Patient chewed through their IV tubing instead of waiting to have it unhooked or rolling the pump to the bathroom with them

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Doc-in-a-box]

I’ve seen/heard of patients pulling out Foley catheters (bladder) with the bulb still inflated, and ripping out their endotracheal tube while dependent on a ventilator, but this one is a new one for me

[u/bodhi1990 → u/Doc-in-a-box]

Over a decade I have experienced all of those first hand on multiple occasions. This is a first

[u/champagne_pants → u/bodhi1990]

I don’t know why but my first thought was that you were a vet and a cat or dog did this. Knowing it was a human is so weird.

[u/icarusancalion → u/champagne_pants]

My first thought, too: "Is this a vet?"

[u/Odd_Worldliness_1686 → u/icarusancalion]

My first thought was that patient must have hit the call bell so many times and was ignored, finally said fuck it

[u/monkeychewtobacco → u/Odd_Worldliness_1686]

Yep have done this myself. Well, something similar. After asking many times over about 6 hours.

[u/SpicyWonderBread → u/monkeychewtobacco]

Same. During labor, they gave me a bolus of IV fluids to prep for the epidural, and then just vanished for 90 minutes. I was tethered to the bed with the fetal monitoring band. I called the nurses several times, one did pop in and say she'd help me in a minute but never came back. At the 90 minute mark from my first attempt to get a nurse in, I was in so much pain I couldn't wait. I ripped off the belly band and bolted to the bathroom with my IV stand.

Within seconds of pulling that off, my nurse came in and chastised me for removing it. What do you want from me? I'm pregnant with the bladder capacity of a squirrel, you pumped a liter of fluids in me, and just left for an hour and a half.

[u/Proper-Photograph-86 → u/SpicyWonderBread]

I peed the bed, screw it

[u/MLiOne → u/SpicyWonderBread]

Please tell me you chastised back!

[u/AmbitiousParty → u/SpicyWonderBread]

I had my son at an army hospital (both my husband and I were active duty at the time) and some army E-4 came in to take me off the IV antibiotics I was on. He removes the tube for the antibiotics but leaves the IV in but doesn’t seal it by turning the valve. So my blood starts to come up the tube and me knowing nothing about IVs at the time, this was my first, points to the blood snaking through the tube up my hand, and I say, “Is that right?” Stupid derp barely looks at it, grunts consent, and leaves. My blood starts pouring out onto the floor. Newborn baby in hand, I turn to my husband and say, “please go find a real nurse.” That’s when I learned what the valve did 🙄

That’s not even a top ten story of the horrors of army medical trauma I endured. Freaking derps.

[u/Majestic_Zebra_11 → u/monkeychewtobacco]

Me too; well I didn't chew through t but too t it self and wandered to find someone to help.

[u/badchad65 → u/Odd_Worldliness_1686]

Me too. How neglected do you have to feel to get to this point?

[u/Ghigs → u/badchad65]

One time I was left on a CT machine table for 30+ minutes. I was a few days post surgery, so it really, really, hurt jumping down off that thing (I guess it raises up after you lay down?), but I was sick of waiting for someone to come back while laying on that hard thing in pain.

I'm not even sure what they were doing. Waiting for someone to read the first scan in case I needed another? Either way it was far too long.

[u/ndottdot → u/Ghigs]

When I broke my pelvis, I guess there wasn’t a room ready for me yet. They left me in the hospital hallway for well over an hour, with no pain meds, alone, and crying. A few staff walked by and just ignored me. So dehumanizing

[u/FarplaneDragon → u/Odd_Worldliness_1686]

Yup, my mom did that once. They told her she was a fall risk and couldn't go to the bathroom in her room unattended even though physically she was more than capable. She tried to humor them and called for them multiple times at one point, 45 minutes later no one had showed so she said fuck it and just got up and went. Of course they finally show as shes coming out of the bathroom. Nurse apparently gave her an attitude about it which she threw right back at her.

[u/Last_Friday_Knight → u/Odd_Worldliness_1686]

Agreed, how long were they waiting? Maybe that unit needs better/more resources

[u/DonovanSarovir → u/Last_Friday_Knight]

Every unit needs more/better assistance, but it's in the hospital's best interest to employ minimum staff to make maximum money.

[u/Spellcamqin → u/DonovanSarovir]

That's the way America usually rolls if they live here. America's motto is "prioritize profit over people".

[u/SharkNecromancy → u/icarusancalion]

Same lol, my wife's a vet tech and her biggest joke every time she gets an IV is "I'm going to chew this off, shit on it and bleed everywhere." The nurse taped the whole thing up because of it lol

[u/Ok-Package4024 → u/champagne_pants]

King of rats

[u/UnicornSuffering → u/champagne_pants]

I thought the same thing! WHAT.

[u/No_Hat2875 → u/bodhi1990]

How long did this person have to wait, that this was their solution?

[u/bodhi1990 → u/No_Hat2875]

A little over 6 minutes our lights keep track. Not enough they became belligerent and were threatening staff after this they are now literally strapped to a bed on a different unit now so not my problem anymore

[u/WhiteRabbitLives → u/bodhi1990]

Did they have a mental health crisis that led to them deciding to chew the IV?

It’s very animalistic and very emotional minded.

[u/Chidori_Aoyama → u/WhiteRabbitLives]

Tip of the iceberg, things get very very weird in acute care with mental health patients, you're seeing them when they're at the absolute height of their pathology.

[u/Raoul_Dukes_Mayo → u/Chidori_Aoyama]

As someone with some complicated mental health issues my biggest fear is ending up in a hospital somewhere unable to tell them the meds I need and no one around who knows to help.

Pretty sure I might go feral.

ETA: you are all so loving with your amazing suggestions and have given me some great laughs with the jokes.

I’ve got a few new ideas to checkin to and see how long you can order scroll paper.

[u/Chidori_Aoyama → u/Raoul_Dukes_Mayo]

You might want to consider a medic alert bracelet in that case.

[u/DuntadaMan → u/WhiteRabbitLives]

There is such a thing as ICU psychosis. The pathology that lead a person there, lack of sleep and sensory overstimulation can temporarily break a person and completely change how their brain works until their surroundings change.

I have seen it in a few patients that were quite embarrassed about the whole ordeal and how they responded. They are basically not themselves until they can get some sleep and their body normalizes.

[u/ChampionshipFar2850 → u/bodhi1990]

Does a CVC count as well? I’ve seen a patient do that. Ripped the vein. Guy had to get surgery..

[u/Thisiswhoiam782 → u/ChampionshipFar2850]

Eek. Wtf.

[u/ThomasAltuve → u/ChampionshipFar2850]

I'm physically cringing at the thought of what that must have felt like. Oof.

[u/LittleDancinMan → u/bodhi1990]

One time I had a patient who was an old WWII vet that was admitted for pulling out his Foley. This guy was tough as nails but had a temper. At his nursing home, he would get frustrated with it because it would get in his way while he was ambulating, going to the bathroom, etc. One day he gets so angry he just yanks it out.

His urine looks like watered down ketchup. Tons of pain, surgery, bladder irrigation, the works. It's a long road to recovery but he endures. Ketchup pee turns to cherry Kool-Aid, and eventually to a light peach color. His hematuria is resolving, the end is in sight.

One day I'm walking him to the bathroom with his walker and catheter bag, and the catheter tube gets in the way of his foot a little bit. He goes "this goddam thing!" and grabs the tube of the catheter to yank it out. I just barely stop him and ask him if he really wants to live the last 2 weeks over again and he reluctantly calms down. A little later we are chatting and I ask him if he really would have pulled it out. He smiles to himself and says "Oh, I absolutely would have". Tough as nails.

[u/Thisiswhoiam782 → u/LittleDancinMan]

I don't know about tough. Stupid, yes. Stubborn, impulsive, and no emotional control- yes. Tough? Ehh.

Let's not glorify people who endure pain because they're fools.

[u/Mysterious_Chain_389 → u/Thisiswhoiam782]

Let’s not glorify idiots with no self control either.

[u/Orangeborange → u/bodhi1990]

Psych ward? Or just one of them normal ones? 😂

[u/Dirk_Speedwell → u/Orangeborange]

I was hoping they were a veterinarian.

[u/Raging-Badger → u/Orangeborange]

I’ve seen totally normal, alert and oriented, aware patients rip an IV out because it was in their elbow and it was inconvenient to keep their arm straight

I’ve seen someone rip the hub off the J-Loop so they could go to the bathroom without pulling the pole, then bleed all over their room since there was an open line directing into their vein. They didn’t call out to say they were bleeding until after they’d used the bathroom, washed their hands, and changed their clothes.

The psyche unit usually just wraps everything in kerlix so they can’t get to it and calls it a day. We trust these gremlins and I get to clean up pools of blood once a night as a result

[u/Peacock-Lover-89 → u/Raging-Badger]

My blood pressure was high during both of my pregnancies, but it was sliding toward danger when I had my first child. So they sent me to be induced. They hooked me up to everything and put the IV in my hand and the blood pressure cuff on the same arm. I think it was on the opposite arm at first, but it was moved for some reason. OMG, the first time it took my blood pressure(automatic machine) on the IV arm, I thought my hand was going to blow up. I don't know how I kept calm and didn't rip it out and waited for someone to come so I could tell them to move it back to the opposite arm. The only thing that felt worse, aside from labor, was when they first put in the IV and ran it at a high speed so it felt oddly cold. I shudder to imagine what it would have felt like if the cuff had been on that arm and constricted then. 

[u/SubZerox27 → u/Doc-in-a-box]

As someone currently using a Foley, I can't fathom the pain of ripping it out. I get that it can feel a bit uncomfortable but ripping it out would hurt like fuck and bleed like a bitch. People be crazy

[u/No-Ad-3635 → u/SubZerox27]

When I first became a NA, I was using a lift to transfer a patient from chair to bed and he had a foley in . Forgot to unhook it (the urine bag)from the chair .

It did not rip out but the scream from that poor man will stay with me forever . Thankfully he was ok but daymn years later and I still feel bad for the pecker

[u/UmChill → u/No-Ad-3635]

well.. i bet you never made the mistake again… so there’s that i guess. reading that did make me wince tho.

[u/Rare_Barracuda_3501 → u/No-Ad-3635]

Im laughing but damn, you should feel bad 😂

[u/champagne_pants → u/SubZerox27]

My father has hallucinations when given morphine and that’s when he pulled his out. I’d stepped out (thank fuck) and mom went to help him and apparently it was a horror show. It was in a hospital though, so help was nearby.

[u/smangela69 → u/SubZerox27]

nurse of 10 years here lol in those people’s defense, they’re usually confused and don’t understand what’s going on. they just know there is an unpleasant feeling and they want it gone

chewing through IV tubing is a new one though! you’d think rolling the IV pole with them would take less time and effort

[u/MediocreHope → u/smangela69]

People do some goddamn bizarre things. I was literally at death's door and I checked myself out of a hospital twice before they managed to surgery me up. I got no logical explanation why I did it, I currently know it is goddamn stupid of me but I did it, if I did it a third time I would be dead.

I was honestly dying and my brain was just "FUCK ALL THIS! I DON'T LIKE THIS!" and made me bail. I really don't remember the time but I could see how someone behaves in not their best medical interest when they are at their worst.

Never pulled out an IV, I did have my trach ripped out but the sitter did that....

[u/Shnackalicious → u/SubZerox27]

There’s a saline inflated balloon holding the catheter in your bladder. Imagine that inflated balloon ripping through your tiny urethra? 😣

[u/JadedLeafs → u/Doc-in-a-box]

Oh man... This made me wince so hard it was basically a twitch

[u/LoquatiousDigimon → u/Doc-in-a-box]

Do people tell them there's a bulb inflated? Maybe they don't know and they think it's just a tube.

[u/Optimal-Test6937 → u/LoquatiousDigimon]

I explained to my patients there is an inflated 'bubble' inside your bladder that keeps the catheter in place. If you accidentally tug on the tubing you WILL FEEL IT, so please make sure you take your Foley bag (I hold up the cath bag so the patient knows what I am talking about) with you at all times.

Do they hear me & understand me?? Hopefully. Do they remember what I said later?? Hopefully. The majority of people never self-remove their catheter so I would say it is pretty effective.

[u/MajorRico155 → u/Doc-in-a-box]

What the fuck. Catheter pain is actually so bad.

[u/Desert_dwellers → u/Doc-in-a-box]

My BF ripped out his NG tube once, he thought the nurse didn't place it correctly. I think he was right, but it was awful to watch him go through that.

[u/kapitaalH → u/Doc-in-a-box]

I have no idea what a Filey catheter is but I am experiencing intense pain in my genital area.

Please refrain from explaining to me further, do not link pictures and erase this from my brain please

[u/SierraTango501 → u/kapitaalH]

A foley catheter is a tube inserted into your penis with an inflatable balloon at one end (deflated prior to insertion obviously), that basically acts like a stent in your urethra and allows urine to drain into a collection bag. The balloon is inflated precisely to prevent the catheter from falling out.

[u/Paratwa → u/SierraTango501]

OMFG 🙀 what a day to be literate.

Do they scream while doing it? I could not be a nurse.

[u/kapitaalH → u/Paratwa]

I screamed while reading it

[u/T1NF01L → u/kapitaalH]

[u/Spiritually_Horny → u/T1NF01L]

[u/Doc-in-a-box → u/T1NF01L]

Oh God

[u/duskowl89 → u/Paratwa]

A good nurse uses benzocaine rub or something to gentle anesthetize for the spot and you have to kinda grab it a particular way for the urethra opening to work along the catheter. People with no peckers go a different method.

Then it stings as soon as it goes away and feels like a burning. For patients that are uh, unable to pee for whatever reason, it's absolutely painful for half an hour because it's like you uncloged a drain, then it's fine.

source: my dad has a Foley, he told me about the procedure and I had to go to the ER with him about his getting clogged.

[u/LeJohn333 → u/duskowl89]

Healthcare worker here. When I educate others in this procedure I emphasize how important it is to use numbing gel like lidocaine or similar AND to give it time to reach full effect. A proper insertion should practically be completely painless.

I have seenand heard of horrifying examples where others were not as careful and it always pisses me off

[u/Spartan_117_YJR → u/SierraTango501]

I am feeling immense shadow/phantom pain in my pp area and it is really really realistic

[u/bodhi1990 → u/kapitaalH]

That is a foley and when they self remove it that saline filled ballon gets pulled out through the urethra (pee hole)

[u/kapitaalH → u/bodhi1990]

Thank you. You read my comment and did exactly the opposite I asked for. I can only deduce that this is a failure of our education system or that you are a sadist.

You use big words, so I assume you are enjoying this right?

(/s)

[u/KnowledgeLocal894 → u/Doc-in-a-box]

I’ve had a patient chew through their arterial line then spray blood all over the room and get every more belligerent because we’re the reason they are bleeding out….

[u/Obsthrwaway → u/Doc-in-a-box]

My catheter was kinked after a baby and I was dyyyying. Finally nurse comes in… 2L idk how my bladder didn't explode

[u/TSS997]

Do you work at a vet?

[u/bodhi1990 → u/TSS997]

No not a vet, but I wish I would have went that route after working with humans

[u/SnowResponsible7638 → u/bodhi1990]

I just read an article about the crazy high rate of suicide among veterinarians, so maybe your better off. 

[u/apprentice-grower → u/SnowResponsible7638]

Nurses are right under vets for top suicides. Nurses usually aren’t spared from seeing children turned into meat crayons or worse either.

[u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce → u/apprentice-grower]

I work in an ER (security, not medical staff) and even I've seen some shit. And I've only been there for like a month.

[u/apprentice-grower → u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce]

I believe it. I have a friend who moved to Colorado to be a RN, her first week there, she had to treat (as much as possible)… a fella with a gunshot wound to the head. He didn’t make it. She saw brains in her first week. Brutal

[u/FuzzballLogic → u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce]

I fear you mean shit in both the literal AND figurative sense? Medical personnel probably gets used to it but I’d be throwing up multiple times during the job, methinks.

[u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce → u/FuzzballLogic]

Definitely both.

[u/mrducky80 → u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce]

Got a story already from a friend who is just first year out of med school

Someone came in with a paper? towel over one side of their face with "No bone" written on it.

It was a fucking "dead dove, do not eat" moment but completely and utterly fubar.

[u/DeathMetalPants → u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce]

I work in IT and I've seen more dead bodies than you would think. Funeral homes, nursing homes, and hospitals. I've seen some shit.

My funniest memory was when I walked into a room of dead bodies at a funeral home. I said, "oh excuse me!" and closed the door. Like they fucking cared lol.

[u/Violexsound → u/DeathMetalPants]

It doesn't cost a thing to be polite, ngl I'd probably do the same without thinking

[u/eggyal → u/SnowResponsible7638]

What's the reason for that? Emotional trauma / PTSD from dealing with sick animals, having to put them down etc?

Or because financially it's too stressful?

Or....?

[u/FriskyDingus1122 → u/eggyal]

I have a big long answer for this, but I'll try to put it in a nutshell:

Vets graduate with a shit ton of debt and make no money. If you thought human healthcare was bad, pet healthcare is worse. It's all corporate. So that's one huge factor; the other is that pet care is so expensive that most people can't afford the gold standard of care. So they either don't listen to us, or they're forced to decline care. So either way, we sometimes end up sending away pets that are still sick or suffering.

Also, people are really mean to their animals sometimes. And then they're really mean to us. All while making minimum wage, or sometimes a bit better.

[u/ArsenicArts → u/FriskyDingus1122]

All of this while adding that vet schools are INCREDIBLY competitive and that means that only highly driven people get in. People who are driven academically and called emotionally to the field.

Y'know, EXACTLY the kind of people who react very poorly to being sent out to bumfuck nowhere to put down treatable animals for people who don't listen and don't care, being overwhelmed with work while being paid almost nothing compared to the massive student loan debt, and being unable to keep decent assistants and office staff because that's a shit job (pay-wise and literally.)

Veterinary medicine is a modern tragedy. It's heartbreaking to watch.

Be kind to your vets, folks.

[u/OpusAtrumET → u/FriskyDingus1122]

Also you end up killing a lot of animals. Suffering or not, I'm sure it eats away at you.

[u/Thisiswhoiam782 → u/OpusAtrumET]

I hate the ones more where the patient is suffering and in agony and they WON'T let us humanely euthanize. That's cruelty.

Humane euthanasia isn't cruel, it's a gift. It's a peaceful, dignified death. People think that's the part that bothers us, but it isnt. It's the people who refuse treatment and take a suffering animal home, or the people who refuse to stop and their pet literally suffers to death. It's getting screamed at and told we don't care about animals when the person neglected their pet for weeks or months and is now angry it's going to cost them money.

[u/OpusAtrumET → u/Thisiswhoiam782]

Wow yeah I can totally understand that. People are the worst.

[u/Living_Bass5418 → u/eggyal]

I’ve heard it’s mostly from people who don’t want to actually help their animals. They’ll bring in sick dogs and then refuse treatment or they don’t want to put down a clearly suffering animal. It’s having the knowledge and ability to help but not being able to do so

[u/hellothuyou → u/bodhi1990]

You’d still be working with the humans that bring their pets in and they ain’t happy about being there either. I don’t miss it for that.

[u/Secure_Sentence2209 → u/bodhi1990]

You think animals come over alone?

[u/whitshmee → u/TSS997]

as someone who does i was like “this happens all the time wdym” until i realized it was probably a human🤣

[u/baabaablacksheep1111]

It's easily avoided if you've put the cone of shame.

[u/bodhi1990 → u/baabaablacksheep1111]

It’s frowned upon to put those on humans

[u/carlos_damgerous → u/bodhi1990]

Yeah well it’s frowned upon to chew through your fucking IV tube too, so you’d be even.

[u/Self_Reddicated → u/carlos_damgerous]

Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!

[u/Panthalassae → u/bodhi1990]

They make nice flower ones nowadays. They'll never complain when dressed in a giant daisy.

[u/kapitaalH → u/bodhi1990]

Only frowned? Not disallowed?

Bring on the cone!

[u/ronchee1 → u/kapitaalH]

[u/TestyCatv → u/baabaablacksheep1111]

Yup, if it works on pets it'll 100% work with a human who chews through an IV

[u/LostLi0n]

Someone had to shit badly, it seems, haha

[u/Equinsu-0cha → u/LostLi0n]

You can easily roll the whole setup in with you.  I took walks with it.

[u/L4rgo117 → u/Equinsu-0cha]

I learned to walk with an IV pole, don't naturally swing my arms when I walk decades later. IVs are definitely portable

[u/Equinsu-0cha → u/L4rgo117]

i had a couple iv bags and some monitoring stuff. never an issue. just hold it in the middle and walk.

[u/Cheap_Excitement3001 → u/Equinsu-0cha]

Sure, but you gotta unplug it and untangle things. If you wake up in a sick/injured fuge and have to shit and people aren't coming fast enough, I get the whole less logical option. Maybe it's plugged in a place that's hard for them to manage given their state too.

Spent a lot of time in the hospital with my kid. It can be very frustrating when you need help or assistance and it takes nurses forever to get there. I get why, but sometimes it feels kinda ridiculous. Maybe add another nurse to the schedule.

[u/Rion23 → u/Cheap_Excitement3001]

I did this once, I woke up and was still mildly sedated, had to pee so apparently I got up, took the IV out and went to the bathroom with an undesirable amount of blood following me.

[u/Solidknowledge → u/Cheap_Excitement3001]

It can be very frustrating when you need help or assistance and it takes nurses forever to get there.

I really hope your comment doesn't get buried. I spent a lot of time in the hospital with my elderly father as he was dying and became extremely agitated with the nursing staff for the same reason. We would ring for assistance time and time again and no one would come.

[u/AnarisBell → u/Solidknowledge]

I don't know a single nurse who wouldn't take a pay cut if it meant working at a place that actually staffed enough people so we could provide the standard of care we want to 🥺 it's not our fault; management sees that if they cut staffing down to the bare legal minimum, the nurses will still find a way to get "enough" done to prevent the worst incidents and it's more money in their pockets. Standards of care, safety, and staff and patient satisfaction don't matter as long as they aren't getting sued or shut down.

[u/flyingbugz → u/AnarisBell]

So much this. Medical staff, especially anyone in acute care, has their compassion taken advantage of grossly by their employers.

[u/Cheap_Excitement3001 → u/Solidknowledge]

Yup. Understaffed. Overworked.

[u/Ambitious_Wolf2539 → u/Cheap_Excitement3001]

*always*. it truly is astounding how simple things like scheduled meds can take hours to get done.

[u/Koomaster → u/Cheap_Excitement3001]

Hospitals are wildly understaffed.

Actually here with my mom in the hospital and it’s laughable the response times for nurses. I called over an hour ago that her IV was messed up and beeping. I eventually figured it out for myself. 🤷🏽‍♂️

I’ve helped her go to the bathroom 3x since I’ve been here. She’s mobile but needs help getting out of the hospital bed. They just let her piss herself yesterday while I couldn’t be here.

So yeah, sorry to OP, but if you have to go to the bathroom, you gotta go and patients can’t wait a half hour to an hour for that. So I’m with the patients here, pull that shit out, chew it off, then let staff deal with it afterwards.

[u/MaritMonkey → u/Koomaster]

My mom is a retired nurse and made sure to ask for a "purewick" as soon as they told her I wasn't allowed to help her to the bathroom.

I'm not sure if this is a bandaid/kleenex situation where that brand name would be recognized everywhere (she was in the same hospital network she worked at), but "external catheter" is a thing and it was freaking awesome, relatively speaking.

[u/DecoyOne]

Is your patient a cat?

[u/EmiliaFromLV → u/[deleted]]

Catgirl?

[u/SupportBudget5102 → u/EmiliaFromLV]

Instantaneously forgiven

[u/WidebodyPrincess]

I wonder how long she was at that for

[u/a-Snake-in-the-Grass]

I'm actually impressed. I find their determination commendable, if a bit insane.

[u/-Roxaaa → u/a-Snake-in-the-Grass]

yeah honestly i feel more impressed right now, those things are pretty sturdy too

[u/nancythethot → u/a-Snake-in-the-Grass]

This patient has clearly fully prepared for a Saw situation and is eager to put their practiced skills to use.

[u/swissie67]

This is absolutely wild. I have never heard of that kind of behavior before. You sometimes believe you can't be surprised anymore.

[u/cartercharles → u/swissie67]

It could be dementia. It's probably something sad more than bad

[u/r0ckthedice → u/cartercharles]

If I was going to guess DTs.

[u/Frogbone → u/cartercharles]

could be "left them immobilized and hooked up to a bunch of tubes until they're about to shit themselves" syndrome

[u/ObeseVegetable → u/cartercharles]

Or just waiting for 30+ minutes after they pressed the button and already had to go to the bathroom and they’re sick and tired and just want to go pee and “holy shit this tape won’t come off I guess I’ll bite it” instead of thinking about rolling the thing that might not be obvious could roll into a different room with them. 

[u/Southside_john → u/ObeseVegetable]

It’s more likely they are completely confused and have no idea where they are or why they’re there and didn’t come to the idea of biting an IV through any rational thought process

[u/puppsmcgee74]

For a brief while, my ex-father-in-law was married to this woman who was very cantankerous and a general pain in the ass. One evening she took herself to the ER to gain sympathy and attention from her adult children who were long over her shenanigans. Somehow I got wrangled into picking her up from the ER and she was highly disappointed upon seeing that it was me and not someone she could try to manipulate.

So, instead of waiting for the nurse to come remove her IV, she yanked it out of her arm herself and blood went flying everywhere. The nurse walked in about that time and was absolutely bewildered that someone would not only remove their own IV but would do so by angrily pulling it out of their own arm.

[u/slartyfartblaster999 → u/puppsmcgee74]

That really shouldn't surprise an ER nurse. That's coming up on a once a shift occurrence.

[u/Eli5678 → u/slartyfartblaster999]

Must've been a new nurse

[u/dumpling321 → u/puppsmcgee74]

I recently had a nurse tell me to remove my own IV

[u/puppsmcgee74 → u/dumpling321]

What the…

[u/BRAVOSNIPER1347]

I mean the amount of time ive spent waiting for the most absolutely basic in person hospital attention, i get it.

[u/Serupta → u/BRAVOSNIPER1347]

You either ask to go to the toilet like they want you to, by pressing the call light that is constantly beeping in the ward/wards and pissing -everyone- off including the staff its designed to get the attention of. Or you get up to walk your own ass to the toilet un-assisted and get the ever loving fuck chewed out of you by someone. Bonus points if you're hefting an entire can of fucking oxygen because even on less then 50% lung capacity you're still stronger than the nurse sent to 'assist' you -.-'

[u/MacBetty → u/Serupta]

bonus points if they want you to collect all your urine in the toilet hat but no one comes to empty it so it gets filled to overflowing

[u/ImWhy → u/BRAVOSNIPER1347]

Once coughed up blood all over myself and my sheets in a private hospital following nasal/sinus surgery, nurse came and took my gown + bedding and said they'd be back, 2 and a half hours later I was still laying there in my underwear with no bedding, no gown, freezing cold and having had pressed me call button multiple times had just given up, eventually got the strength to reach for my phone and message my partner to call the hospital for me to ask wtf was going on. Still took another 30 minutes for someone to come bring me bedding + a gown.

[u/aljaafrehjamal]

Been to the ER several times (Type 1 diabetic) and there were many times I was seconds away from doing the same thing. Being a diabetic with saline running through me, I often of course need to pee constantly and they will leave you sitting in the room by yourself hooked up for HOURS without checking on you. Its torture.

[u/FizziePixie → u/aljaafrehjamal]

I admittedly removed my own in a similar circumstance once because I was told I was being discharged and then was left for hours alone with no way to alert anyone, even after yelling. Sometimes they put you in a position where you can’t even get up and roll it on your own with the IV in. But I’ve had an IV every couple of weeks for years and know how to remove them. I can’t imagine chewing through one. lol

[u/aljaafrehjamal → u/FizziePixie]

I don’t understand how they can do shit like that. “The doctor will be back soon to discharge you” and literally takes 3 hours. It always happens like that. And the nurses are all standing around at the main desk just gossiping most of the time lol

[u/PauI_MuadDib → u/aljaafrehjamal]

I was in a car accident in highschool and brought to the ER. I was fine, no diagnostic imaging run, just a quick exam and then they said they're discharging me. +2 hours pass. I look around. Every other ER cubicle was empty, I was the only patient there. Staff was drinking coffee at their desks. Well, I told my dad I'm going, he said okay & went back to work and I got a ride home.

Later I get a frantic call from the hospital about me being a minor and not having the discharge papers signed lol I was like 15 so I was a little shit with no patience. No way was I waiting over 3 hours to sign a piece of paper. And they called at 8pm so who even knows when they noticed I was gone. I left at around 1pm.

[u/LaNague → u/aljaafrehjamal]

Idk about where you are, but i had to wait 2-3 hours once and the doctor simply just had someone dying from internal bleeding and had to try fix it. In my experience the doctors in the hospital usually care and dont just make you wait for no reason.

[u/Zestyclose_Quit7396 → u/aljaafrehjamal]

Been there.

I have a heart issue, which requires drinking otherwise excessive amounts of fluids to manage.

Got admitted for a medication reaction, and was put in a temporary room while they administered an antidote and observed, but it had no bathroom.

... a few hours later I was sent home wrapped in a damp blanket.

[u/ramanw150]

I was in the ed several months back. They forgot about me for several hours. Was in lots of pain and had to pee. So I got up screaming so I could pee in the pee bottle. Nurse came in and scolded me. I hit the button 10 or more times. Nobody came. However I consider it more then mildly infuriating.

[u/evange]

I'm guessing they needed the bathroom really bad but didn't know what they were supposed to do? Just because you know that they could roll the pump into the bathroom with them, doesn't mean they do.

[u/Little-Bit-Psycho → u/evange]

Yeah it was probably plugged into the wall on charge and they didn’t know they could unplug it. I’ve been in this situation and I couldn’t unscrew the IV one-handed and ended up pissing myself after trying to get help for 4 hours. Now I know I can roll it with me or as a last resort pull it out, but it’s scary when you don’t know anything about the equipment and don’t want to mess with it.

[u/Prize-Comment-8282 → u/Little-Bit-Psycho]

This is what happen to me. I was seconds away from either pulling the iv or just unplugging it

[u/GWOT-Geardo]

The hospital should hire more people to answer the nurse call button. Nobody likes sh**ing the bed. Patient care is abysmal nowadays. Hospitals are terribly understaffed. It always infuriates me to see a hospital that looks like an art museum built on a golf course that can't or won't hire enough staff. Everyone suffers.

[u/rexeditrex]

The unanswered question is how long were they hitting the call button until they got to this point?

[u/mister_electric → u/rexeditrex]

I once waited SIX HOURS to be discharged, and I removed my own IV (did not chew through it tho lol). I was just waiting to sign paperwork and to be decoupled from the IV. This was pre-COVID. It was infuriating.

I blame hospital admins (not the nurses), and it really did feel like I was being help captive and paying thousands of dollars for the privilege.

[u/Aendn → u/mister_electric]

I waited 3 hours after I was told it would be 5 minutes to see the doctor in ER before I just walked out the door. I never found anyone, I could have stolen the entire contents of the hospital on my way out it felt like. Was bizarre. I had already been admitted and everything.

[u/Yerawizzardarry → u/rexeditrex]

How to spot the person who has actually spent time in a hospital.

[u/DigbyChickenZone → u/rexeditrex]

This is my first thought as well, that they were desperate not malicious or stupid.

[u/lars2k1 → u/rexeditrex]

Being understaffed does not help the patients. It's sad. I used to work at an elderly caring home and it was a similar situation.

[u/Red_Dawn_2012 → u/rexeditrex]

I had to go to the hospital in a... not so rich country and I had to be put on an IV. They were coming back regularly to change it until... they just didn't. Eventually, my blood started to exit my body and get pushed up the tube. Call button presumably didn't work. I was too weak to get out of the bed. It was no bueno.

[u/Jesus_christ_savior → u/Red_Dawn_2012]

No bueno is the best response you could give to this.

[u/Rain_Zeros → u/rexeditrex]

My first thought, and I won't lie I've thought about ripping an IV out waiting for someone to show up. I don't blame this person even if chewing through it sounds stupid.

[u/metdear → u/rexeditrex]

This right here.

[u/AlterSack1973]

How long did he need to wait? Did he call for help, but Nobody came?

[u/DigbyChickenZone → u/AlterSack1973]

Also, how long does it take to bite through one of these? How long were they not being spoken to by the nurses?

[u/Caseyisweird]

My cousin did this 6 times the last time they had to lock him up and it wasn't, because he wanted to go to the bathroom, it's just because he thought it was poison, and then he proceeded to drink an entire saline bag like a fucking Gatorade because and I quote they weren't hydrating him fast enough. Hes better now but that just lives rent free in My head.

[u/UmChill → u/Caseyisweird]

I don’t know you, and I don’t know your cousin, but this will also now live rent free in my head. Also, I am sorry I laughed, but how can I not when you describe his actions with “he proceeded to drink an entire saline bag like a fucking Gatorade”

[u/Caseyisweird → u/UmChill]

You wanna hear the most ironic/inconic part? That's how the nurse explained it to us, because she could not process the fact that he'd actually done that. To be fair it was like 2am and she was just done 😂😂😂

[u/UmChill → u/Caseyisweird]

if thats her life i can imagine she would be done lol

[u/SignificantEarth814 → u/Caseyisweird]

Saline! Its What Cousins Crave!

[u/verucka-salt]

Psych eval STAT

[u/sonia72quebec → u/verucka-salt]

Some people have some sort of psychosis after an operation. I have seen a patient get up on his bed and put out his catheter. The day after, he was back to his nice, proper self with no memory of what happened.

[u/thepetoctopus → u/sonia72quebec]

I apparently just cried a lot lol

[u/murstl → u/thepetoctopus]

Gosh. Me too. I forgot to breath several times and sobbed the whole two hours under surveillance after surgery.

After another surgery there was a woman getting up and walking around in a delirium and they had to sedate her again. It was wild.

[u/holy_lasagne → u/sonia72quebec]

Yea when I was 7 I almost was trying to bite off a nurse's finger, and almost succeeded. I don't remember a thing.

[u/Broad_Afternoon_8578 → u/sonia72quebec]

I had a kidney removed as a young teen and I apparently woke up from anesthesia so confused and in so much pain, I was convinced I was gollum and was being tortured by orcs. I tried to fight the nurses in recovery so they had to use physical restraints.

I have no memory of this at all (I was talking a lot tho so that’s how they knew my psychosis thought process), but my mom told me it passed pretty quickly and the nurses told her it wasn’t uncommon. I wasn’t in restraints for long thankfully but I felt so bad once I heard what happened!

[u/hidden_below → u/sonia72quebec]

Me. I was that somebody. Tried to break out of ICU many times. Like… a lot… detaching anything I could… i don’t remember half of it tbh and feel really bad. (And I am talking psychosis cause the beliefs of evil nurses that wouldn’t let me leave was strong in my head)

I’m sorry for all the nurses that had to deal with my ass

[u/SeaGoat24 → u/verucka-salt]

Psych in most hospitals will tell you to f off unless they're a danger to themselves or others. I mean, there's a very good chance this is just one event of many that together would warrant a psych eval, but in isolation there's no way you could convince them this is urgent.

[u/ElectronicStock3590 → u/SeaGoat24]

It doesn’t seem urgent to me. People can be ornery, belligerent, etc. without needing a psychological evaluation for it.

[u/Fluffy-Pomegranate-8]

I'm not saying that I get it, but I kinda get it. I was hooked up to a monitor and pump that was plugged into the wall, nobody answered the bell so I ended up shitting into a plastic wash bowl

[u/margamort]

Had you told the patient how to go to the toilet with the IV?

[u/BadGirlCarrie]

I don’t blame the patient, waiting for a nurse to come while your about to burst is horrible, I’ve been in that position many times, holding bladder while listening to the nurses at their station talking about he said/ she said bullshit I’d do the same dam thing

[u/st0dad]

How tf long did they have to wait before they were willing to chew their way out to pee? 😅😅

[u/Nobanpls08]

If it was between that or having an accident I'm doing that.

[u/No-Animator-2969]

I know people are crazy and you can't realistically turn your back on some people for a moment, but wouldn't this reflect more on their caretakers than them?

they're maybe not operating with a full deck of cards at the moment being hospitalized - and they seem to have needed to go bad enough and long enough to chew through an IV tube.

not entirely sure id have shared this one

[u/Historical_Bend_2629]

This doesn’t seem infuriating, this seems desperate. Maybe infuriating because they weren’t getting proper medical care?

[u/FalseEdge3766]

I gotta say, I was hospitalized for 21 days and went though somewhere around 200 IV bags. Depending on the time of day it could be upwards of an hour (or more) before they came to unhook me, and they told me THEY had to do it. So I kind of get it tbh

[u/Starbase13_Cmdr]

I wonder how long they had to wait?

I was in the hospital recovering from surgery, and had "Post-Operative Urinary Retention". Which means I could not pee on my own - the muscles would NOT work. I had a saline drip going and every time it went empty, they gave me another.

I tried every hour for 3 hours, taking my pump with me... no luck. Things were getting intense, so I paged the nurse and asked for a catheter so I could relieve myself. She said "it will be a while before I can do that".

So, an hour later, I paged her again: "it will be a while before I can do that". This scene repeated itself every hour for 6 hours. She came in to tell me she was handing me off to the next shift and I begged her to help me - I was in agony.

She rolled her eyes, huffed out and came back with the catheter kit. I am convinced she was deliberately rough with the insertion, just to show me why I shouldn't bother nurses. After she drained 700 ml / 23.7 oz out of me, she said "Well, I guess you really had to go. I thought you were just being a big baby..." and walked out.

---

Moral of the story: find out the details before assuming the patient is an asshole.

[u/Solidknowledge → u/Starbase13_Cmdr]

I am convinced she was deliberately rough with the insertion, just to show me why I shouldn't bother nurses

This tracks with just about every nurse I've ever encountered in a hospital setting

[u/Agreeable_Pool_3684]

This patient REALLY needed a shit.

[u/GreenyTokes420]

I have ripped it out of my hand, not realizing how dramatic it would be. People do dumb shit when they are sick and in pain. I have epilepsy.

[u/other_half_of_elvis]

When I was in high school I woke up in the ICU after a car accident. I was terrified and had no idea why I was there. I made the very logical decision that before, when I wasn't in the hospital, I did not have these tubes in me. So removing them is the obvious first step toward getting the hell out of there. I pulled out both chest tubes that were sewn in, my IV, and my catheter. Surprisingly, I was not free to leave and the bastards tied my arms and legs down.

I tried another escape a few days later when I woke up in new surroundings, a pediatric room instead of ICU. Again I was terrified and wanted out so I tore away the ties on my arms and legs, got out of bed for the first time in a week, and started walking down the hall to get out. Luckily a kind and gentle nurse grabbed me and put me back in my room. But after that I had to have security or a family member with me 24x7.

[u/_pm_ur_tit_pics_pls_]

That patient might be a small rodent wearing human skin, that’s crazy. At least they didn’t pee on the floor.

[u/eccentric-Orange → u/_pm_ur_tit_pics_pls_]

*large rodent?

[u/SilverGirlSails → u/eccentric-Orange]

Rodents of unusual size?

[u/sinnsful]

Yes I kinda did this before. Sorry fellow nurses. My iv bag was empty and I kept pressing the button for the nurse to come to take it out so I could go pee. It wasn’t on rollers and I didn’t want to carry the physical bag with me because there was no where to set it in the bathroom besides where everyone leaves their urine samples. I didn’t take out the needle but whatever tf was attached to it. Started bleeding profusely. Ran to the front desk area and there my nurse was doing nothing 😭😂 Another nurse took it out for me and helped clean up. Sorry yall.

[u/EmmyWeeeb]

So exactly how long did they wait until they did this?

[u/91NA8]

Yeah the real issue is that the patient was probably there a few days and realized that it took over an hour just to get someone in to use the bathroom and was sick of the experience.

[u/Jesus_christ_savior → u/91NA8]

And rightfully so, I swear it is not solely me, waiting in bed for hours on end, only to get up and see the nurses gossiping about an 85 year old man in the next room.

[u/KaldaraFox]

I was recovering from POEM surgery and was 40 hours into NPO (what should have been about 16 hours) waiting for a test result that had been done an entire day earlier to catch up with my surgeon. I had one kidney gone and another failing (my piss was brown, what little I generated from the saline drip).

I warned staff more than once that my single remaining kidney was probably on the edge of failure and they simply ignored me.

Eventually I removed the port myself and walked out (former phlebotomist - not a tough thing to do right).

Sometimes you have to do what you have to do. I went and got some calories into me (food mushed up enough to pull through a straw) and moved on.

When I told the surgeon about it on my one-month-out status appointment, he apologized on behalf of the hospital and told me I'd done exactly the right thing. "If you don't take care of yourself, no one will," were his exact words.

[u/Fun_Client_6232]

The patient must have been waiting for too long of a time for someone to do their job and come and help them.

[u/Jesus_christ_savior → u/Fun_Client_6232]

Yeah watch OP reply with "irrelevant" for the millionth time instead of doing their job.

[u/double5j]

The nurse call button had probably been on for 3 hours

[u/ThatNoxPerson]

This is the most metal shit I've seen today.

[u/haubenmeise]

His dentist chuckling quietly.

[u/ThomasMaker]

The indignity of possibly pissing/shitting yourself does(depending on how long this person had already waited....) potentially justify this....

[u/LamboDegolio]

Have you ever waited to be discharged from the hospital? It can take like 10 hours; you’re alone in the room and someone comes in every 2.5 hours: “you’re still here…? Let me go check on that….”

I am a completely sane young professional, and waiting to be discharged had me wanting to chew through my IV.

[u/FreakinSweet86]

I was in hospital nearly 2 years ago. I was on an IV all throughout the three or four weeks I was in there.

There came a time I was in a room that was pretty small and the bed was a tight fit meaning you'd have to climb over the bed to get to the toilet. Thing was I had to wait for a nurse to unhook me every time I needed a piss since I couldn't wheel the IV around the bed. There were times I was dancing, busting to go. Honestly, I wish I just bit through the bastard IV and have done with it.