12 Doctors Reveal The Stupidest Things Patients Have Come In For

As if being a doctor wasn't challenging enough, those who accept the call to work in emergency medicine often have it about as hard as it gets. We're already talking about a high-stress job that can mean the difference between life and death, but add in the crowding common in emergency rooms and the unpredictable hours, and we've got a situation many of us really don't want to be in.

Still, it's perfect for someone who's always looking for new challenges because people have a way of injuring themselves in ways some of us couldn't imagine. Of course, some of those cases are going to be more serious than others. It's natural to be worried when it feels like something is wrong, but in some cases, it seems like some folks expect doctors to be the make-everything-better fairy.

Naturally, we'd want to hear about some of the worst offenders here, and some doctors were more than happy to satisfy our curiosity by sharing their stories on reddit. Today, we're going to look at 12 of the craziest ones.

Be sure to SHARE this and help your friends feel a little better about their most panicky moments.

1. One patient dealt with a year of "electric shocks" before learning what static electricity is.

Apparently, his work suit and rubber-soled shoes kept giving him little jolts, so the doctor recommended changing his shoes. This didn't seem to satisfy the patient, who asked why the doctor couldn't treat his condition.

As the doc put it, "Unfortunately I have no power to change the laws of physics"

2. One ER doctor had a patient come because his sleep was of "poor quality."

Not only is this not an emergency, but he only seemed concerned after an app on his iPhone told him this.

3. A well-dressed man came in at three in the morning to ask the impossible.

In the man's words, "I was at a wedding and it occurred to me that my son is a little short. Can you give him something right now to make him taller?"

Doctors will hear pretty much everything, but surely that has to be a new one. 

4. One woman called 911 to report a murder and was about as mistaken as you can get.

When EMTs responded, they found out the "victim" was actually a log with a jacket over it, and the woman was very drunk.

While this was a whole lot of nothing, sometimes you can have a real emergency for the dumbest reason possible.

5. One patient came in with a pitchfork embedded in his thigh.

How did that happen?

He and his friend were using their skateboards to joust with them. 

6. One patient called an emergency surgeon because her daughter's farts smelled too bad.

Somehow, the doctor was apparently able to keep a straight face through the whole thing.

7. It seemed nobody wanted to deal with one teenaged girl's problem.

An OB-GYN examined her for vaginal bleeding and discovered she was only having her first period. The problem was that the patient's mom had gone to the ER, who then called this doctor for a consult.

In other words, it hadn't occurred to any of them that the girl could be having her period. 

8. A burn unit received a patient who was airlifted in for what looked like a bad tan.

The wound amounted to a few blisters on their leg, but another hospital sent them on a $50,000 helicopter ride anyway. Since the patient was apparently screaming for pain medication the whole time, our reddit doc suspected the other ER was trying to get rid of them.

9. One parent brought her nine-year-old to the ER because he didn't win an award.

More specifically, it was because he was upset that he didn't win an academic award at his school's ceremony. She said, "Talk to him or something, I can't deal with him." 

10. One patient learned the hard way that somebody cut corners when they made her new jeans.

Her hand had been slowly turning blue as the day went on, so she understandably worried that she might have a blood clot or blood pressure issue. What doctors found, however, was that the blue dye from her jeans had been bleeding onto her hand when she put it in her pocket.

11. We may never know what one patient's problem was.

He told the doctor he had "very mild" abdominal pain but that it had started "right now." In other words, after he had made the decision to go to the ER.

When the doctor asked him why he had come in the first place, he didn't seem to have an answer. We do know that he didn't relish waiting for 12 minutes to talk to a doctor, though.

I'd say I'm not sure what kind of wait times he's used to, but the whole situation is honestly one giant question mark.

12. One paramedic actually got a call from someone with a gerbil up their butt.

She didn't believe this was really something that happened, but sure enough, someone put the gerbil in a bottle and put the bottle into his anus. Thanks to suction from the bottle, he couldn't get it back out and the angry gerbil was moving around so much that he screamed, "Just kill me!"

We'll likely never know why he did this, but the paramedic couldn't stop laughing when it was over.

Don't forget to SHARE this and see if you can collect any other ridiculous ER stories.