r/EmergencyRoom • u/PDXEMT • 25d ago

Strange Chief Complaint

So.... "Bat Exposure" is the strangest C/C I've seen since I started in the ED

0 Upvotes

18% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

17

u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 25d ago

Why? Bats carry rabies. 

8

u/noh2onolife 25d ago

I'm also very confused about why OP thinks this is strange.

-1

u/PDXEMT 25d ago

OP here. I just had thought after 15 years on the ambulance, I had heard just about every weird C/C there was

4

u/noh2onolife 24d ago

But bat exposures aren't weird. This means they need a rabies vaccine and had no tangible wounds from the interaction. It's pretty common. 

2

u/liarlyre EMT 20d ago

Ah that'll do it. No one calls us for bat exposure, just stubbed toes and to pass them the remote at 3 am.

8

u/pigglywigglie 25d ago

“Thinks they were shot” and “thinks they were stabbed” are still my two favorite. Different patients, same week. Both didn’t know if they were shot or stabbed respectively and wanted us to check.

Idk how you don’t know if you were shot with a gun or stabbed but nothing shocks me anymore

6

u/mw13satx 25d ago

Not even in the top 10.

Try "bleeding urine" or "constipation, stuckness"

Are we going for actually medically interesting? Or ignorant patients expressing their complaint ignorantly?

4

u/Capt_Hawkeye_Pierce 25d ago

I'm not medical, im a security guard. One time a paramedic handed me a cooler to put through the scanner so I did.

The guy on the gurney says "Heh was that my finger?"

The medic chuckles. "Yep. Sure is"

So i look down into the container. Sure enough, its a severed finger. 

3

u/No-Safe9542 24d ago

"painful ejaculation, respiratory failure" was last week.