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The Compendium of Horrible Occurrences *Warning - Disturbing content*

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  • #16
    It's not so much the work that I find difficult, but the family and their reaction. Obviously I don't enjoy resuscitating 3 year olds but the cries of his mother will haunt me to my grave. I remember ever reaction having passed a death message - the very worst part of the job.
    A PSA, if I may, as well as another.

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    • #17
      Quoth Flying Grype View Post
      He was at death's door with repeated urinary tract blockages, but once we got him stable long enough we had him neutered and ... fingers crossed, but he's gone a considerable number of weeks without a problem now. He's in a foster home and is feeling well enough to take up crossword puzzles (the cat way -- lying on top of the puzzles while people try to complete them).
      Poor guy! I'm glad he's feeling better. We lost our childhood kitty to the same problem when I was a kid, so this story resonates.

      I'm not a mod, so it's not up to me, but I see no reason why non-human patient care stories can't be shared here with the same caveat for human patients: no veterinary advice should be given. If someone has a sick furbaby, get thee to the vet!

      Quoth crazylegs View Post
      It's not so much the work that I find difficult, but the family and their reaction. Obviously I don't enjoy resuscitating 3 year olds but the cries of his mother will haunt me to my grave. I remember ever reaction having passed a death message - the very worst part of the job.
      It's never easy, no matter the age or condition of the patient. Some families handle it better than others, especially if the death is expected. Sometimes it's even a relief. I had a hospice death call like that the other night. Family was sad, yet glad the suffering was over.
      They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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      • #18
        Quoth crazylegs View Post
        I remember ever reaction having passed a death message - the very worst part of the job.
        Quoth Sapphire Silk View Post
        Sometimes it's even a relief. I had a hospice death call like that the other night. Family was sad, yet glad the suffering was over.
        Three of my family's deaths have been reliefs. I'd even say three and a half.

        Yes, I want my Nan back. But I want the Nan from the early '70s, when she was still active and alive and dancing. The Nan from the late '90s/early '00s was old and bedridden and in pain.

        Granddad - much the same as Nan. Old and bedridden and in pain, it was time to go.

        Auntie V was old - not as old as Nan, but still old - when she got cancer. Once it became obvious to the rest of us that she wasn't going to recover, we were just .. waiting. And hoping it'd come soon.

        L, however, died too young. But it was cancer, it was incurable, and the palliative care team could offer only relief, not peace.


        In all those cases, the death news was good news. If, by some magic, I could have young-Nan back? Then HELL YES! But I can't, it'll never happen. And she was ready. Let her go.
        Seshat's self-help guide:
        1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
        2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
        3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
        4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

        "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

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        • #19
          Quoth Flying Grype View Post
          I volunteer in animal rescue, can I post here too when I need it? I know eventually I'll have some horror stories, they just haven't happened on my watch yet.
          Certainly!

          I spent 2 1/2 years as an emergency vet tech. We were open when the regular vets were closed. Seeing what some people did to their "pets" was just as horrifying to me as what some of y'all have witnessed done to children.

          --The collar and chain left on the puppy out in the back yard until the puppy outgrew the collar...but the collar was never let out, and cut through the pup's neck, so the wound got infected, and maggot-infested.

          --the cat that had been sexually used by a teen-aged male.
          --the dog that was brought in to be put down because "She swelled up overnight" (GI torsion aka "Bloat"). She turned out to be extremely pregnant and was due to have her litter any day! But her people didn't pay enough attention to her to notice her getting fatter, and then ddin't want to take her home.
          --the countless number of dogs that had been fed illicit or prescription drugs, or alcohol, "because it would be funny to see how they acted stoned."

          And yes, talking about it really does help relieve some of the stress!
          Everything will be ok in the end. If it's not ok, it's not the end.

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          • #20
            Granted, I am just a Biomedical tech(I fix medical devices), but I have seen a few myself.
            *the adorable and sweet 2 year old girl who had pulled a pot of boiling oil down on herself when trying to help mommy in the kitchen. She would smile at you while they were debriding the burns over 75% of her tiny body.

            * The teenaged boy who attempted suicide via his father's 12 gauge and blew the front of his head off, but managed to live. Two skull plates and a skin graft later, when he finally went home, he sliced both of his wrists and bled out while he slept.

            *Last one actually kinda ended on a good note. The 6 year old girl, involved in a traffic accident, brought in by ambulance, as she had been ejected from the vehicle. Everyone else involved in the accident, both her parents and her older and younger brothers, and the driver of the other car, died that day on the road. She was ejected and flew about 25 feet to land in a freshly tilled field. She had some minor bruising and some abrasions, and that was all... Lives with her Aunt and Uncle and is in her last year of High School now.
            ~LSTYD~
            Quote: Dalesys:
            you may want to take a census of your brain squirrels... maybe one escaped?

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            • #21
              Jane Doe had a broken arm, in a cast, when she was admitted.

              Jane Doe was a year old, or so they estimated from the x-rays. They would have asked the parents but they weren't there, and as of this writing have yet to appear. As the emt's explained, they were responding to an accident when a woman approached, handed them the girl and said she wasn't breathing, then sprinted away into the crowd and vanished.

              In addition to the broken arm, Jane Doe had visible dents in her skull where she had been beaten with what was guessed to be a hammer. That was why she wasn't breathing.

              Jane Doe remains in the hospital, alone.

              Edit: Exciting news! It has nothing to do with Jane Doe, but results have come back on a seven-month-old girl who was brought into the hospital a couple of weeks ago after she was discovered dead, being eaten by cockroaches. She was not, thank heavens, beaten to death. She just died, and God alone knows why. I'm so glad we cleared that up.
              Last edited by Antisocial_Worker; 08-27-2013, 04:25 AM.
              Drive it like it's a county car.

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              • #22
                I've spent the past few months collecting new horrible occurrences. I'm not happy about it.

                Working with the kid that I usually work with, I've had to explain to him what it means that someone called him the n-word. At the animal shelter where we volunteer to help him overcome his fear of dogs, I've had to explain why someone would deliberately attempt to starve a dog to death, and that the reason that other dog is afraid of people is because someone tried to hang it. I've also had to explain that the reason that cat is partially paralyzed is because someone couldn't be bothered to slow down as they were driving past and hurled it out the window.

                Meanwhile, today at church a letter was read to the congregation thanking us for pooling our money to provide a Christmas party and presents for the students at a special high school that works with the most poverty-stricken youth in my city. The letter went on at some length about the special dinner that was arranged at one of the finest restaurants in town, and what bothered me about that part of the letter was the fact that it stated how it had to be explained to the students that the food was theirs to eat. It was not going to be taken away, and there was going to be enough for everyone, and therefore no need for anyone to bolt it down, fight over it, or hoard it.

                This shit, none of it, should be happening in a civilized country.
                Drive it like it's a county car.

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                • #23
                  At least he has you to explain these things to him as gently as possible.

                  I believe people are not born knowing how to love, be kind and compassionate, have mercy or empathy. You have to be taught these things, and if you are not, you can become the kind of person who hurts animals and children. Unfortunately this becomes a cycle where people who don't know how to love have children who are not taught how to love etc.

                  Which is where people like you come in. If you can break this cycle for just one kid, you'll have done a miraculous thing.
                  https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

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                  • #24
                    The stories about kids and animals are always the worst. Those are the ones where the victims have no way of defending themselves, and they are often done by the very persons the victims should be able to trust. The feelings those bring up in me remind me why I should never become a cop, or any sort of authority in first contact situations.

                    Not a medical person of any sort, but I still have a story. My parent's driveway is on a nasty bit of road in the country, where the road twists and dips oddly, and can surprise you if you don't know the road. They have several wrecks there every year, but usually nothing worse than a car in the deep ditch or a mailbox meeting a sudden, violent end.

                    One day, we were leaving their place, and found a car wrapped around an oak tree a full three feet thick. The crash had ripped the engine completely off of the car, and it was sitting fifteen feet away. The driver was still inside, the seat belt had broken and he was draped over the back seat of the remains of his hatchback. I sent my mom back up to the house to call the rescue squad, leaving me to do what I could. I didn't dare touch him at all, as I had no doubt that there were spinal injuries. Blood was everywhere, and the bubbling of it out of his nose was the only way I could be sure he was still breathing. All I could do was talk to his unconscious body while waiting for the response team to show up.

                    To get him out safely, I think every volunteer on the rescue squad showed up. They closed the road, and peeled the remains of his car like a grape before they dared move him. It took over an hour to even get him into the ambulance.

                    There was a bit of good end to mine. The fellow survived, even though it took months of immobilization and surgery. When he came home from the hospital, his family invited everyone involved, the rescue squad, fire department, myself, and even the tow truck drivers who pulled his car out of the woods. He was a young-ish guy, and he'll never walk very well again, but lived to make a go of it.
                    The Rich keep getting richer because they keep doing what it was that made them rich. Ditto the Poor.
                    "Hy kan tell dey is schmot qvestions, dey is makink my head hurt."
                    Hoc spatio locantur.

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                    • #25
                      Quoth Geek King View Post
                      To get him out safely, I think every volunteer on the rescue squad showed up. They closed the road, and peeled the remains of his car like a grape before they dared move him. It took over an hour to even get him into the ambulance.
                      (Warning - Graphic, sorry.)

                      Yep, something similar on my road, except my husband found the guy who tried to wrap his car in the tree. He couldn't get 911 on our cell reception enough to call it, but he could get just enough to call me. I ran over to my parents who were reserve deputies for the county. Mom and I jumped in the truck, went right down the road a wee bit and found out who it was. Mom told me exactly what to say on the police radio to Central and it wasn't but 5 minutes and a first responder was out there.

                      I saw the car, but neither my mom or my hubby would let me closer. It wasn't pretty. There was a tree trunk where the motor block should have been.. and branches stuck through the front windshield. From descriptions from hubs and Mom, the guy was very much drunk (and in shock). He had a branch (twig sized) pierce one of his eyes and the steering wheel was trying to become one with his chest. He was very much aware and babbling not to call for help (aka the police) which of course, was ignored. He also tried to make a pass at Mom, but given how he was wedged, he didn't get more than one arm moving.. a little.

                      Hubby took me home once the first responder showed up, but from what Mom said, (she had me move the truck to the end of the road closest to our drive and throw on her blue lights before I left) that it took them a good half hour to get the door off and another to hour to pry him out of the car.

                      Looked like he was drunk driving as usual, hit the hill from hell (it's a small hill, sharp rise up, sharp down with a turn at the end,) and didn't make the turn. He was a 2 minute walk from his home when he had the wreck. From what Mom found out later, his blood alcohol level was well past the legal limit, so not all that booze smell (and I could smell it from the truck!) was from the cans that exploded on impact. While it probably caused the wreck, it also saved his life. He lost an eye, had a lot of broken ribs, a shattered shoulder and I think broken legs.. And he's still a drunk, the idiot.
                      If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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                      • #26
                        I work at a veterinary hospital and have seen a few horrifying things with animals.

                        *Dog who was brought in DOA. She had been sick for a long time and wasn't taken care of. You could see her ribs. We ended up calling the humane society.

                        * Not a terrible terrible thing, but we recently had someone leave a box of kittens outside our door with cat supplies. Luckily we found homes for them.

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                        • #27
                          Quoth Sunsetsky View Post
                          * Not a terrible terrible thing, but we recently had someone leave a box of kittens outside our door with cat supplies. Luckily we found homes for them.
                          That happened to a friend of mine who's a vet. It upset her; the kittens were old enough to wander off and could have gotten lost, or could have been attacked by another animal while sitting there unattended.
                          They say that God only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, God thinks I'm a bad ass.

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                          • #28
                            The worst that I've personally seen is pretty mild by comparison: maltese terriers or maltese crosses with untended coats.

                            I helped shear the main part of the coat off these poor dogs (the tricky parts - paws, faces, base of the tail, crotch and 'underarm' - we would leave to the vets/vet techs/groomers). The condition of their skin was horrendous, and you could smell the skin-rot. I never got one with active gangrene, thank the gods, but the staff would always come and check on the dogs when we were finished.

                            Some of them got a betadine bath. All of them needed skin care.


                            At this time I was volunteering for a small shelter; basically a stopover/overflow shelter for the RSPCA's main shelter in my city. Anything serious or urgent went straight to the main shelter, other cases could be tended to at our site and saw a vet once or twice a week depending on the need. The staff were animal rescue personnel or vet techs or both: capable enough, just desperately overworked.
                            Seshat's self-help guide:
                            1. Would you rather be right, or get the result you want?
                            2. If you're consistently getting results you don't want, change what you do.
                            3. Deal with the situation you have now, however it occurred.
                            4. Accept the consequences of your decisions.

                            "All I want is a pretty girl, a decent meal, and the right to shoot lightning at fools." - Anders, Dragon Age.

                            Comment

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