ER story archive
Stories where alcohol and good judgment parted ways.
56 storiesdrunks
3am: my partner and I were dispatched to a 30yo m c/o dyspnea. We respond to find pt outside waving us down. He told me that he had turkey stuck in his throat and needed to be seen in the ER to fox the problem. Pt strong odor of ETOH, ataxic, and had this ridiculously goofy (and kind of creepy) ...
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911 call I made several years ago: Attempted suicide. Man gets drunk, takes all of his nitro pills. I find him covered in bruises. He’d been slamming himself into a wall because he was convinced the nitro in his system would make him explode! He’d gotten drunk because he was afraid it was going to hurt…
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A 93 year old drunk woman needed a CT of her head after a fall. After I explained the test to her, she decided that she didn’t need it and stripped out of her gown for good measure. For the next 10 minutes the nurse and I desperately tried to put her gown back on while she yelled and tried ...
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A wee guy goes to a function at a pub.Guy wins a raffle……300 bottles of bacardi breezer (all watermelon flavour i might add). Guy thinks it might be a good idea to drink them all in 2 days….yep thats 150 bottles a day. He was a pretty heavy drinker. Guy then has a stroke at the age of 30!
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While working nights for EMS, we got a call for an allergic reaction/breathing problem.
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Got called to a Taco Bell for a possible diabetic emergency. PD is on scene and states the patient is a possible DUI, however PD states that she is a diabetic, so they are concerned about pressing forward if it has nothing to do with ETOH.
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On my way to work one day, I noticed a truck had flipped over on the highway and emergency crews were on scene. I had a strange feeling that fate would intervene that night.
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EMS on scene of a drunk driver who crashed his car into a roadside ditch. Police said the guy claims he was trying to avoid a cat in the road.
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Got called to “man with broken ankle, sitting on curb.” Upon approach to pt, I could smell a very strong stench of alcohol. I asked the man what was going on. His drunken reply, “I
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Patient admitted after drinking antifreeze - had stomach pumped and went through dialysis. After almost dying, patient was transferred to psych ward for continued evaluation and to get help with drinking problem.
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Overheard a nurse on the phone: “No sir, being drunk is not a medical emergency.”
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drunk, naked homeless man squatting on the floor with explosive diarrhea. then he asks for a shower, food and new clothes.. we just had the cleaners throw his clothes in the washer for him. this isn’t a mission, get out.
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got a call to alcohol withdrawal. Got there and the guy says he started drinking at 0900, but hasn’t had any alcohol in the last hour and he’s adamant he’s in withdrawal because he “knows what it feels like.” “I’m sorry sir, you can’t be in withdrawal when you’re still drunk!”
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Got an EMS call at 0330 yesterday for a drunk man at home who was going to kill himself as soon as he could find a knife. I asked the medic if he wanted the engine. He said ‘No, go back to bed, we’re just going to show him where the f&^%in knife drawer is in the kitchen’
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Guy brought in by ambulance — some jackass called 911 because he was drunk in public. Triage nurse asks me to come out and “bless this guy” because he doesn’t want evaluation, and is completely able to make said decision. I talk to him, and he says (regarding the ambulance trip) “this is a gross misuse of medical resources.” I ...
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Had a drunk who had been beaten bad brought in by EMS on a spine board. Doc cleared him off the board, so the case nurse got some of us to help her roll him off. She said ‘Hun, we’re gonna turn you over’ and he asked ‘To who?’
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Drunk female brought in from a local club on a stretcher asked a nurse to keep her money safe. The patient then proceeded to reach into her underwear and pull out a large wad of bills which the nurse took AFTER putting on a pair of gloves!
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Dispatched at 2am to local bar. Upon arrival, we find two inebriated guys in the middle of a fistfight. PD is there as well and separating them.
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I had some gang banger kid come in one night all messed up from runnin from the police in a stolen car. Evidently “no espeaka dah ingles” and came down with acute incarceritis when the cuffs were put on and went “unresponsive”. So the police bring him in. The patient does not even respond to the worst titty twister i’ve ...
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I like it when they know what Dr. is most likely dool out pain meds and when they don’t see that one they demand to be seen by Dr. So and So.
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21 y/o male rolls his truck while driving home drunk. After getting out of the truck with no real injuries except for some abrasions, decides he needs a tow truck.
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A large, 41-year-old man was brought in by ambulance to the emergency room and was dazed and confused.
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EMS unit gets called for patient with chest pain around 1130pm, a frequent flier meets unit at the curb smoking a cigarette.
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I was out smoking with a couple nurses when we saw one of our regular drunks rolling down the entrance ramp in a wheel chair. At the bottom of the ramp the chair started to wobble and one of the wheels fell off causing the chair to fall, sending the drunk sliding into a cop car. It seems Mr. 12 ...
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I was waiting for triage while on a two-week ambulance placement when another crew brought in a guy who was blind drunk and had crashed into an electricity pole (knocking it over) and then wrapped his car around a tree. The crew and cops who picked him up, found that although the top button of his pants were done up, ...
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Pt picked up by EMS outside a liquor store for 'sick' complaint. EMS found nothing other than intoxication as a complaint; no trauma/CP/NV/etc. At triage pt reports
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Male PT presents with his ear nearly severed and blood all over his face. While drunk, he somehow got it stuck in the back door of a taxi. His friend (also intoxicated) was unable to explain the circumstances.
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A 21 year old kid had just been brought in from a high speed drunk driving accident. Him and his buddies hadn’t been wearing seat belts and on impact my patient was ejected, flew 30 feet and landed on his left side. He had a couple broken bones, but his head was intact, he could walk and would only need ...
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We're babysitting a drunk before police haul his ass away and he asks me if we do HIV/AIDS screenings. He then states that he wanted to get
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Morning after night out on town. Young girl presented…when triage nursed asked what was wrong she said:" My ear….it’s bendy
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Out on a call on a Friday night, there was a guy clearly intoxicated making a scene in public.
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My favorite is also when people come in with acute pancreatitis or ETOH withdrawl or drunken idiotness – you do an ETOH level that reads off the charts (>75) but they swear up & do
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My favourite was THE OAR….a guy had the small end that normally goes in your hand (not your ass), in his ass, and the paddle end sticking out about 2 metres. The transported him in from the Aussie bush with it still in his ass hole because it wouldn’t come out. It had been in there for 24 hrs…needless to ...
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In ED, helping take off a drunk patient's boots. He was obviously homeless and reeked. As I slipped his boot off I noticed a toe came off with it.
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Police brought in a patient who had decided to resist arrest and his handcuffs became too tight. Now because the patient had resisted arrest so vigorously, the key was broken off in the lock. Fire department used bolt cutters on one handcuff to remove, but the other just wouldn’t come off. So, of course, the ER was the logical place ...
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Patient called to see how long the ER wait was because she felt dizzy and needed to be at a party in an hour. She said she had been pregaming and proceeded to put the phone down without hanging up.
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Pt: “this is bullshit, i want to go back to the methadone clinic now!” RN: “You’re only here because you insisted on drinking their hand sanitizer.” (hand sanitizer is alcohol based)
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Pt. with well documented cocaine problem comes in with a crack attack (cocaine-induced chest pain) and the story “This guy held me at gun point and FORCED me to smoke crack!” He got a quickie set of enzymes and our deepest sympathy.
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I was at a party with a few friends and one of their cousins. The cousin gets drunk and decides he needs his stomach pumped, so he calls for an ambulance. When EMS arrived, he was jumping up and down begging to get it done even though he had sobered up by then.
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Pt was intoxicated, tearful, and had packed a large duffel bag. About an hour into her medical clearance we noticed she kept drinking from a red Solo cup in her room.
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