Outrageous and Traumatic Medical Stories as Told By the People Who Lived Them
Going to the hospital can be a memorable moment for anyone, but it’s rare that a doctor has a patient that they’ll never forget.
These medical tales from the emergency room, doctor’s office and surgeon’s table are enough to make anyone try their best to never end up in the hospital as long as they can help it.
Whether a doctor overstepped their bounds or a patient didn’t follow their caretaker’s instructions, these medical stories were often caused by someone’s incompetence or unwillingness to follow simple instructions. But many medical stories have another common beginning: sheer dumb luck.
It’s Just a Cough
One time, I went for a mini-vacation in Batam, Indonesia where our villa had a private pool. Throughout our 48-hour stay, I spent more time in the water than out.
Any time I wasn’t in the water, I was in our air-conditioned villa room with just a damp T-shirt over my swimsuit. In the daytime, it was blazing hot, and at night it was super windy because we were near the sea.
I am also asthmatic. While it’s mostly under control, I usually get a tight chest feeling when I am ill.
I fell sick after the trip: runny nose, cough, etc.
I am also a healthcare professional—I studied life sciences and diagnostic testing, so I am hardly bothered when I get sick and can take care of myself.
Eventually, most of the symptoms went away and I was left with just a cough.
The week after the vacation, I was still having that “cough,” but I ignored it. One day, we went to play paintball and I completely overexerted myself running, ducking, crawling, what have you.
After the game, we went to a friend’s place to have lunch and chill. I fell asleep but woke up coughing with the feeling of something being stuck throat.
I thought it was phlegm, so I went to the bathroom to cough it out…but nothing was happening. I lost track of time and apparently, I was in the bathroom coughing away for about 30 minutes.
My friends asked if I was alright and I just kept saying, “Yeah, it’s just a cough, I think there’s some phlegm stuck and I’m trying to get it out.” Clearly, I wasn’t really in my right mind even then.
Finally went to see a doctor the next day. Turns out, my condition was way more serious. I was having a very serious asthma attack. I just couldn’t recognize it because I hadn’t had one in many years.
The worst thing is, this was the same doctor who told me to always carry my inhaler around JUST IN CASE, but I just wasn’t diligent about it.
Even now, my friends will yell, “IT’S JUST A COUGH, I’M FINE” whenever I make even the smallest cough or sneeze.
He Refused Help
I reported to a car accident on the highway when I was working as a medic. The guy involved in it was fairly messed up. He adamantly refused treatment and transport.
Instead, he signed himself off and started walking down the slight decline off the road where his car had come to rest after the accident.
Yeah, bad idea.
He made it about 10 feet from the back of the ambulance until he lost consciousness and tumbled the rest of his way down the decline.
What started off as a smack on his head and a few cuts turned into a broken left arm, serious concussion, and a nasty gash on his head.
Do You Have an Appointment?
I was seeing a urologist in a hospital once. During my visit, there were a couple of power cuts. The lights dipped out but the generators kicked in, thankfully.
As the urologist was finishing the examination, mid-sentence, the lights went out again. This time, however, the generator did not kick in right away.
The urologist got up and walked out to check on things. 15 minutes later, the lights came back on. I was still sitting on the bed with my old chap out and pants around my ankles.
A nurse walked past the open door and does one of those comedy double-takes. “Do…do you have an appointment?” she asked. Turns out, the urologist had actually finished the examination and returned to the ward a while ago.
To the nurse, I was just some guy who had walked in and pulled his pants down and left the door open. Awkward.
Not Allowed to Eat
I had a patient who was NPO (not allowed to eat) because he had a bowel obstruction. He didn’t like that we weren’t feeding him, so, unbeknownst to the nurses, he called up Papa John’s and ordered some garlic knots.
He ate the entire box, then his ignorance came to punish him—he vomited them up, aspirated his vomit, went into respiratory arrest, and coded.
We did CPR and got him back. He had some underlying lung issues so we never could get him weaned off the ventilator.
He spent a month in the ICU and was eventually discharged to a long-term care facility with a tracheotomy on the vent.