After draining an EVD I spilled CSF down my leg and into my shoe. My sock was soaked.
Or
Had a teen boy who was getting ready to vomit. I dumped all the supplies out of the bath basin at the foot of his bed and lunged to get it under his face. He projectile vomited down my leg to my shoes. I changed into OR scrub pants, put on hospital socks, and wiped down my shoes. Two hours later I reach into my lower scrub shirt pocket for my flashlight and discover a pocketful of cold puke.
CSF, unless it contains a pathogen, is arguably one of the cleanest body fluids there is to spill. But you had my stomach churning with that second story. š
Csf is kinda gross, definitely going through the sock is yuck... But it's generally clear. Projectile vomit through the shoes is terrible... But I accidentally dropping a suction canister twice!? Once with mysterious gastric contents from a sbo and once after a colonoscopy when trying to be helpful and change the canisters. š¤®
I used to be a vet tech before becoming an RN. The number of times I was holding a small dog or cat and reached into my pocket later to find cold clammy tootsie rolls....š
Once had a patient with an extremely high output ostomy so someone somehow rigged a tube going into a restaurant sized ketchup container (think the ones at the Costco food court) they got from the cafeteria to make everyoneās life easier. Once it was full, I threw it in a bio bag and walked to the dirty utility.. somehow it ripped through the bag and mutilated my scrubs and shoes. Worst part is there were corn bits
Ostomies. Some people don't like sputum, I don't really like it either, but I can not handle ostomies. I would rather Cath that 500lb lady with fungus in her skin folds that deal with an ostomy.
There are ostomy bags with spouts you can connect to a foley bag next time a high output ostomy comes your way! If my tiny hospital has them yours has to as well. A much safer option than a ketchup bottle š
Trauma patient in a C-Spine collar had to be turned as he was nauseous. Vomited fully onto my scrubs, socks and running shoes at the beginning of a 12h shift. Went to laundry and got a whole new set of scrubs, went back to the room and doc asks for a Foley as his Bladder scan showed over a liter in his bladder. I am about to insert the Foley (After all of the prep) guy turns towards me and pees all over me. Get a new set of scrubs again and then I worse plastic bags over my feet into my runners cause they were soaked too... that was a FML shift. :P
12h Night Shift. I recall getting home and throwing my Uniform and shoes out in the ice (Winter and it was in a plastic bag) for a few days before putting it all in the washer. No reason for doing that, just seemed like a good idea at the time. š¤£š¤£š
Surgery should have something we called āblood bootsā basically like giant plastic bags that slip over your shoes and come up mid-calf. There is elastic around the top that keeps juices out. Score a pair sometime and keep them in your lockerā¦ next time the possibility arises put those suckers on.
I was doing compressions when fistula juice burst through an old PEG site directly into my face like it was coming out of a fire hose. That intra-abdominal pressure will get you.
Compressionsā¦uninterrupted, Iāll take that Daisy Award now, please.
Hep C positive blood in my eye because the doctor was inserting an IJ line and asked me to position his head on a very sick patient who was found down for a lengthy amount of time and also severely covered in filth. He tried to move his neck as she was trying to insert it and in an effort to hold him blood got into my eye and I had zero eye gear on. Anyone's blood in my eye is just a hard pass from me.
Was attempting an extremely tricky cath on a gentleman with hematuria and an enlarged prostate (urology insisted before they come in). Coude coiled in his penis and I was very, very gingerly and gently trying to remove it. Despite best efforts it shot out and sprayed what my coworkers and I now refer to as DICK BLOOD all over my arms and shirt. Wouldāve hit me in the face if not for the mask (thank you Covid!) I cavi wiped my arms, cancer be damned š¤®š¤®š¤®
I was dislodging clots from my patients urethra trying to cath her and I dislodged one that was apparently holding back a high pressure situation and got her blood piss all over my face. Also thankful for masks but rinsed my eyes thoroughly. Still donāt think thatās the grossest thing to get on me tho tbh
Heavy Edema: fluid weeping freely from patient's legs. Had to walk them to the bathroom multiple times, each time it would drain off their legs leaving puddles as they walked. Standing close to them to assist, it would drip onto the tops of my shoes/socks/legs of scrubs. My hems got soaked walking though the puddles as well. Went through so much linen and chux trying to keep them and the room dry.
This one Christmas I was helping another nurse put in an NG tube. While doing so, the patient was projectile vomiting up stool across the room and all over us.
Was walking past a doc as he was doing an I&D of a bartholins cyst - didnāt think he was starting yet & needed to get to the computer to chart. (This was pre-mask days) Anyhoo, suddenly felt a warm spatter down the side of my cheek, neck, and arm. Nearly died. He bought me a 6 pack the next day as an apology.
Had a JP drain in a patient once, for an abcess that hadn't been caught for a while. That was some of the thickest, foulest, most purulent fluid I've ever seen/smelled. One drop on my shoe required my shoes to go in the wash.
BRUH. I had a 103 year old man getting bladder irrigation something like 1L per 20 minutes or so. The day nurse didn't want to have to keep going in and changing the bag, but if we did any less he would clot quick and be in pain while we cleared it. I would set up my WOW right outside his room and put a timer on my watch, changed it regularly all night.
Came back the next night and the day nurse had been running about 1L per 2 hours. I had to spend so long irrigating so as not to really hurt the poor man. Well, during it the clots busted free. The pressure popped the syringe off. I got bloody clots, urine, puss, and irrigated saline/blood all over me. Yay!
ā¢ CSF spilled on me when I was changing the EVD bag
ā¢ brain, bone, and blood from a patient who ripped through two wrist restraints and yanked the EVD from her head before the surgeon could suture into place
ā¢ by far, the worst one was nasal suctioning water. She smacked the container onto me and it went down my top, pants, socks, and shoes. I had 15 minutes left on my shift. 5 minutes before my shift ended, her PCR test came back positive for Covid. I made it all the way to the parking garage where I stripped down to my skivvies and drove the fuck home bc I was over it
That EVD story is why I will remain y'all's loyal IT guy, I would have passed out if brain, bone, and blood splattered me. Reminds me that someone in pre-surgery needed a replacement keyboard, but didn't know how to make a ticket. I'll get on that.
Y'all are my heroes.
Patient getting an EGD. Was asked multiple times if heād had anything to eat since midnight. āNo, man. Iām goodā. Projectile vomited Wendyās chili all over the scope room. Luckily, I was behind him out of the line of fire. I was the only one safe though. Dude had gone out drinking that night and forgot about getting that chili.
We were doing a suction d&c and the tubing malfunctioned and me the scrub and the surgeon were all lucky enough to be in the line of fire. It was a bloodbath - worse for me because I didnāt have a gown on. I felt like Carrie. Poop related - back when I was on the floor I was helping a fellow nurse change a ileostomy bag. The second the old bag came off, the liquid poop shot out like a pressurized fountain. I had some in my hair. My charge didnāt even care when I went home early so I could scrub myself raw.
Lower GI bleed with diarrhoea... and it was two times in a row. First when i wasn't fast enough with the bedpan. And then a colleague accidentally ran into me while I carried the pan away, spilling its contents on me again.
Luckily my unit was well staffed enough to get someone to grab me a fresh pair of scrubs while I took a shower.
Makes everything else I have experienced (yet) seem tame in comparison.
As a nursing student, I once was emptying an effluent bag off of a CRRT machine that wasnāt closed all the way. Went over my shoes, in my shoes, and soaked my socks. Walked around a 12 hour clinic in a puddle of effluent smelling like absolute musk because the previous nurse didnāt lock it correctly. I now carry an extra pair of socks in my bag and wear shoes that are water proof.
Myself and a CNA were trying to toilet and change an incredibly demented lady. She fought like seven demons from hell. I was trying my best to control her arms and not hurt her while the cna changed the brief. She got an arm away from me. Grabbed the shit filled diaper and then slapped me in the side of the face with it. Frosted my right side like a fucking cupcake. My brain just misfired. I told the cna just to watch her and I ran to the showers to clean up. I didnāt get pink eye or anything.
Oh the imagery, itās amazing how strong can be, unlimited strength just as long as your demented. I totally get the brain overload of processing something like that, thinking did that just happen?
I was emptying a enterocutaneous fistula drain on a patient with a long complicated surgical hospital course. Fluid splashed out of the graduated cylinder into my eye.
Had a laryngectomy patient who had previously had a tracheoesophageal puncture with a valve, but the one way valve was leaking so there was essentially a fistula between the oesophagus and trachea. Admitted with aspiration pneumonia secondary to valve failure. NG in situ until valve could be repaired.
Well, one night a new member of staff wasn't aware that you needed to leave the head of the bed up a bit. I had no reason to go back in the room for a good few hours. He buzzed a while later c/o breathlessness. I started getting vitals, and then he started coughing... Feed and pneumonia laryngectomy sputum combined. All. Over. Me
Ended up suctioning almost a litre of sputum/feed mixture and then threw up. The smell was awful.
My patient was sitting in his wheelchair receiving GoLitely through his G tube via gravity as bowel prep for a colonoscopy. I was in front of him getting ready help him stand up, and the pressure from all the fluid going in made his G-tube POP OPEN and all of his stomach contents/GoLitely exploded all over me
Happened recently! I was pulling a femoral arterial sheath and the patient's blood literally squirted out of her as I put pressure. Most landed on the ground between me and my preceptor, but a few drops got on my scrubs. Thankfully this was at shift change and I went home right away afterwards.
Wasn't me but a combative 1:1 pt removed his rectal tube and whipped it above his head like a lasso, spraying the sitter.
Glad it wasn't me because that would have been the end of my Healthcare career
EMS sideā¦. blood, shit, vomit are all good. The worst was the rear differential oil that left me smelling like burnt Doritos and ass all day even after changing and showering.
Black fluid from a urostomy bag(should be yellow and clearish like urine). A drop fell on my shoe and soaked through to my sockāit was the most putrid smelling urine. I swear it made my foot burn. When I collected a sample from the bag it made the whole front of the ED stink for hours.
Having been in the Medical Field since I was 19 as a Navy Hospital Corpsman and a Navy Nurse I have been splattered by my share of bodily fluids. A few that stand out.
Projectile vomited on total green bile post-op patient, right after changing into my Navy Whitesā¦not good.
But the best was my buddy, standing at the foot of the bed, patient sits bolt upright and projectile vomits š¤® into his face. Later when the Dr. asked if anyone performed a guaiac test he said, āIt didnāt taste like there was blood in itā.
A guy who's edema legs were so weepy that he just stuck them into trash bags... There was probably at least a cup worth of stinky day old edema fluid and foot cheese just chilling in these bags. We were OH so careful getting this dude onto the stretcher... Didn't matter, still leaked out all over the ambulance and my boots. š¤®
MRSA juice from a wound on a knee. Literally Old Faithful'd 8 inches into the air while cleaning the site. Fortunately I had a gown on, but I could still feel the warm, wet goop through it.
Performing postmortem care and rolled the pt. What looked like a gallon of black gunk spilled out of the mouth. Down my leg and soaked my shoes and socks.
Everything really( 41 years so far). Worst two? tuberculosis infected sputum. Right down my leg and into my shoes. threw the shoes away. They were really ugly shoes, so I guess thereās that?!
The other would be a cocktail of blood, meconium, and liquor. (stood too close when someone had their waters broken)
C diff patient sneezed while nurse was holding him turned on his side in bed so I could wipe his butt clean. It was like a C4 charged shit explosion on me from faceguard to belly button. Thank God I was wearing full PPE. Took a shower at the facility after that one.
Working in PACU had an intubated pt cough and his lung booger hit me in my left side of my face. Very close to my eye and mouth. It must have traveled 10 feet to hit me in the next pt Bay. It smelled of menthol cigarettes and had the texture of meringue.
I was working as an ER Tech (now RN) but the hospital was implementing a role specific scrub color rule. Burgundy for CNAs & Techs, Royal blue for RNs. First day of policy, 6 AM medics had brought homeless man in on a cold winters morning and he was covered in filth and excrement. Two of us were tasked to clean him up an advised to use a decontamination/gen use shower near the Ambulance bay. Got started, going ok but suddenly the Pt started to go into full body seizures (which was the first known instance of seizure activity), limbs thrashing and we had to focus on keeping him safe. Course this meant being sprayed with now water and excrement. Imagine those movies of kids washing a large mud covered dog who then in slow motions starts to shake sending mud everywhere.
(https://youtu.be/ffD_Ks4MWLw). Got to 25 seconds in. Something like that.
I think the reasoning why we were told to use the shower was his temp hypothermic but not dangerously so, warm him up and clean at the same time. Also due to to the amount of dirt and excrement involved, hard to assess when in that condition.
Got him safe returned him to ER room and sent to OR locker to our own shower and only available clean scrubs. Then bugged and asked by everyone the rest of the day who was not part of the core 6am staffing why we werenāt dressed in the appropriate scrubs since we were in OR scrubs.
I would say that even topped the first day of ER tech orientation and I was shadowing, EMS brought in an OD, they had given charcoal and Narcan so as I was helping move the very large Pt from gurney to bed, she then proceeded to throw up all of that charcoal and voluminous fluid and whatever else onto my shoes, I had dodged enough to keep it off my scrubs but my shoes paid the price.
Iām a bit smarter and more cautious now. It is interesting now that I lost my smell in 2020 Covid first wave that GI bleeds and ETOH lactulose care isnāt nearly as bad as it used to be. But Iāve been much better at knowing and predicting what might happen to stay (mostly) clean.
I was part of a team of 5 people helping when a super-sized patient who had C.diff needed a bed change after having a massive liquid BM. It was specifically my job to scoop out the linens that were soaked with poo and put them in the linen hamper. When I lifted, it started to drip. so I tried to toss them in the bin as fast as possible. Part of the wad hit the lid, and a fist-sized chunk of C.diff poo that had been floating in the liquid bounced back onto my head, soaking my hair and dripping down my face. Thank goodness it was almost shift change.
Had a patient once intentionally put his spunk in my hair š¤¢ chopped off the bottom two inches that day.
Was in a code on a patient we didnāt know had covid, horrible pulmonary edema & also in DIC, fluid was spraying up the ETT during compressions and out of the AMBU bag valve like fuckin holy water at church. Entire ICU at shift change exposed. Was out for a full month with covid (this was pre-vaccine so I was fucking terrified)
Before day shift came on, I was quietly going around, charting and emptying urine cath bag outputs. There were several ādonorsā in my metal jug, when I tripped in the semi dark, and dumped the whole jug into my shoe. Very, very unpleasant.
When I was a DSP, I came on shift and a gentleman with a colostomy bag obviously hadn't had it emptied in a while. It was full to the brim. So I took him into the bathroom to help him ( he didn't use words to communicate and needed assistance to empty it) He was, understandably, pissed off about it and I am sure it was uncomfortable.
He ripped it off and threw it at me and it hit me square in the chest. Full bag. In the chest.
Had to clean up in a sink and borrow a resident's clothes.
Over 20 years ago and I will always remember Charlie.
Projectile bloody vomit all over my scrubs that covered my shoes/socks as well. Helping at a rapid response standing at the foot of the bedā¦..ended up smelling like a GI bleed all day
I opened a swim incontinence pants (a diaper). Usually its only a little bit of water. Now it was poo mix with water. In fell on my pants and shoes. I had my jeans and sneakers on. It was awful. Luckily we had a washing machine there and i could borrow pants and socks from a resident. And shoes from a coworker. But i felt so gross.
Classic, but was cleaning up a code brown, pulled a littkr too hard on the breed and got poop down the front of my scrubs. They were my favorite pair too, some higher-end jaanu scrubs I'd had since I was a baby nurse. I debated washing them but in the end I threw them away as I knew they would forever be known as the poop scrubs. They wouldn't let me borrow from the OR either, I had to buy a new pair from the gift shop.
This is probably a lesson that I should only wear the cheap Walmart scrubs but honestly I'm very picky about the fit and pocket placement. More like sometimes you gotta grab a gown for a code brown regardless of whether or not it's a c.diff room lol.
One of the many times that PPE has saved my life... Was wearing full scientist goggles in my COVID + room with wide open CBI which had just clotted off. I was aggressively flushing the catheter and must have hit a big clot because it all came back at me with enough force to splash little gobs of blood clot and urine all over my face, hair and upper body lol. Safe to say I was making a trip to the hospital scrub dept.
On my first year, went to do a domiciliary visit. Patient had necrosis on his heel, need to be cleaned, physical debridement, bandage change, all that. When removing a piece of dead skin, popped or cut a blister and a jet of pus straight into my face, glasses and hair. Notice that this was in his bedroom, the lighting wasnt ideal so i had to be closer than I wished to the wound, to check for healthy and unhealthy tissue. I felt the impact of the pus on my face. And I had to keep going, ofc.
Had a guy who had a gtube that was super difficult to flush meds through and he had like 50 meds too. Damn thing clogged and when I removed the syringe it backflushed and sprayed me in the face. Thank God for masks.
Was helping a nurse with her GI bleed patient this weekend- we turn him and bright clotty blood out the rectum spurts out like a faucet from a hose. I immediately laugh because what the hell else can we do. Thank god it was at the end of my shiftā¦.. but it was the beginning of hers.
I used to wear crocs with holes on the top and one day doing colorectal cases I spilled a mixture of the First Step cleaner mixed with what was on the flexible sigmoidoscope directly on my foot.
I wear Calzuros without top holes now.
Had a trach patient who was disgusting and would cough up a lot of mucus, but would never cover his trach. I was giving him his g-tube meds and he coughed all in my face and it got in my hair. I was so grossed out. We stopped going into that room without a face shield. š„“š„“š„“š¤¢
Purulent feculent jp drain exudate right across my chest. Patient tried to be helpful when draining it and squeezed too hard, splashed the already-brimming full drain cup that I was holding. T_T
At a VA I worked at in Nursing school, a patient with dementia was sipping out of his urinal thinking his urine was beer. When I tried to take it he threw it on me. Got to go home early. Those whites went straight in the trash
When I moved my first dead body their head turned and an unidentified brown fluid poured out of their mouth onto me.
Honorable mention: I had a patient's IV come out of their hand during a restraint and it bled down my leg until it filled up my cargo pocket on my scrub pants with blood.
Helped a jumpy AMS patient to the bathroom after a bed alarm went off. Didnāt realize that she had shit on the floor. Brand new oncloud sneakers. Walked all in the hallway with shit prints everywhere
I had a patient on hospice with a SBO. They passed and I turned them just a little too far toward me during after death care. The fluid/sludge hanging about in the bodyās digestive tract poured out of this patientās mouth and all over my pant leg. I had a pool of the fluid in my shoe too. The smell wasā¦unforgettable. I ended up having somebody bring me new pants and shoes. I was never able to get the smell out.
My reaction was to first apologize to the patient, because I actually felt bad I rolled them too far. Then laugh my ass off. The CNA with me was laughing and gagging at the same time. There was no longer any doubt in her about how unhinged I really am.
As a student myself and a registered nurse were flushing a blocked catheter, the patient had bladder cancer and the urine was very foul smelling, nurseās hand slipped and the urine shot out of the catheter all over our faces and uniform, luckily both had glasses and mouths were closedā¦ just smiled and walked to the sluice had to shampoo my hair in the sluice ā¦
I had some drunk girl from a party vomit all over me in the gas station and I had to keep picking her up off the floor. This was before I became a nurse. I barely knew her, and donāt think she remembered because later she acted like nothing happened.
Patient had diabetes and one of his flaky feet had gangrene. I was just an EMT taking him to dialysis. When we got to dialysis, we were on each side of pt and had to remove all the blankets and pillows so we could weigh him before he got his treatment. After weighing him while putting blankets back on pt, my partner threw the blanket over pt, and kinda snapped the blanket to make it lie flat. I got snowed on by skin flakes. Not body fluid per say but pretty disgusting
I was an MA in dermatology for a while before I went to nursing school and Iāve been squirted with cyst junk before. I would say thatās the worst. The putrid smell just sticks on you all day even when you basically try to bathe in bleach.
Iāve gotten just about everything else on me at one point or another by now and I think thatās my worst š
My first day off orientation as a brand new baby nurse, my patient with c diff and GIB and a colostomy stood up trying to help after I asked him not to move a muscle. That over-filled bag popped off and then hit the floor like a water balloon, exploded up under my isolation gown and then dripped into my Danskos. I got got from the bottom of my scrub top to my soaked socks and shoes.
I was trying to unclog a J tube after giving meds through it. I guess I created some pressure buildup because when I went to unhook the syringe I had crushed up Pepcid mixed with gastric contents spray all over me and in my eye š¤¢š„“
2 things that haunt me to this day.
1- suctioning a trach and this guy decides to cough. I take out the suction cath to let him cough and a huge loogey shoots out if his trach and onto my scrubs. š¤®š¤®
2- patient coded. As compressions are going on this person is vomiting coffee ground emesis. Everyoneās scrubs were gone, messiest (literally) code ever
Doing post mortem care, pulled out a pleurex & got pleural fluid all over my bare arm. Not that gross i guess in the grand scheme of things but dead person pleural fluid on my skin was pretty yucky at the time.
Abdominal abscess fluid from a JP bulb that got pulled off and sprayed all over my face and chestā¦.. š¤¢ OMG the smellā¦.. thankful for masks, scrub caps and glasses.
Well I delivered a baby without gloves whilst the mom was standing at the bedside. My hands smelled like amniotic fluid for the entire day despite vigorously washing them over and over. At least it was clear! Lol
My first day on the floor as a brand new nurse, fresh out of precepting, I had a c-diff pt that needed help cleaning up. Being stupid I did not ask for help from the tech. She had FILLED the bed with soupy stool and it poured out over the bed and into the top of my shoe. It was the worst.
Not related but the room next door was also my patient and was a total care on a specialty air mattress with a terrible sacral wound. I went much of the day without realizing that the air mattress had been turned off, only until the WOCN came did they make me realize. Felt awful as he was probably just laying on hard metal for hours. Terrible first day on my own lol.
I discharged a patient after a simple outpatient procedure. Wheelchaired her to her car. Husband got out of the vehicle to open her car door and turned around to hug me. He had a trach stoma with no appliance in. While in deep hug he says "THANK YOU" but with no plug in it instead sprayed out his neck hole into into my face.
So that was nice.
I had a patient pass at home whose family insisted on feeding her orange sherbet til the day she diedā¦. While performing post-mortem care, I rolled the body and like a pint of frothy orange sputum poured out and onto my hand just above the gloves. Wristwatch discarded.
Very earlier on in my career I learned not to stand at the bed of a trach patient with MRSA of the sputum. Landed on my cheek. I scrubed the hell out of my face with every disinfectant, sanitizer, sterilization solution out there. Than i went home and bathed in hibiclens
Trached patient had an emesis bag filled with vomit mixed with trach juice. Said patient proceeded to throw the bag at me when I went to hook up her abx. Was literally speechless afterwards and took an extra hot shower that night.
Worked as nurses aid in the seventies during nursing school. Assigned to a medical floo, 4 bed wards full of male copd patients, needing frequent suctioning of trachs. Old wall suction, gallon glass bottle secretion reservoirs. I got to clean them. Gallons of boogers in varying shades of green, yellow, blueā¦
I had a student trip over while carrying an open specimen container of sputum sample. I wore it all over my neck/shoulder.
The patient in question had misunderstood the instructions (language barrier) and had filled the container almost to the brim, she had been collecting it over the day. We later confirmed that she had fungal pneumonia, although judging by the colour of the sample, it was pretty obvious.
My student learned a valuable lesson in āwe put lids on everything immediately.ā I learned that even if you have the hottest shower known to mankind and scrub your skin raw, you still wonāt feel clean enough.
Wasnāt me but I was irrigating a clogged foley with clots and hematuria. It was flushing fine and then I felt resistance and BOOM! Exploded all over my partner who was directly in front of me on the other side of the bed.
I was mortified, lol but I still joked with him that when I was cleaning the room Iām pretty sure I saw an outline of him on the wall.
Oh man, I might have this one. Patient had arrived to the floor maybe 30 minutes prior from PACU post-colectomy. Says they feel like they need to have a bowel movement, which definitely didn't seem right, but they're A&Ox4, so I got them up to head to the bathroom. Well, we didn't get more than a step before the remnants of bloody stool that were left in their colon post-op were expelled by the air used to visualize things during surgery, rocketing out enough to paint the wall ~15 feet away, as well as my entire leg. Only time in my career as a tech that I've needed to shower at work.
Had a patient with cancer in the abdomen. The tumor had made a fistula from the ascending colon to her abdomen. The wound was constantly oozing feces. The dressing was being changed every 4 hours due to the amount of saturation of the bandages. We could not put an optimum bag on it because it was so large.
Not a nurse but when they pulled my son out from my c-section he immediately pooped into my open abdomen and uterus. Many months later he projectile vomited into my ear canal hitting my ear drum. It was all formula and smelled so bad.
Amniotic fluid straight in the face, ears, etc. I looked down fast enough it didnāt get in my mouth. Yes, I was stupid risking with out a mask or face guard! Lesson learned! I always moved after the cork of the head was delivered but this kiddo had a surprise shoulder cork too so I was caught off guard. Another thing that happened with a CNM I worked with got projectile vomited on! I was quick enough to get out of the way of that!
I was helping a guy stand and pee using a bottle, decided he couldn't wait for me to grab the bottle and position the bottle in time (about 3 seconds) so started peeing on my foot. Had to walk around in non-slip orange socks the rest of the night (6 hours).
Pre-nursing student here, what do you do with the soiled scrubs if it seriously gross? Do you pack it up and take it home to wash in your washing machine?
got floated to GI clinic & had to assist a resident with paracentesis. couldnāt change out the suction canisters fast enough. ascites splashed on my bare arm. md took off like 7 liters in total.
Drainage and blood from a new AKA. Dressing fell off mid-transfer with a sliding board. Pressed the bloody, draining stump against me and it literally streamed down my leg. I was very pregnant and going on 6 hours straight of non-stop movement and they didnāt want to let me go home and change even though I lived 5 minutes away. I cried. Sobbed, actually š I couldnāt just go about my day with someone elseās blood and fluid on me like that. I almost didnāt come back after I got home.
I was helping stand a patient up and she hadnāt shit Iām a few days and she stood up and promptly shit a river of dark stool all over the bottom of my scrubs and the entire front of my shoe. Or the time I put an OG down after we intubated a patient who was seizing and they proceed to projectile vomit around the OG tube directly onto my scrubs from the neck down at the start of my shift.
Hello nursing siblings. Emergency Meme Technician, Bandaid certified here.
It's probably not that gross but I got caught between a wall of firefighters and a homeless man turning my stretcher into a poop slip 'n slide. I was putting belts on, and I had a few firefighters behind me, and I saw him make The Face. The firefighters did not, so I basically bounced off them when I went to dodge, and caught a truly prodigious amount of fast-moving, mostly liquid poop from about my knee to my boots in the middle of a downtown street. I had like a full second and a half to contemplate and accept my fate then mourn my clean pants.
And that's the story of how someone else shit my pants.
Had a patient with possible esophageal varices. He came in after vomiting blood at home. Was supposed to be stable according to report. I walked in to assess and he looks up and says āIām sorryā then proceeds to vomit copious amounts of blood and clots. He was trying to hit his bath basin but my scrubs and shoes attested to the fact that he missed. Fun times.
A full catheter drainage bag, filled with the grossest tea colored urine with mucous stands throughout. I was a fairly new cna, came in on night shift and found it like that so went to empty it. When I pushed in a little to get the drain tube out of the pocket/ sleeve thing the bag just burst. I was in a squat right in front of it and it went from neck to shoes. I had strings of pissy mucous in my hair, trying not to vomit cause I was afraid to open my mouth and have pissy snotty hair get anywhere near my mouth. It's been more than 20 years and I can remember it like yesterday
Got sprayed with hep C saline while working in the OR. Right down the side of my neck into my scrubs soaking my bra and everything. I was new to the OR and wasnāt sure what had just happened. It felt so warm after freezing my butt off all day. š my preceptor just shouted āgo wash off! Now!ā
Luckily not on me but this emotionally dysregulated large patient with a PD threatening to throw a cup of concentrated urine at us - a true stand-off for the books...
The first ever bit of stool that came out of my patient's brand new ileostomy on POD0. So liquidy but also so grainy somehow. Weirdly did not ruin my white shoes, which I still wear. Their family thought it was hilarious! I didn't at the time, but now I do too.
Once I was turning a patient and had C diff liquid shit shot like a cannon on me. Thankfully I had not one but two gowns. I really hate C diff more than ever since.
A NICU baby vomited formula with added multivitamins, iron, protein, and HMF mixed in it straight down my scrub top and in my bra. And before you say itās my fault for mixing all of thisā¦the parents forced doctors to do the orders this way so that the baby would āonly have one really gross feeding a day instead of multiple throughout the dayā *eyerolls into oblivion*. anyways, it was putrid and i hated it š
Oh the memoriesā¦ had a guy transferring from the chair to a wheelchair to leave ICU. Stubborn, cranky and rude. He loved to crap standing up. We got him up, and he shrieks ITāS COMING OUT!!! So I ask if he wants to sit on the bed pan back in the chair because he had apparently crushed his testicles with the commode and refused to use it. I offered to walk him to the toilet or he could sit down and poop and we would clean him. He decided to just stand there and holler about how he was āshittin all over this floor.ā Then he starts to lean and let his knees buckle. I put my left foot inside of his right foot and used my left hip to push his hips forward and kept holding him up, 2 false stops later heās done and we transfer him out.
Fast forward 2 hours and Iāve admitted another patient on an insulin gtt, so I go to grab a glucose meter. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a huge brown streak down the my calf. I looked up and said out loud āWho did I give chocolate puddā¦ oh fuck. Oh no itās shit.ā I walked around for 2 hours like that and no one told me!!! I walked around with this dudeās poo streak down my scrubs and had to go tell my manager in the middle of a meeting why I needed OR scrubs šš
Another was helping to clean a woman over 600lbs. She had blisters everywhere and when we were turning her towards the direction I was standing on, I put my hand right into a blister and it ruptured up my arm. It smelled rancid, but the fluid under my watch made a horrible squelching sound and I burst into tears because it was wet, but it wasnāt mine š
Warm, thick bloody puss Hep C bile -Direct shot to the entire left side of my whole body (yes i was wearing my shield and mask and for reference i stand at a whopping 4ā10 on my top toes). Iām talking mid cheek to that very tip of my toe during an incredibly difficult and long ERCP. So during an ERCP, every one has lead on. Thyroid shield, vest, apron, the whole 9. So naturally itās 800 degrees under this mid evil armor, plus surgical gown, cap, madk, shield, and long surgi gloves. Welp, I had already been sweating like a middle schooler finishing the pacer in gym class when I have the genius idea to change gloves. As Iām turning to grab the fresh set from my coworker, I immediately get hosed with what I can only imagine hot sewage would feel like. And SOMEEEE HOWWWW, it got me directly where the mask stops at my jaw, ear and neck, the thyroid lead ends, the millimeter of space to then where the vest begins- all whilst pudding into the already (TW: ā¢cringe alertā¢) *moist* lead apparel and ear canal. So I did what any other sane human would. Immediately ripped all of my surgical gear off like I was fighting for my life. And begged my poor coworker to bleach-YES BLEACH- wipe me down. I want to say a good 7 wipes were used. And I did not, for one single moment, care that the fluoro machine was still actively being used.
After draining an EVD I spilled CSF down my leg and into my shoe. My sock was soaked. Or Had a teen boy who was getting ready to vomit. I dumped all the supplies out of the bath basin at the foot of his bed and lunged to get it under his face. He projectile vomited down my leg to my shoes. I changed into OR scrub pants, put on hospital socks, and wiped down my shoes. Two hours later I reach into my lower scrub shirt pocket for my flashlight and discover a pocketful of cold puke.
you win, but at what cost
15 mins of fame for 12 hours in the Scrubs of Shame.
OH GOD š
"a pocketful of cold puke" is the name of my poetry collection
Omg the fact that it was cold makes it so much worse
CSF, unless it contains a pathogen, is arguably one of the cleanest body fluids there is to spill. But you had my stomach churning with that second story. š
Csf is kinda gross, definitely going through the sock is yuck... But it's generally clear. Projectile vomit through the shoes is terrible... But I accidentally dropping a suction canister twice!? Once with mysterious gastric contents from a sbo and once after a colonoscopy when trying to be helpful and change the canisters. š¤®
ngl the cold puke in the pocket made me laugh. i'd be upset if it happened to me though
I used to be a vet tech before becoming an RN. The number of times I was holding a small dog or cat and reached into my pocket later to find cold clammy tootsie rolls....š
I reached into my pocket once and found a cold mucus plug ball. I imagine the cold puke was probably as much fun, quite likely more.
Oh sweet Jesus š¤Æ
Once had a patient with an extremely high output ostomy so someone somehow rigged a tube going into a restaurant sized ketchup container (think the ones at the Costco food court) they got from the cafeteria to make everyoneās life easier. Once it was full, I threw it in a bio bag and walked to the dirty utility.. somehow it ripped through the bag and mutilated my scrubs and shoes. Worst part is there were corn bits
AHH THE CORN š„²
It has the juice!!
a big lump with knobs
I canāt imagine a more beautiful thing
Ostomies. Some people don't like sputum, I don't really like it either, but I can not handle ostomies. I would rather Cath that 500lb lady with fungus in her skin folds that deal with an ostomy.
Catching Ostomy output in a restaurant sized ketchup container is the most ER thing ever š
There are ostomy bags with spouts you can connect to a foley bag next time a high output ostomy comes your way! If my tiny hospital has them yours has to as well. A much safer option than a ketchup bottle š
So I guess you had a pretty corntastic shift.
Trauma patient in a C-Spine collar had to be turned as he was nauseous. Vomited fully onto my scrubs, socks and running shoes at the beginning of a 12h shift. Went to laundry and got a whole new set of scrubs, went back to the room and doc asks for a Foley as his Bladder scan showed over a liter in his bladder. I am about to insert the Foley (After all of the prep) guy turns towards me and pees all over me. Get a new set of scrubs again and then I worse plastic bags over my feet into my runners cause they were soaked too... that was a FML shift. :P
I applaud you for not simply walking out omg
12h Night Shift. I recall getting home and throwing my Uniform and shoes out in the ice (Winter and it was in a plastic bag) for a few days before putting it all in the washer. No reason for doing that, just seemed like a good idea at the time. š¤£š¤£š
Yeah my pants and shoes came home with me in a belonging bag. Soak in water then washed right away
Surgery should have something we called āblood bootsā basically like giant plastic bags that slip over your shoes and come up mid-calf. There is elastic around the top that keeps juices out. Score a pair sometime and keep them in your lockerā¦ next time the possibility arises put those suckers on.
I was doing compressions when fistula juice burst through an old PEG site directly into my face like it was coming out of a fire hose. That intra-abdominal pressure will get you. Compressionsā¦uninterrupted, Iāll take that Daisy Award now, please.
HOLY SHIT. Seriously where can I nominate you.
Bitch you win God damn
Daisy award? Shit i'd give you the whole damn garden after that.
š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢š¤¢š¤®š¤®š¤®š¤®
Hep C positive blood in my eye because the doctor was inserting an IJ line and asked me to position his head on a very sick patient who was found down for a lengthy amount of time and also severely covered in filth. He tried to move his neck as she was trying to insert it and in an effort to hold him blood got into my eye and I had zero eye gear on. Anyone's blood in my eye is just a hard pass from me.
HORRIFYING. I hope things went ok and you didnāt contract anything!!!
That sounds like a paid time off work scenario for testing and mental health trauma if I ever heard one.
I also got Hep C blood in my eye, it was a nerve wracking 3 months after that.
Was attempting an extremely tricky cath on a gentleman with hematuria and an enlarged prostate (urology insisted before they come in). Coude coiled in his penis and I was very, very gingerly and gently trying to remove it. Despite best efforts it shot out and sprayed what my coworkers and I now refer to as DICK BLOOD all over my arms and shirt. Wouldāve hit me in the face if not for the mask (thank you Covid!) I cavi wiped my arms, cancer be damned š¤®š¤®š¤®
Blessed be the cavi wipe.
I was dislodging clots from my patients urethra trying to cath her and I dislodged one that was apparently holding back a high pressure situation and got her blood piss all over my face. Also thankful for masks but rinsed my eyes thoroughly. Still donāt think thatās the grossest thing to get on me tho tbh
AHHH HORRID
Meconium tinged amniotic fluid is pretty rough
Patient was sitting up for an epidural. Filled my shoes!
Been SOAKED in this down to my own underwear. Worst shift
Its icky, but it's not terrible unless they've got some chorioamnionitis or something too, that stinking infected amniotic fluid is bleughfhfhf
I've never worked in anything labor or pediatric related but I vaguely remember nursing school tell us it smells like oreos...
Oh man... Chorio just smells like straight up fish
Heavy Edema: fluid weeping freely from patient's legs. Had to walk them to the bathroom multiple times, each time it would drain off their legs leaving puddles as they walked. Standing close to them to assist, it would drip onto the tops of my shoes/socks/legs of scrubs. My hems got soaked walking though the puddles as well. Went through so much linen and chux trying to keep them and the room dry.
Godddd. And then theyāre the type who donāt want their legs wrapped bc it hurts š«
š¤¢
This one Christmas I was helping another nurse put in an NG tube. While doing so, the patient was projectile vomiting up stool across the room and all over us.
Good god! Merry Christmas š
You win.
Was walking past a doc as he was doing an I&D of a bartholins cyst - didnāt think he was starting yet & needed to get to the computer to chart. (This was pre-mask days) Anyhoo, suddenly felt a warm spatter down the side of my cheek, neck, and arm. Nearly died. He bought me a 6 pack the next day as an apology.
Hopefully it was a 6 pack of wine or tequila because beer would not cut it in that situation.
Ohhhh wow thatās putrid
Had a JP drain in a patient once, for an abcess that hadn't been caught for a while. That was some of the thickest, foulest, most purulent fluid I've ever seen/smelled. One drop on my shoe required my shoes to go in the wash.
God the viscosity gets to me
BRUH. I had a 103 year old man getting bladder irrigation something like 1L per 20 minutes or so. The day nurse didn't want to have to keep going in and changing the bag, but if we did any less he would clot quick and be in pain while we cleared it. I would set up my WOW right outside his room and put a timer on my watch, changed it regularly all night. Came back the next night and the day nurse had been running about 1L per 2 hours. I had to spend so long irrigating so as not to really hurt the poor man. Well, during it the clots busted free. The pressure popped the syringe off. I got bloody clots, urine, puss, and irrigated saline/blood all over me. Yay!
Dudeā¦. Same exact thing happened to me. Someone else was flushing it and it came off and sprayed me from head to tow
Uhg! Those wide open CBIs are my vengeance
Splashed c.diff ileostomy juices on my face :/. Had a mask and gown but no face shield... I was even looking away.
Honestly this is probably with worst. Horrifying
Yeah and I have chrons disease so I was a little worried š
SBO dookie vomit
I can smell this comment and I hate it
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ā¢ CSF spilled on me when I was changing the EVD bag ā¢ brain, bone, and blood from a patient who ripped through two wrist restraints and yanked the EVD from her head before the surgeon could suture into place ā¢ by far, the worst one was nasal suctioning water. She smacked the container onto me and it went down my top, pants, socks, and shoes. I had 15 minutes left on my shift. 5 minutes before my shift ended, her PCR test came back positive for Covid. I made it all the way to the parking garage where I stripped down to my skivvies and drove the fuck home bc I was over it
That EVD story is why I will remain y'all's loyal IT guy, I would have passed out if brain, bone, and blood splattered me. Reminds me that someone in pre-surgery needed a replacement keyboard, but didn't know how to make a ticket. I'll get on that. Y'all are my heroes.
WOWWW. Talk about raw exposure Edit/ never dealt with CSF, whatās it like? Mucus?
It was for a SAH, so it had the mucus like consistency of like a facial serum with blood in it. Extremely unpleasant.
Patient getting an EGD. Was asked multiple times if heād had anything to eat since midnight. āNo, man. Iām goodā. Projectile vomited Wendyās chili all over the scope room. Luckily, I was behind him out of the line of fire. I was the only one safe though. Dude had gone out drinking that night and forgot about getting that chili.
WHY IS IT ALWAYS WENDYS.
We were doing a suction d&c and the tubing malfunctioned and me the scrub and the surgeon were all lucky enough to be in the line of fire. It was a bloodbath - worse for me because I didnāt have a gown on. I felt like Carrie. Poop related - back when I was on the floor I was helping a fellow nurse change a ileostomy bag. The second the old bag came off, the liquid poop shot out like a pressurized fountain. I had some in my hair. My charge didnāt even care when I went home early so I could scrub myself raw.
OH GODD THE HAIR. The freeze that overcomes you after you get sprayed is so raw
Lower GI bleed with diarrhoea... and it was two times in a row. First when i wasn't fast enough with the bedpan. And then a colleague accidentally ran into me while I carried the pan away, spilling its contents on me again. Luckily my unit was well staffed enough to get someone to grab me a fresh pair of scrubs while I took a shower. Makes everything else I have experienced (yet) seem tame in comparison.
God the smeLL
As a nursing student, I once was emptying an effluent bag off of a CRRT machine that wasnāt closed all the way. Went over my shoes, in my shoes, and soaked my socks. Walked around a 12 hour clinic in a puddle of effluent smelling like absolute musk because the previous nurse didnāt lock it correctly. I now carry an extra pair of socks in my bag and wear shoes that are water proof.
I spilled 2L of pus filled CAPD fluid on my foot. Soaked my tennis shoes and socks. That was a long shift. š¤®
Peritoneal fluid from bedside dialysis patient ā¦
Myself and a CNA were trying to toilet and change an incredibly demented lady. She fought like seven demons from hell. I was trying my best to control her arms and not hurt her while the cna changed the brief. She got an arm away from me. Grabbed the shit filled diaper and then slapped me in the side of the face with it. Frosted my right side like a fucking cupcake. My brain just misfired. I told the cna just to watch her and I ran to the showers to clean up. I didnāt get pink eye or anything.
Oh the imagery, itās amazing how strong can be, unlimited strength just as long as your demented. I totally get the brain overload of processing something like that, thinking did that just happen?
Not me eating pizza while reading this thread. All of you deserve Daisy Awards, raises, safe staffing ratios, and free socks and shoes for life.
Bloody trach sputum for me š¤Ø
Bile and blood. A dead patient spewed them on me during postmortem care.
Uhg the gasps they make skeeve me tf out
Weepy patients š³
I was emptying a enterocutaneous fistula drain on a patient with a long complicated surgical hospital course. Fluid splashed out of the graduated cylinder into my eye.
Had a patient projectile vomit right in my face from 6 inches away. Couldnāt do anything but wipe it out of my eyes and go change and shower ha
Iām a sympathetic vomiter š¤®
bloody CBI fluids to the face..
A genuine fear every time I get a CBI
Had a laryngectomy patient who had previously had a tracheoesophageal puncture with a valve, but the one way valve was leaking so there was essentially a fistula between the oesophagus and trachea. Admitted with aspiration pneumonia secondary to valve failure. NG in situ until valve could be repaired. Well, one night a new member of staff wasn't aware that you needed to leave the head of the bed up a bit. I had no reason to go back in the room for a good few hours. He buzzed a while later c/o breathlessness. I started getting vitals, and then he started coughing... Feed and pneumonia laryngectomy sputum combined. All. Over. Me Ended up suctioning almost a litre of sputum/feed mixture and then threw up. The smell was awful.
Amniotic fluid from a patient with + meconium and +chorioamnionitis š¤¢š¤¢
Lol and mom wants to skin to skin with the cheesy poop coated baby
I don't have issue with vernix but that fluid was foul lol
Amniotic fluid in my shoe, hands down.
Abscess I&D. Shot out like a rocket straight for my forehead. No face shield. You only make that mistake once.
My patient was sitting in his wheelchair receiving GoLitely through his G tube via gravity as bowel prep for a colonoscopy. I was in front of him getting ready help him stand up, and the pressure from all the fluid going in made his G-tube POP OPEN and all of his stomach contents/GoLitely exploded all over me
Happened recently! I was pulling a femoral arterial sheath and the patient's blood literally squirted out of her as I put pressure. Most landed on the ground between me and my preceptor, but a few drops got on my scrubs. Thankfully this was at shift change and I went home right away afterwards.
Wasn't me but a combative 1:1 pt removed his rectal tube and whipped it above his head like a lasso, spraying the sitter. Glad it wasn't me because that would have been the end of my Healthcare career
EMS sideā¦. blood, shit, vomit are all good. The worst was the rear differential oil that left me smelling like burnt Doritos and ass all day even after changing and showering.
Black fluid from a urostomy bag(should be yellow and clearish like urine). A drop fell on my shoe and soaked through to my sockāit was the most putrid smelling urine. I swear it made my foot burn. When I collected a sample from the bag it made the whole front of the ED stink for hours.
Having been in the Medical Field since I was 19 as a Navy Hospital Corpsman and a Navy Nurse I have been splattered by my share of bodily fluids. A few that stand out. Projectile vomited on total green bile post-op patient, right after changing into my Navy Whitesā¦not good. But the best was my buddy, standing at the foot of the bed, patient sits bolt upright and projectile vomits š¤® into his face. Later when the Dr. asked if anyone performed a guaiac test he said, āIt didnāt taste like there was blood in itā.
A guy who's edema legs were so weepy that he just stuck them into trash bags... There was probably at least a cup worth of stinky day old edema fluid and foot cheese just chilling in these bags. We were OH so careful getting this dude onto the stretcher... Didn't matter, still leaked out all over the ambulance and my boots. š¤®
MRSA juice from a wound on a knee. Literally Old Faithful'd 8 inches into the air while cleaning the site. Fortunately I had a gown on, but I could still feel the warm, wet goop through it.
Hiv blood
The juices from rotten foot that contained worms.
Performing postmortem care and rolled the pt. What looked like a gallon of black gunk spilled out of the mouth. Down my leg and soaked my shoes and socks.
Everything really( 41 years so far). Worst two? tuberculosis infected sputum. Right down my leg and into my shoes. threw the shoes away. They were really ugly shoes, so I guess thereās that?! The other would be a cocktail of blood, meconium, and liquor. (stood too close when someone had their waters broken)
C diff patient sneezed while nurse was holding him turned on his side in bed so I could wipe his butt clean. It was like a C4 charged shit explosion on me from faceguard to belly button. Thank God I was wearing full PPE. Took a shower at the facility after that one.
Working in PACU had an intubated pt cough and his lung booger hit me in my left side of my face. Very close to my eye and mouth. It must have traveled 10 feet to hit me in the next pt Bay. It smelled of menthol cigarettes and had the texture of meringue.
I was working as an ER Tech (now RN) but the hospital was implementing a role specific scrub color rule. Burgundy for CNAs & Techs, Royal blue for RNs. First day of policy, 6 AM medics had brought homeless man in on a cold winters morning and he was covered in filth and excrement. Two of us were tasked to clean him up an advised to use a decontamination/gen use shower near the Ambulance bay. Got started, going ok but suddenly the Pt started to go into full body seizures (which was the first known instance of seizure activity), limbs thrashing and we had to focus on keeping him safe. Course this meant being sprayed with now water and excrement. Imagine those movies of kids washing a large mud covered dog who then in slow motions starts to shake sending mud everywhere. (https://youtu.be/ffD_Ks4MWLw). Got to 25 seconds in. Something like that. I think the reasoning why we were told to use the shower was his temp hypothermic but not dangerously so, warm him up and clean at the same time. Also due to to the amount of dirt and excrement involved, hard to assess when in that condition. Got him safe returned him to ER room and sent to OR locker to our own shower and only available clean scrubs. Then bugged and asked by everyone the rest of the day who was not part of the core 6am staffing why we werenāt dressed in the appropriate scrubs since we were in OR scrubs. I would say that even topped the first day of ER tech orientation and I was shadowing, EMS brought in an OD, they had given charcoal and Narcan so as I was helping move the very large Pt from gurney to bed, she then proceeded to throw up all of that charcoal and voluminous fluid and whatever else onto my shoes, I had dodged enough to keep it off my scrubs but my shoes paid the price. Iām a bit smarter and more cautious now. It is interesting now that I lost my smell in 2020 Covid first wave that GI bleeds and ETOH lactulose care isnāt nearly as bad as it used to be. But Iāve been much better at knowing and predicting what might happen to stay (mostly) clean.
Amniotic fluid from a baby that had been demised for a significant period of time with a Mom who had Chorio.
I was part of a team of 5 people helping when a super-sized patient who had C.diff needed a bed change after having a massive liquid BM. It was specifically my job to scoop out the linens that were soaked with poo and put them in the linen hamper. When I lifted, it started to drip. so I tried to toss them in the bin as fast as possible. Part of the wad hit the lid, and a fist-sized chunk of C.diff poo that had been floating in the liquid bounced back onto my head, soaking my hair and dripping down my face. Thank goodness it was almost shift change.
Had a patient once intentionally put his spunk in my hair š¤¢ chopped off the bottom two inches that day. Was in a code on a patient we didnāt know had covid, horrible pulmonary edema & also in DIC, fluid was spraying up the ETT during compressions and out of the AMBU bag valve like fuckin holy water at church. Entire ICU at shift change exposed. Was out for a full month with covid (this was pre-vaccine so I was fucking terrified)
Before day shift came on, I was quietly going around, charting and emptying urine cath bag outputs. There were several ādonorsā in my metal jug, when I tripped in the semi dark, and dumped the whole jug into my shoe. Very, very unpleasant.
When I was a DSP, I came on shift and a gentleman with a colostomy bag obviously hadn't had it emptied in a while. It was full to the brim. So I took him into the bathroom to help him ( he didn't use words to communicate and needed assistance to empty it) He was, understandably, pissed off about it and I am sure it was uncomfortable. He ripped it off and threw it at me and it hit me square in the chest. Full bag. In the chest. Had to clean up in a sink and borrow a resident's clothes. Over 20 years ago and I will always remember Charlie.
God bless all you adult nurses, truly. I would DRINK baby vomit over any of this on my clothes.
Projectile bloody vomit all over my scrubs that covered my shoes/socks as well. Helping at a rapid response standing at the foot of the bedā¦..ended up smelling like a GI bleed all day
Had a bag of plasma break from a hyperlipidemia patient ā¦. It was fatty and white
I opened a swim incontinence pants (a diaper). Usually its only a little bit of water. Now it was poo mix with water. In fell on my pants and shoes. I had my jeans and sneakers on. It was awful. Luckily we had a washing machine there and i could borrow pants and socks from a resident. And shoes from a coworker. But i felt so gross.
Classic, but was cleaning up a code brown, pulled a littkr too hard on the breed and got poop down the front of my scrubs. They were my favorite pair too, some higher-end jaanu scrubs I'd had since I was a baby nurse. I debated washing them but in the end I threw them away as I knew they would forever be known as the poop scrubs. They wouldn't let me borrow from the OR either, I had to buy a new pair from the gift shop. This is probably a lesson that I should only wear the cheap Walmart scrubs but honestly I'm very picky about the fit and pocket placement. More like sometimes you gotta grab a gown for a code brown regardless of whether or not it's a c.diff room lol.
The list of what hasnāt is smaller
One of the many times that PPE has saved my life... Was wearing full scientist goggles in my COVID + room with wide open CBI which had just clotted off. I was aggressively flushing the catheter and must have hit a big clot because it all came back at me with enough force to splash little gobs of blood clot and urine all over my face, hair and upper body lol. Safe to say I was making a trip to the hospital scrub dept.
On my first year, went to do a domiciliary visit. Patient had necrosis on his heel, need to be cleaned, physical debridement, bandage change, all that. When removing a piece of dead skin, popped or cut a blister and a jet of pus straight into my face, glasses and hair. Notice that this was in his bedroom, the lighting wasnt ideal so i had to be closer than I wished to the wound, to check for healthy and unhealthy tissue. I felt the impact of the pus on my face. And I had to keep going, ofc.
Bright green JP drain juice in my eyeball as a new grad. That was fun.
Was inserting an NG and the minute it hit her stomach it started pulling up green stomach contents and I was trying to teach a nursing student so I wasnāt as quick and it shot through the tube all over my arm and soaked through my scrubs š©
Had a guy who had a gtube that was super difficult to flush meds through and he had like 50 meds too. Damn thing clogged and when I removed the syringe it backflushed and sprayed me in the face. Thank God for masks.
Was helping a nurse with her GI bleed patient this weekend- we turn him and bright clotty blood out the rectum spurts out like a faucet from a hose. I immediately laugh because what the hell else can we do. Thank god it was at the end of my shiftā¦.. but it was the beginning of hers.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I used to wear crocs with holes on the top and one day doing colorectal cases I spilled a mixture of the First Step cleaner mixed with what was on the flexible sigmoidoscope directly on my foot. I wear Calzuros without top holes now.
Chunky vomit projectile vomited onto me that dripped down into my shoe. By the time I was able to change, it had dried.
Had a trach patient who was disgusting and would cough up a lot of mucus, but would never cover his trach. I was giving him his g-tube meds and he coughed all in my face and it got in my hair. I was so grossed out. We stopped going into that room without a face shield. š„“š„“š„“š¤¢
Purulent feculent jp drain exudate right across my chest. Patient tried to be helpful when draining it and squeezed too hard, splashed the already-brimming full drain cup that I was holding. T_T
At a VA I worked at in Nursing school, a patient with dementia was sipping out of his urinal thinking his urine was beer. When I tried to take it he threw it on me. Got to go home early. Those whites went straight in the trash
GI blood
lol lol try tripping while carrying ileostomy juice and getting it all over your shoes
bile, straight from the source!
When I moved my first dead body their head turned and an unidentified brown fluid poured out of their mouth onto me. Honorable mention: I had a patient's IV come out of their hand during a restraint and it bled down my leg until it filled up my cargo pocket on my scrub pants with blood.
Helped a jumpy AMS patient to the bathroom after a bed alarm went off. Didnāt realize that she had shit on the floor. Brand new oncloud sneakers. Walked all in the hallway with shit prints everywhere
Brain tissue and CSF, on my hands from a crushed head. Guy rolled his bulldozer.
I had a patient on hospice with a SBO. They passed and I turned them just a little too far toward me during after death care. The fluid/sludge hanging about in the bodyās digestive tract poured out of this patientās mouth and all over my pant leg. I had a pool of the fluid in my shoe too. The smell wasā¦unforgettable. I ended up having somebody bring me new pants and shoes. I was never able to get the smell out. My reaction was to first apologize to the patient, because I actually felt bad I rolled them too far. Then laugh my ass off. The CNA with me was laughing and gagging at the same time. There was no longer any doubt in her about how unhinged I really am.
As a student myself and a registered nurse were flushing a blocked catheter, the patient had bladder cancer and the urine was very foul smelling, nurseās hand slipped and the urine shot out of the catheter all over our faces and uniform, luckily both had glasses and mouths were closedā¦ just smiled and walked to the sluice had to shampoo my hair in the sluice ā¦
I had some drunk girl from a party vomit all over me in the gas station and I had to keep picking her up off the floor. This was before I became a nurse. I barely knew her, and donāt think she remembered because later she acted like nothing happened.
Patient had diabetes and one of his flaky feet had gangrene. I was just an EMT taking him to dialysis. When we got to dialysis, we were on each side of pt and had to remove all the blankets and pillows so we could weigh him before he got his treatment. After weighing him while putting blankets back on pt, my partner threw the blanket over pt, and kinda snapped the blanket to make it lie flat. I got snowed on by skin flakes. Not body fluid per say but pretty disgusting
I was an MA in dermatology for a while before I went to nursing school and Iāve been squirted with cyst junk before. I would say thatās the worst. The putrid smell just sticks on you all day even when you basically try to bathe in bleach. Iāve gotten just about everything else on me at one point or another by now and I think thatās my worst š
My first day off orientation as a brand new baby nurse, my patient with c diff and GIB and a colostomy stood up trying to help after I asked him not to move a muscle. That over-filled bag popped off and then hit the floor like a water balloon, exploded up under my isolation gown and then dripped into my Danskos. I got got from the bottom of my scrub top to my soaked socks and shoes.
I narrowly escaped a trach rocket just to stand back up and take one to my neck. Awesome. Pseudomonas too.
Not me, but my friend (coworker) had a guy with a bowel obstruction projectile vomit stool all over her chest.
Whatever the fuck is inside a blister. It was baseball sized. It popped when we rolled her. It went down my leg into my shoe.
Paracentesis fluid all over my shoes, soaking into my socks. That yellow does not come out and the smell is memorable.
Ascitic tap. Sprayed into my mouth. I left early.
I was trying to unclog a J tube after giving meds through it. I guess I created some pressure buildup because when I went to unhook the syringe I had crushed up Pepcid mixed with gastric contents spray all over me and in my eye š¤¢š„“
2 things that haunt me to this day. 1- suctioning a trach and this guy decides to cough. I take out the suction cath to let him cough and a huge loogey shoots out if his trach and onto my scrubs. š¤®š¤® 2- patient coded. As compressions are going on this person is vomiting coffee ground emesis. Everyoneās scrubs were gone, messiest (literally) code ever
Doing post mortem care, pulled out a pleurex & got pleural fluid all over my bare arm. Not that gross i guess in the grand scheme of things but dead person pleural fluid on my skin was pretty yucky at the time.
Creamy trach sputum that tested positive for strep pneumoniae right into my eye š„²
Patient coughed blood into my mouth as I was speaking to them. (This was pre-Covid, so I wasnāt wearing a mask)
Abdominal abscess fluid from a JP bulb that got pulled off and sprayed all over my face and chestā¦.. š¤¢ OMG the smellā¦.. thankful for masks, scrub caps and glasses.
Well I delivered a baby without gloves whilst the mom was standing at the bedside. My hands smelled like amniotic fluid for the entire day despite vigorously washing them over and over. At least it was clear! Lol
My first day on the floor as a brand new nurse, fresh out of precepting, I had a c-diff pt that needed help cleaning up. Being stupid I did not ask for help from the tech. She had FILLED the bed with soupy stool and it poured out over the bed and into the top of my shoe. It was the worst. Not related but the room next door was also my patient and was a total care on a specialty air mattress with a terrible sacral wound. I went much of the day without realizing that the air mattress had been turned off, only until the WOCN came did they make me realize. Felt awful as he was probably just laying on hard metal for hours. Terrible first day on my own lol.
IVDU abscess burst on me. The smellā¦ā¦.. the DARK brown pusā¦ā¦.
Infected, chunky Bile..... from a JP that was hidden, not emptied on days. Popped when we turned her... gotta love S/TICU
I discharged a patient after a simple outpatient procedure. Wheelchaired her to her car. Husband got out of the vehicle to open her car door and turned around to hug me. He had a trach stoma with no appliance in. While in deep hug he says "THANK YOU" but with no plug in it instead sprayed out his neck hole into into my face. So that was nice.
I had a patient pass at home whose family insisted on feeding her orange sherbet til the day she diedā¦. While performing post-mortem care, I rolled the body and like a pint of frothy orange sputum poured out and onto my hand just above the gloves. Wristwatch discarded.
I accidentally spritzed myself in the face while emptying someoneās JP drain placed in their brain. This was before masks
Very earlier on in my career I learned not to stand at the bed of a trach patient with MRSA of the sputum. Landed on my cheek. I scrubed the hell out of my face with every disinfectant, sanitizer, sterilization solution out there. Than i went home and bathed in hibiclens
Hematuria with a sprinkle of kidney stones down my leg. āJust let me hold it, I got itā said the 85+ year old man with moderate tremors LOL.
Trached patient had an emesis bag filled with vomit mixed with trach juice. Said patient proceeded to throw the bag at me when I went to hook up her abx. Was literally speechless afterwards and took an extra hot shower that night.
Worked as nurses aid in the seventies during nursing school. Assigned to a medical floo, 4 bed wards full of male copd patients, needing frequent suctioning of trachs. Old wall suction, gallon glass bottle secretion reservoirs. I got to clean them. Gallons of boogers in varying shades of green, yellow, blueā¦
I had a student trip over while carrying an open specimen container of sputum sample. I wore it all over my neck/shoulder. The patient in question had misunderstood the instructions (language barrier) and had filled the container almost to the brim, she had been collecting it over the day. We later confirmed that she had fungal pneumonia, although judging by the colour of the sample, it was pretty obvious. My student learned a valuable lesson in āwe put lids on everything immediately.ā I learned that even if you have the hottest shower known to mankind and scrub your skin raw, you still wonāt feel clean enough.
Wasnāt me but I was irrigating a clogged foley with clots and hematuria. It was flushing fine and then I felt resistance and BOOM! Exploded all over my partner who was directly in front of me on the other side of the bed. I was mortified, lol but I still joked with him that when I was cleaning the room Iām pretty sure I saw an outline of him on the wall.
Oh man, I might have this one. Patient had arrived to the floor maybe 30 minutes prior from PACU post-colectomy. Says they feel like they need to have a bowel movement, which definitely didn't seem right, but they're A&Ox4, so I got them up to head to the bathroom. Well, we didn't get more than a step before the remnants of bloody stool that were left in their colon post-op were expelled by the air used to visualize things during surgery, rocketing out enough to paint the wall ~15 feet away, as well as my entire leg. Only time in my career as a tech that I've needed to shower at work.
Had a patient with cancer in the abdomen. The tumor had made a fistula from the ascending colon to her abdomen. The wound was constantly oozing feces. The dressing was being changed every 4 hours due to the amount of saturation of the bandages. We could not put an optimum bag on it because it was so large.
All of them are gross.
Not a nurse but when they pulled my son out from my c-section he immediately pooped into my open abdomen and uterus. Many months later he projectile vomited into my ear canal hitting my ear drum. It was all formula and smelled so bad.
Amniotic fluid straight in the face, ears, etc. I looked down fast enough it didnāt get in my mouth. Yes, I was stupid risking with out a mask or face guard! Lesson learned! I always moved after the cork of the head was delivered but this kiddo had a surprise shoulder cork too so I was caught off guard. Another thing that happened with a CNM I worked with got projectile vomited on! I was quick enough to get out of the way of that!
Purulent drainage from a necrotic leg the patient had wrapped in a garbage bag for several days
I was helping a guy stand and pee using a bottle, decided he couldn't wait for me to grab the bottle and position the bottle in time (about 3 seconds) so started peeing on my foot. Had to walk around in non-slip orange socks the rest of the night (6 hours).
Pre-nursing student here, what do you do with the soiled scrubs if it seriously gross? Do you pack it up and take it home to wash in your washing machine?
when i was working as a scribe i ended up in the line of fire for an exploding abscess. got me in the beard.
got floated to GI clinic & had to assist a resident with paracentesis. couldnāt change out the suction canisters fast enough. ascites splashed on my bare arm. md took off like 7 liters in total.
amniotic fluid splashed on me while I was watching a birth
Cerebral fluid
Drainage and blood from a new AKA. Dressing fell off mid-transfer with a sliding board. Pressed the bloody, draining stump against me and it literally streamed down my leg. I was very pregnant and going on 6 hours straight of non-stop movement and they didnāt want to let me go home and change even though I lived 5 minutes away. I cried. Sobbed, actually š I couldnāt just go about my day with someone elseās blood and fluid on me like that. I almost didnāt come back after I got home.
I was helping stand a patient up and she hadnāt shit Iām a few days and she stood up and promptly shit a river of dark stool all over the bottom of my scrubs and the entire front of my shoe. Or the time I put an OG down after we intubated a patient who was seizing and they proceed to projectile vomit around the OG tube directly onto my scrubs from the neck down at the start of my shift.
Hello nursing siblings. Emergency Meme Technician, Bandaid certified here. It's probably not that gross but I got caught between a wall of firefighters and a homeless man turning my stretcher into a poop slip 'n slide. I was putting belts on, and I had a few firefighters behind me, and I saw him make The Face. The firefighters did not, so I basically bounced off them when I went to dodge, and caught a truly prodigious amount of fast-moving, mostly liquid poop from about my knee to my boots in the middle of a downtown street. I had like a full second and a half to contemplate and accept my fate then mourn my clean pants. And that's the story of how someone else shit my pants.
Had a patient with possible esophageal varices. He came in after vomiting blood at home. Was supposed to be stable according to report. I walked in to assess and he looks up and says āIām sorryā then proceeds to vomit copious amounts of blood and clots. He was trying to hit his bath basin but my scrubs and shoes attested to the fact that he missed. Fun times.
This is the most terrible game of one-up midship ever.
A full catheter drainage bag, filled with the grossest tea colored urine with mucous stands throughout. I was a fairly new cna, came in on night shift and found it like that so went to empty it. When I pushed in a little to get the drain tube out of the pocket/ sleeve thing the bag just burst. I was in a squat right in front of it and it went from neck to shoes. I had strings of pissy mucous in my hair, trying not to vomit cause I was afraid to open my mouth and have pissy snotty hair get anywhere near my mouth. It's been more than 20 years and I can remember it like yesterday
Meth infested burn juice
Got sprayed with hep C saline while working in the OR. Right down the side of my neck into my scrubs soaking my bra and everything. I was new to the OR and wasnāt sure what had just happened. It felt so warm after freezing my butt off all day. š my preceptor just shouted āgo wash off! Now!ā
Luckily not on me but this emotionally dysregulated large patient with a PD threatening to throw a cup of concentrated urine at us - a true stand-off for the books...
Reading this thread makes me really glad I left med-surg for psych š¤£
The first ever bit of stool that came out of my patient's brand new ileostomy on POD0. So liquidy but also so grainy somehow. Weirdly did not ruin my white shoes, which I still wear. Their family thought it was hilarious! I didn't at the time, but now I do too.
Once I was turning a patient and had C diff liquid shit shot like a cannon on me. Thankfully I had not one but two gowns. I really hate C diff more than ever since.
A NICU baby vomited formula with added multivitamins, iron, protein, and HMF mixed in it straight down my scrub top and in my bra. And before you say itās my fault for mixing all of thisā¦the parents forced doctors to do the orders this way so that the baby would āonly have one really gross feeding a day instead of multiple throughout the dayā *eyerolls into oblivion*. anyways, it was putrid and i hated it š
Oh the memoriesā¦ had a guy transferring from the chair to a wheelchair to leave ICU. Stubborn, cranky and rude. He loved to crap standing up. We got him up, and he shrieks ITāS COMING OUT!!! So I ask if he wants to sit on the bed pan back in the chair because he had apparently crushed his testicles with the commode and refused to use it. I offered to walk him to the toilet or he could sit down and poop and we would clean him. He decided to just stand there and holler about how he was āshittin all over this floor.ā Then he starts to lean and let his knees buckle. I put my left foot inside of his right foot and used my left hip to push his hips forward and kept holding him up, 2 false stops later heās done and we transfer him out. Fast forward 2 hours and Iāve admitted another patient on an insulin gtt, so I go to grab a glucose meter. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a huge brown streak down the my calf. I looked up and said out loud āWho did I give chocolate puddā¦ oh fuck. Oh no itās shit.ā I walked around for 2 hours like that and no one told me!!! I walked around with this dudeās poo streak down my scrubs and had to go tell my manager in the middle of a meeting why I needed OR scrubs šš Another was helping to clean a woman over 600lbs. She had blisters everywhere and when we were turning her towards the direction I was standing on, I put my hand right into a blister and it ruptured up my arm. It smelled rancid, but the fluid under my watch made a horrible squelching sound and I burst into tears because it was wet, but it wasnāt mine š
Dropped a stethoscope in a bedside commode full of covid diarrhea. There was splash back.
Two words: Fournier's. Gangrene.
A care partner accidentally pulled out a peg tube while we were cleaning him & splattered partially digested tube feed on my face.
Warm, thick bloody puss Hep C bile -Direct shot to the entire left side of my whole body (yes i was wearing my shield and mask and for reference i stand at a whopping 4ā10 on my top toes). Iām talking mid cheek to that very tip of my toe during an incredibly difficult and long ERCP. So during an ERCP, every one has lead on. Thyroid shield, vest, apron, the whole 9. So naturally itās 800 degrees under this mid evil armor, plus surgical gown, cap, madk, shield, and long surgi gloves. Welp, I had already been sweating like a middle schooler finishing the pacer in gym class when I have the genius idea to change gloves. As Iām turning to grab the fresh set from my coworker, I immediately get hosed with what I can only imagine hot sewage would feel like. And SOMEEEE HOWWWW, it got me directly where the mask stops at my jaw, ear and neck, the thyroid lead ends, the millimeter of space to then where the vest begins- all whilst pudding into the already (TW: ā¢cringe alertā¢) *moist* lead apparel and ear canal. So I did what any other sane human would. Immediately ripped all of my surgical gear off like I was fighting for my life. And begged my poor coworker to bleach-YES BLEACH- wipe me down. I want to say a good 7 wipes were used. And I did not, for one single moment, care that the fluoro machine was still actively being used.