call!' He is a Presbyterian pastor. A moment I will treasure forever."
mildflower9
Hugs
Kat Graham Netflix GIF by GIF RegistryGiphy"Apparently, when I had surgery to remove my Bartholin’s gland (a gland at the entrance of the vagina that can get an abscess), they asked me how I felt as soon as I was awake. I said I felt like I got attacked by an elephant and then I wanted to hug everyone."
relentlessvisions
Oh, the things we'll say when under the influence.
Do you have similar experiences to share? Let us know in the comments below.
Curious to hear from professionals, Redditor godslayingdruglord asked:
"Therapists of Reddit, when is a time you’ve believed someone one of your patients was just a bad person?"
Some people are not fit to be parents.
Calling Child Protection Services
"Client told me about cornering their daughter, whose claims of sexual abuse the client didn’t believe... The client stopped coming after I called child services. I won’t give hard numbers, but client had more kids than you can count on one hand, all of whom were taken by child services at different points. I was the third person this client had seen and none of us could get the client to acknowledge any degree of responsibility."
"Childhood abuse is horrible, wrong, and can mess a person up for a long time, but that does not make it okay to do the same to your kids."
"Edit: I feel obligated to add a line that I've worked with people who have done some pretty horrendous things and still not considered them bad people. Even this client was redeemable in my eyes until they decided they'd rather allow the kid to be hurt than to pursue more therapy. Fingers crossed that they just went to someone else."
– bda-goat
History Of Abuse
"A client told me that whenever he sees his 4 year old son struggling to get something done or trying to learn something, he makes fun of him and tells him he's stupid and will never succeed. He later told me his mother used to be an absolute unpredictable tyrant around the house and as a child he was put in a barn in the garden with no food for days. Even though I felt for him, I couldn't help but feel anger towards him."
– Sifraar
Under Assessment For Personality Disorder
"I'm relatively new at it (2nd year practising after 6 years of studying), and there's one client that just bugs me?"
"I know she is a product of abuse and mental illness, but she has inflicted so much harm on everyone around her, including her own kids, which she just does not care about. It's all about her and how much she has been hurt."
"Her kids are older now and have protective orders against her, which is her main complaint right now. She doesn't understand why they don't just deal with it so she's happy, when she would never do the same for them."
"I show empathy and am totally committed to helping her, but there's still a bit of me that can't stop getting, I don't know, annoyed by her? Something just doesn't sit right with me."
"Assessing her for personality disorders at the moment. Maybe that will help me understand her better so I can see her side more. It's a complicated job sometimes!"
– 13Amy13
Advice From An Experienced Professional
"Long term project there. I have a relative who also can't see how she hurts other people (and herself honestly). Her youngest kid got taken away by CPS, and she still doesn't relate this at all to her own behavior and choices."
"Don't lose sleep over it. Do what you can and recognize that you will not save them all!"
– I_want_to_choose
Parents Who Don't Qualify As "Protective Adults"
"Been practicing for about 10 years now. As a previous redditer said, we treat clients with unconditional positive regard, respect and non-judgement. If we can't do this, then it is probably not a safe space for the client (referring on is recommended). While some clients may be challenging, our training helps us understand the underlying causes of the behaviour (trauma hx, attachment style, personality, brain functioning etc). So, I wouldn't consider my clients bad. But clients with limited insight or motivation is hard work!"
"I have however, come across very harmful parents, carers, trusted adults and/or systems in my work that I consider as bad people. When working with children, one of the hardest things is working with parents who are not able/willing to be protective adults. Worse still is when systems meant to protect children (child protection, family court) end up putting them in further harm."
– chickie_bickie
The "Irredeemable" Kind
"There were a few times, yes, but I'd rather not go into it. Some people, especially those who hurt kids, are irredeemable."
– EspressoBooksCats
These clients are examples of people who are narcissistic and lack self-awareness.
The Flirtatious Husband
"I had one client that just didn’t care about cheating on his wife. He got married really young (not sure why, they didn’t have kids) but by the time I met him he was in his 30s."
"He only came in because his wife threatened to leave him if he didn’t. He also thought he 'might' be a narcissist. He calmly discussed how he cheated on his wife constantly during their 20s together, and showed little if any remorse about this. He seemed to be proud of his ability to sleep with women."
"It seemed his remorse was that she wanted to leave him and he got some benefit from her being around. But he didn’t really care about hurting her. Still, he came in for his first few sessions saying the right things and claiming to want to be a better husband."
"Then he came in after a family party. He told a story about how he was 'just talking' to a 19 year old woman there. Of course, as the story went on, it became clear he was obviously flirting, and getting progressively drunker and bolder throughout the party. This was also in front of his wife’s whole family. He began hitting on this girl badly, touching her, and came close to kissing her before his wife literally had to drag him away, while crying."
"Again, he showed very little if any remorse. He 'didn’t do anything' and 'didn’t see why this was a big deal.' I tried to help him make connections, but it wasn’t getting through. Right before the end of this session, I informed him the office would begin enforcing a mask mandate (start of Covid)."
"He didn’t show to his next appointment, and when I called him to tell him I would apply the missed session fee, he claimed he never actually confirmed this appointment and had never 'fully committed' to coming back the next week, even though we agreed to it."
"I knew he would be a problem, so I just waived it and took him off the schedule. Never heard from him again. And I was glad that was the case. I don’t think he was a monster, but man, he was such an a**hole."
– metastar13
You Can't Help Those Who Don't Want Help
"I don't think any clients are bad people but I would say those that have certain personality disorders with no insight can cause a lot of pain to others and not ever realize/acknowledge the destruction they've caused. They also tend to live incredibly lonely painful lives as again they don't see their part in their problems and just feel that horrible things happen to them and place blame externally. They are also less likely to seek therapy because of this lack of awareness and are more difficult to treat."
– nictme
For Social Media
"When they discreetly recorded a session for tiktok views."
– squatwaddle
Some therapists questioned about what makes a "bad person."
Not Defined By Bad Actions
"I’ve had plenty of clients who have done bad things. A lot of them may not recognize the severity of their actions or how badly they affect others, but I never see them as a 'bad person.' I just see them as people who have done bad things who are working on improving themselves."
– Samara1010
Powerful Insight
"I'm a therapist, and I've seen a few therapists or people in caring professions who have held this perspective about Clients, and its quite dangerous. Being non-judgemental is basically page one of the therapists handbook."
"I won't give any specific details, but I've had a Client receive an off-hand diagnosis from another professional, which was totally inaccurate, because they thought he was a bad person."
"It turned out, after advocating for an assessment, that the Client had an intellectual disability and his processing of information and consequential thinking was impaired."
"I think any good therapist should never seriously believe that a Client is a bad person. Not only is it a useless/irrelevant 'diagnosis/opinion', it's therapeutically harmful to hold them in that light, and it creates projections onto the Client."
"Not to mention, it goes against all the good science we have on psychological development, systems theory, etc. that while there is good and bad behaviour, people are not 'good' and 'bad'. Its far more complicated than that."
– BobbyByrde
It's Subjective
"Lack of empathy and narcissistic qualities can point you in that direction but 'bad' is subjective. I’d have to have a pretty solid definition of bad bc it could be a lot or it could be just a handful. I’ve had clients I knew weren’t going to progress any further, and someone who isn’t going to change at all can be seen as 'bad'. Honestly most MH professionals aren’t going to answer questions like this."
– mooncricket18
While each case is different, overall, many therapists generally believed that no one is fundamentally a "bad" person, and perceiving a client as such impairs their ability to properly assess how to approach a session.
If you or someone you know experienced sexual assault, help is out there. You can reach the RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline by calling 1-800-656-4673, use their Live Chat tool: https://www.rainn.org/get-help, or visit the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
In Canada, help is available through the Ending Violence Association of Canada website.
International resources can be found through the Rape Crisis Network Europe website.
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