I heard a history from a patient (and his wife) the other day that had me cracking up in a morbid, doctor-sort of way. I could not help it. I just envisioned it and it cracked me up. Luckily I concealed it while talking to them…..
A man in his 50’s came in because of a bizarre syncopal (passing out) episode. His wife said he was walking across the kitchen floor with an empty plate in his hand when he suddenly tensed up, coughed and appeared to become lightheaded. He then stumbled, and put his hand straight into a hot bowl of recently prepared creamed spinach (yum! One of my favourites!) that was sitting on the counter. This roused him enough to pull his hand back, look at it, and yell. He then stumbled again and passed out, falling down, hitting his head, and twisting his foot. He awoke shortly thereafter with no recollection of the event. Probably had some weird type of seizure.
I know it is morbid, but for some reason it reminded me of some old Tom and Jerry cartoon where Tom knocks over a lot of stuff in the kitchen and then takes a header. Of course, this poor man had a small intracranial contusion and a broken foot but I still could not get the cartoon reference out of my head. Especially the part where he put his hand in the creamed spinach.
Canadian Pharmacy
Did they at least bring you some spinach?
I feel so bad for laughing, but damn. I didn’t think things like that actually happened.
I had this sudden vision of Tom and how he used to yell- hahahahahaha!!!!!
How about a top ten list of your favorite blogs of 2009 for the new year?
Merry Christmas and thank you for all the good laughs, and sometimes disturbing but fasinating stories.
Keep up the good work. Nurse Toni
I wish I could embed the Looney Toons theme in this post.
I read that and I was in giggles! Us ER folks truly have a special sense of humour.
Great story…of course, we all hope the patient was okay. But, the picture of him stumbling all over the kitchen with green hands is hysterical! You write great.
I hope you have a happy holiday season.
Oh my, that reminds me of one I am sure I am going to hell for: a lady who was “hit by a tree”. Terrible cartoon images flashed through my head including the “mexican fighting tree” from Simpsons. Yeah, definately going to hell.