Although doctors tend to get all the glory, nurses are the unsung heroes of the medical profession. From cleaning patient in the ICU to administering lifesaving treatments, nurses make a difference that few people will ever truly appreciate. Of course, they also see some absolutely gross stuff. How gross? Well, read on to get find out, although we have to warn you – this one isn’t for the faint of heart.
Bugs in a beard
I was once treating a homeless man who had sustained a wound to his face when I noticed his beard seemed to be moving. On closer inspection, it turned out that his beard was filled with an assortment of bugs, both adult and larval.
Liquified fat
A few months after undergoing surgery to reset his broken leg, a patient returned to our ER complaining that the pain was getting worse. When we cut away the cast we discovered that an infection had set in, liquifying his adipose tissue (fat, in layman’s terms). The worst part was that this liquified fat was draining out of a wound.
A flattened hand
A man was brought by ambulance to the emergency room after getting his hand caught in a mechanical dye press while at work. The machine had crushed his hand for several minutes before his coworkers were able to turn it off, and three of his fingers were completely flat.
A rupturing colon
During one shift as a surgical nurse I was helping the surgeon remove a patient’s colon, which happened to be dramatically inflated. Things took a turn when the colon unexpectedly ruptured, covering the entire room – including us – in fecal matter.
Fake nail under an eyelid
A female patient checked herself into hospital complaining of persistent eye pain, and it didn’t take long to find the cause. The woman had somehow got a piece of fake acrylic nail under her eyelid, and it had been there so long it had started to fuse with her flesh.
A woman with sores over her entire body
I was once responsible for cleaning an elderly woman who had been brought to hospital after a family member had discovered her in a near-catatonic state. She hadn’t moved in so long that her entire body had become covered with infected sores.
An inside out baby
During one shift in the maternity ward, I saw a newborn baby that had been born with its stomach and intestines outside of its body. Astonishingly – and thanks to the quick work of the surgical team – the baby survived, and later made a full recovery.
A jet of pus
The grossest thing I ever saw in a hospital occurred while I was working as a surgical nurse. The surgeon was supposed to open up a woman who had a severe internal infection, and as soon as his scalpel pierced her abdomen a jet of pus and blood sprayed across the room.
Maggots in a throat
A man was rushed into the ER with severe breathing difficulties, so I helped the doctor perform a tracheotomy. As I’m suctioning the airway to keep it clean, I initially thought that the man had inhaled rice. Much to my horror, however, I quickly realized that I was suctioning maggots of his throat.
A protruding eyeball
During one memorable shift, I attended to a woman whose eyeball had popped out of its socket after she’d sneezed. Perhaps not the grossest thing I’ve ever seen, but certainly the most shocking. The woman’s eye was successfully returned to its socket, and she didn’t suffer any longterm effects.
A leg that should have been amputated
The grossest and saddest moments of my nursing career came at the time, when I treated an elderly woman with a severely gangrenous leg. Her family hadn’t approved her amputation (she wasn’t compos mentis), which meant the infection spread into her blood stream, quickly killing her.
A bra removed from intestines
During one of my stints as a surgical nurse I saw an entire bra removed from a woman’s intestines. The woman had eaten the entire bra whilst in the midst of a psychotic break, and it was apparently made out of materials that her stomach couldn’t digest.
Completely obliterated face
I worked as a nurse in a naval hospital for a while, and during one shift a young man was rushed in with extremely severe wounds. He’d been hit by a recoiling M777 Howitzer artillery gun, which had completely obliterated his entire face.
Brain matter falling out
I was taking care of a farmer who’d been struck in the head by one of the spinning discs on a mechanical tiller, which had cracked his skull and caused some brain damage. At one point I was helping him sit up in bed when the bandage slipped and a small piece of brain matter fell out of his head onto the pillow.
A bag full of toes
I was once on shift when a man came into the ER with a bloody, bandaged foot and a bag full of ice. He’d been mowing the lawn when his foot got caught under the mower, and the bag was full of his toes.
Eating feces
We deal with a lot of patients who are experiencing mental health crises, and these often result in some shocking behaviors. By far the grossest, however, was a severely psychotic woman who kept eating her own feces whenever she was left unattended for more than a few minutes.
Tarantula hairs in an eyeball
We once treated a young boy who had been looking at his brother’s pet tarantula when it shot its hairs upwards in self-defense. Many of these hairs had become lodged in the boy’s eyeballs, although the attending surgeon was able to save his sight.
14 pounds of infected flesh
The grossest moment in my career came when I treated a man who hadn’t realized he’d stepped on a nail because he had diabetic neuropathy. Infection had quickly set in, and we ended up having to cut away 14 pounds of flesh.
Severely ulcerated legs
Like all nurses, I’ve developed a strong stomach over the course of my career, but this one still brought me close to vomiting. A patient checked himself in to hospital with severely ulcerated legs, which he’d been trying to treat himself. He’d left it so long that his flesh was rotting, and the smell was truly out of this world.
Sneezed out intestines
I once had to give emergency treatment to a patient who’d had a hernia so severe that his entire abdomen ruptured when he sneezed. His intestines quite literally fell out, although – thanks to the remarkable work of the surgeons – he survived the incident.
Dentures that had been left in for months
It’s vitally important to take dentures out every single day so that they can be cleaned, but older people with memory problems often forget. We once treated a woman who hadn’t removed her dentures in months. This had resulted in the worst gum infection I’ve ever seen, and the smell was revolting.
A woman sticking her fingers in a stab wound
I treated a woman who had been stabbed a number of times in a fight, although the wounds weren’t near any vital organs. The patient was clearly in shock, and she kept inserting her finger into the holes inflicted by the knife.
Extreme foot fungus
An elderly man checked himself into hospital complaining of foot pain, which isn’t exactly uncommon for patients his age. However, when we got his socks off we discovered that he had a fungal infection which was so severe you could barely see his feet.
A mummified finger
I treated a man who had tightly wrapped his finger in bandages after cutting himself, and then left the bandages there for weeks. When we unwrapped them the finger was basically mummified, and it had to be amputated the same day.
Cockroaches in a wound
I was on shift in the ER when an unconscious young woman was brought in. We quickly worked out that she’d been the victim of a hit and run, and as we were treating her injuries several cockroaches crawled out of a deep laceration on her leg.
A man who’d sat in a fire pit
A man was rushed into our ward after drunkenly sitting on a fire pit, and I was responsible for pulling bits of charcoal out of his rear end. There was also a lot of dead skin, which sloughed off over the next few days.