Unless you work in healthcare, you probably don’t enjoy walking through the doors of a hospital. We’re usually there for a not-so-great reason, whether we’re sick or injured, or someone we love is sick and injured, so you know…not the greatest memories and feelings.
That said, there’s normal hospital anxiety and then there’s the sort of terror that comes when you see, hear, or otherwise experience trauma you just weren’t prepared for – and those are the types of stories these 12 people have to share.
12. I’m going with both are scary.
In the ER and was given an IV push for pain and left alone in a treatment room. I had a bad reaction to the medication (found out later, I can’t have any form of opiates, real or synthetic, as I have a bad reaction.) In short, I tripped my fucking ASS off, while bleeding heavily, and whatever they gave me seriously slowed my HR and my BP tanked.
I’m not sure what was more terrifying: being fully conscious and aware in a body that is slowly shutting down, or being convinced there’s a 7 foot tall shadow demon standing at the foot of your bed to take you to Hell when it’s over.
11. Horrible beyond words.
Hearing the Dr say, “there is nothing we can do to save her.” And then looking over and seeing tears coming out of my Mom’s eyes. She was intubated.
Knowing she could hear everything but couldn’t respond to us is something I still struggle with. Shit, her death is something I still struggle with.
I love her and wish she didn’t have to go the way she did.
May not be “scary” but knowing I would no longer have my mother anymore was pretty terrifying to me.
10. Some things you don’t want to overhear.
I don’t know if it’s terrifying but I was in the hospital 2 times because of liver problems and one because of a broken leg. This didn’t happened to me but to the persons in the bed next to me.
English is not my first language sorry if it’s not descriptive enough.
First one I heard that the guy went to the hospital because a urinary infection, it got so bad that the operated him and remove part of the scrotum, and the nurse had to clean the area 2 times a week, one with general anesthesia, he got put to sleep and the nurse worked on him the second time with local anesthesia, I never saw him because of the courtain but it sounded like they where working with sandpaper on a piece of wood nad the screams made me lose my sleep for that night, now if I see or feel anything weird down there I got straight to the doctor.
Other time an older men that the doctor just removed part of his foot, he had diabetic foot, and it was the second time, the first time they removed a part but it seems that he didn’t take care of himself so the infection continued, this wasn’t as terrifying but when I was there because of the broken foot I saw a lot of people with diabetics and most of them didn’t took care of themselves, the husband of one woman was smuggling her candies and 2 times the nurse had to inyect her with insulin because the sugar spiked on her blood.
The last one was just a couple crying outside a room their daughter just died, never knew the reason, it was at night, I tried to sleep but when I opened the eyes they where still there sobbing and hugging each other.
9. That is so not right.
my friend broke her hip in 9 places (and a lot of other bones, but that is irrelevant to the story) she was getting prepped for surgery and a surgeon in training rolled her onto the hip that she shattered. all her body weight went straight into her hip.
my friend screamed in agony and ended up seizing due to the extreme pain. that surgeon did not operate on her.
8. I hate stories of kids in the hospital!
My first memory, (it’s pretty vague) is from when I was four. I got appendicitis and needed intimidate surgery as my appendix was about an hour away from bursting. I didn’t understand all of this at the time, but from the perspective of four year old me I was even more terrified then I would have been if I did understand.
I remember my mom taking me to the ER, luckily it was fairly empty and we saw the doctor in about 30 minutes. The doctors said nothing was wrong and I probably had food poisoning. My mom told them to do a scan and they finally agreed. The scan was terrifying, and because I was so scared and wouldn’t stop moving I had to be strapped down which of course made it worse.
By the time the scan was done my grandparents and brother had arrived and were in the waiting room. From then I just remember them putting me on one of those bed things and rushing me to the operating room. We passed my family on the way and I could see my grandfather crying which I had never seen before, (and haven’t since) and so I knew this was bad. My mom was able to fallow me to the door of the operating room. For probably ten seconds after she let go of my hand I was reaching out to her screaming for help and we were both crying. Then one of the doctors put her hand on my shoulder and gently lied me down and I fell asleep.
I don’t remember anything after that, but it’s still one of my worst memories to date.
7. Not the best memory.
It wasn’t terrifying but the most awful thing I’ve ever felt.
I had a drain put in after having my gallbladder removed and the next day the nurse came in to take it.
That things was in there about 6/7 inches, right up into my stomach and she just slowly pulled it out.
Oh a still shudder thinking about it.
6. Oh my god.
When I was about 12 I was in the ER for some dumb little ingrown nail removal or something and we were waiting for the doctor a really long time.
While we were waiting there were these, like, anguished screams coming from some other part of the building, it lasted a long time and I remember my mom suggesting it might’ve been someone on drugs.
The removal happened and we were walking down the hallway to be released and I saw the mom and brother of one of my good friends in middle school; they seemed really upset so we walked up and asked if they were ok.
Turns out those anguished screams we had been hearing were from my friend who had accidentally fallen into a campfire while chasing his younger sister around. He lived but he had to have skin grafts over a huge portion of his body. It was awful.
5. Anything that messes with our brains is scary.
I had hepatic encephalopathy. Which means I was basically insane due to ammonia buildup in my brain. I couldn’t make coherent sentences. I didn’t know who I was or my wife was. I did compliment her by saying she was a hot nurse, though.
Surprisingly, that’s not the worst part. The most terrifying part happened as I started to get some of my memory back. I kept thinking I was saying I had 5 kids (which is true) but my mouth was saying I had 6 kids. To which my wife was responding, “no you have 5 kids” and my brain heard “no you have 4 kids”.
So for about an hour I was panicking because I thought one of my kids didn’t exist or ceased to exist or something. I wasn’t exactly rational. But it was terrifying and as I continued to get better I would make sure we had the right number of kids, would repeat their names and their birthdays.
4. She should have said thank you.
I’ve been through a lot as a patient; there’s more than a few comments here I can relate to. Honestly the most scary thing that ever happened to me in a hospital was a nurse bringing me medication in a cup and plunking it down demanding I take it. It’s your Flagyl, she told me. I don’t take that, I responded.
She was instantly annoyed: if your doctor ordered it, he wants you to take it. I asked what condition it was prescribed for. She insisted I had to take it RIGHT NOW. I told her I wasn’t taking it without knowing the reason it was prescribed, and I would be happy to wait until she was able to look that up for me in my chart.
She made a huge show of being furious that she had to do this, looked up my record on the computer in my room, said not a single word and snatched it back off my tray table before stomping out in a huff.
3. A different sort of scary.
Not really “terrifying” but it could have been bad, but a few years ago I had to go into the hospital because I injured my hand. I thought it was broke (thankfully it wasn’t), but I was there for several hours. What was terrifying about it was the hospital was completely packed, in fact I couldn’t even get a room or office.
I was treated in the hallway, and as I was waiting (they put chairs out there for all of us “extras”), I saw some of the local EMT’s hanging out. I got to chatting with some of them, and I found out they were stuck there too. I asked why. It was because the hospital was so full they ran out of beds and they needed the gurneys, and they couldn’t leave until they got one back. I asked them what would happen if there was an emergency and they needed to transport a patient now?
They hung their heads, just replying, “let’s not hope it comes to that” because they had no gurney for them.
Worse comes to worse they’d have to call another city to see if they had some, which would increase their wait time for pickup.
The horror of seeing the budget cuts and the overcrowding situation in the hospital was sad, and frightening. I was glad for my own sake that I was able to get out (relatively) quickly (well, at least outpatient) and didn’t have to stay there overnight on a chair or gurney at the possible expense of someone else possibly not getting the chance to be transported because they couldn’t. That was scary to think about, apparently it happens a lot in my area.
2. This broke my heart.
I was in the ER for mental health stuff. (psych ward full, aussies can relate) at about 2am an older man was brought in with cops in tow, who had apparently just escaped being raped for TWELVE HOURS by his supposed close friend.
I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on this obviously very sensitive conversation, but he was (understandably) wailing loudly; bellowing in pain and emotional anguish in an otherwise pretty quiet hospital, and was in the bed directly across from me. From what I heard his rapist and a couple of other people just kicked down his door while he was chilling at home.
I didn’t get many other details, nor would I want to, but I always wonder about the motive a “friend” could have to do such a thing. It’s crossed my mind that it was a hate crime after finding out (the victim) was a drag queen. drag was mentioned because the poor fellow had his make up on still, mascara running black rivers down his scrunched, red face. It was probably the most depressing thing I have ever witnessed personally.
1. I hope this person is ok now.
I spent some time in a psych ward as a kid. It was a bad place and pretty abusive. One of the staff members broke another kids arm and I remember hearing the boy screaming as it happened and afterwards.
It was scary especially because we had no agency between being kids and psych patients so the staff had total control.
Wow. You just never know what you’re going to experience in hospitals, I suppose.
Do you have a story like this? If so, share it with us in the comments.
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