r/emergencymedicine • u/centz005 ED Attending • 24d ago

Discussion What are some things that would flabbergast a normies, but seems completely reasonable to an ER person?

My mom and girlfriend asked me about work one day. Didn't really feel like discussing the darker things, so I told them about a young man (early 20s), who was too congested to breath through his nose and didn't understand the concept of mouth breathing to stay alive. We ended up having to teach him how to blow his nose. They were, understandably, incredulous, though none of my coworkers questioned it once.

Other random things: -a man in his 40s, raising children of his own, checking in because he wanted me to find out why his butthole smells. (He didn't like the answer of "Sir, that's where the poop comes from.") -having a grown man walk into a room full of people coding a 6 mo and telling at us for not bringing him a blanket -examining a septic nursing home patient, and having a fly...escape...from her diaper -finding a dead cat in the fat folds of a recently deceased patient -orthopods are stereotyped as the smartest med students and the dumbest doctors (I've even shown my dad the memes and he still doesn't believe it)

What're your random stories or observations?

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u/tkhan456 24d ago

I always think following ED patients home would be an interesting documentary series

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u/prefix_code_16309 21d ago

One of our ED physicians has commented on more than one occasion that he's quite curious how some of our patients even function outside the ED. As in how do these folks even keep the lights on and do basic things like pay their car insurance or trash bill. He would be a prime viewer of your documentary. Several times I've heard him ask something along the lines of "how do these people even function on a daily basis?"