Your dumbest moment

[chrisisinnocent]

Just remembered today some of my less than stellar moments on the wards. Figured I would share one:

Two month ago I was on my first week of IM and on call at the local VA. At 1 Am we admitted an 82 yo man who had a long history of dementia. He was found on the bathroom floor by his caretaker and brought in to the ER. We diagnosed an UTI and started antibiotics and some fluids. He was really agitated, telling WW2 stories and warning me not to touch his pecker because despite what happened in the Navy he was definitely not gay
I ordered Haldol for agitation and went to bed.
The next morning I saw him on rounds and he was sound asleep and snoring, and after a lot of shaking and yelling he managed to answer a few questions. His labs and vitals looked good so I let him go back to sleep. That afternoon I got an irate page from my senior asking me to come to his room. The attending was there looking half infuriated and half amused. Turns out that in my great widsdom I had ordered the haldol but forgot the PRN agitation part . The patient was still snoring really really loudly (had an awesome musical quality to it) and was completely unaraousable for the next two days.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Gem134]

I LOVE the VA !!

 

[Samir Desai]

Here's one from my internship. I was called by the nurse to see one of my patients who was complaining of chest discomfort. After talking with him and examining him, I felt confident that he wasn't having a heart attack. We did an EKG. As I compared it to previous tracings, I was amazed to see some dramatic changes. For someone who looked so well, it seemed like he could be having a heart attack. At that moment, his attending showed up and I filled him on what was happening. We discussed the situation and talked about how we needed to transfer the patient to the ICU, etc.

As he was reviewing the EKGs, I happened to look at the names on the tracings. That's when I realized that we were comparing the EKGs of two different patients! Somehow another patient's EKG had ended up in my patient's chart.

Feeling quite embarrassed, I came out with "Uh, Dr. S., it looks like we're looking at the EKGs of two different patients."

In the end, patient did not have a heart attack. I learned something very important - to always start with the patient's name when interpreting anything.

 

[deleted113029]

walking onto the ward on my first day of third year!

 

[QuinnB]

dumbest moment...let's see...everyday? Too many to count...or remember.

 

[Iwy Em Hotep]

Easy. Second call night on surgery, and now that it's 1am, I'm tired after getting up at 3:30am. Patient presents to the ER with LRQ pain, almost certainly appendicitis. R2 decides to pimp my feeble brain, and asks me, "What is an indication for laparoscopic versus open appendectomy?"

And the first thing I blurt out: "Bilateral appendicitis!"

 

[MadameLULU]

dumbest moment...let's see...everyday? Too many to count...or remember.

Ditto

 

[dynx]

Easy. Second call night on surgery, and now that it's 1am, I'm tired after getting up at 3:30am. Patient presents to the ER with LRQ pain, almost certainly appendicitis. R2 decides to pimp my feeble brain, and asks me, "What is an indication for laparoscopic versus open appendectomy?"

And the first thing I blurt out: "Bilateral appendicitis!"

LUQ RUQ LLQ and RLQ...not LRQ. We'll call this number 2.

 

[Zuwie]

Easy. Second call night on surgery, and now that it's 1am, I'm tired after getting up at 3:30am. Patient presents to the ER with LRQ pain, almost certainly appendicitis. R2 decides to pimp my feeble brain, and asks me, "What is an indication for laparoscopic versus open appendectomy?"

And the first thing I blurt out: "Bilateral appendicitis!"

It's not as dumb as it sounds, I once knew a woman who used to have two appendices, on the left and right, and they both got inflamed and were removed at different times.

 

[DOtobe]

He was really agitated, telling WW2 stories and warning me not to touch his pecker because despite what happened in the Navy he was definitely not gay

I've had so many dumb moments, it's hard to remember any particular one...

 

[toofache32]

I've had so many dumb moments, it's hard to remember any particular one...

I think I know that feeling.....