What is that Smell?
The medics told us he was about sixty years old and lived in his car. He had gotten out of the car and collapsed, unable to get back up. He was apparently on the ground for several hours before passersby discovered him.
The medics said they had tried to get all his clothes off but had been unable to do so because, they felt, his flesh was rotting underneath and some of the overlying clothes were sticking to him. They said the horrible smell coming from him was rotting flesh, not feces (a more common cause of stinky people coming to the hospital.)
As we finished undressing him, it was clear the medics were only partially correct about the source of his bad smell because his pants were full of feces. In addition, his clothes were so dirty they were shiny, slick and just tore apart rather than needing to be cut off. It was obvious something was going on under the sleeve of his left arm, which the medics had not been able to uncover. When I got to that area, I held my breath, cut the sleeve of his shirt at the wrist then tore it to the elbow and pulled the cloth away from his forearm. As I did so, a huge pile of maggots fell down off a large mass on the back of his forearm and onto the floor. Everyone gasped and the emergency technician standing by me screamed. The combination of the putrid smell and the sight of the maggots crawling on his raw flesh and the floor was absolutely disgusting.
I looked around for the intern I had brought in the exam room with me and he was nowhere to be found. When I later asked him why he left, he said he was sorry but he had to leave because he was about to lose it. I laughed at him but totally understood since I actually felt nauseous myself.
As soon as we could tell the patient was medically stable, we sent him to the shower where two unfortunate technicians had to shower him to get rid of his excrement and wiggly guests. We then made arrangements for him to be admitted to the hospital.
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Comments (13)
Philip
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That description makes it seem like you were taking care of a corpse….or a zombie not a living human being!
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Suzanne
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Yes! Finally we have the maggot story!
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Heather
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mercy….that is NASTY!
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Deb
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Talk about giving me the heebie jeebies!!! That sounds like a story that would have been on ER. Amazing! I hope he is doing better and the powers that be find him better living conditions.
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Chip
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Anorher great story to go with tasty cookies.
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Bob V
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Dear Tad,
Glad to see that you are still in the role of the premier Emergency Physician. Hope life is treating you well and that your family is doing fine too.
Best regards,
Bob V
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tad
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Nice to hear from you and thanks for your nice comments. My family is all doing great. Thanks.
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Richard
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I think I nearly lost it just reading it!
but strangely, it has been wanting to read more! :p
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Keoki
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Tad, you should be a writer. This was such a great story and well told. Christy and I are both sick now.
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Virginia
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I almost gagged just reading about it. Can’t even imagine what it was like being there.
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Shauna
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Oh wow. How sad. For some sick reason I would have loved to scrub the heck out of him just so he could feel how good it feels to be clean again. To start a new. Besides the maggots and obvious cognitive disorder what do you think the hospital will treat him for? I hope you get to hear that he is been taking care of.
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Shauna
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Oh by the way I think you should write a book called Freaky ER stories and things you never thought people would actually do to land in one! seriously a sicko like me would be one and another one for a gag gift for sure!
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Rebecca
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Cool!
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