Image: The Mindy Project/FOX.
Doctors are getting a little frustrated with the reasons people are turning up to emergency departments. If you’ve got a broken bone or you sliced yourself chopping food, by all means please head to your nearest hospital.
Got a paper cut? Maybe just make do with a band aid for now.
In a bid to prevent hypochondriacs rushing to the emergency department on a whim, doctors at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group have revealed the top 10 time-wasting “injuries” they see, including “splinters” and “sore throats”.
On that note, here are 10 other ridiculous reasons why people have attended the ER, as told by ER staff. And paper cuts are just the beginning…
“He had a pimple.”
“A dude came in really worried about this bump on his face. Turned out to be a pimple.” – rc1390
"They had sunburn."
"I was consulted once for cellulitis that covered most of the back, shoulders and arms of a patient. Went to see it and sure enough, redness and warmth. ED doc is convinced of infection. First thing I ask is if the patient had been in the sun at all recently, turns out he was working outside shirtless all day. Maybe something to mention when you were initially seen. Is a sunburn really a reason to rush to the ED?" - the_great_bambi
Diagnosis: Orgasm.
"I had a woman in her 30s show up in the ER (with her mother no less) because during sex she suddenly had a rushing sensation followed by muscle contractions and twitches on her whole body, from tongue to toe, she said. I didn't know what to say... congratulations on your first orgasm!?" - CoolUsernamesTaken
Watch: Ever wondered if it's possible to 'lose' a tampon inside your body? Dr Ginni Mansberg explains. (Post continues after video.)
"Her bed was uncomfortable."
"I had a patient take an ambulance into the Emergency room because her new mattress at the nursing home was uncomfortable." - ferretnoise
"She had a very shallow paper cut on her hand."
"I had a woman come in with a tiny shallow cut on her finger. She demanded to be seen and made such a huge fuss. I put a bandaid (although it did not even need that) on her cut." - hairheads
"They got shampoo in their eye."
"In the Emergency Department we overheard the paramedics saying someone called 000 to get a ride to the hospital via ambulance for getting shampoo in their eye." - comptonscatter
"They had a sore throat."
"I worked for a while in an inner city ED. Had a patient once who came in by ambulance with a sore throat. On questioning he had been to the out of hours GP (this was about 1am), the GP had diagnosed pharyngitis so sent them home with advice. Please note he had managed to drive himself to and from the hospital for this appointment. On asking what made him think he needed an ambulance to get him here not 60 minutes later, he said 'I wanted a second opinion and it's cold outside so I didn't want to drive.'" - Mnonni
" She had hiccups."
"When I was doing rotations, I worked in the Emergency ward. My grandmother would come to in with any little ailment, including the hiccups on one occasion. I explained to her that she needs to go to her normal GP for those kinds of things. The following week? Back in Emergency. The medical issue? A runny nose." - BongoMadness
"They had ear wax."
Medcait"Her toddler has a slightly sore thumb."
"I also used to work in hospital Emergency wards frequently. My favourite example of that was a woman who brought her toddler in because he slammed his finger in a door and it was still slightly red. The kid wasn't in pain and was obviously bored and getting into shit, so his mother started going off on me because a large portion of the medical staff was tending to a man who was coding and she happened to catch me. " - Nikcara
The lesson here? GPs can help with pretty much anything as long as it's not life-threatening. Simple, no?
Have you heard stories about people going to ER for non-emergency situations?