Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

The Strangest Reasons People Have Ended Up In The Hospital

Speeding ambulance
Jonnica Hill/Unsplash

Aside from picking up a family member who is finally going home or going to experience the birth of a child, most trips to the hospital aren't usually ones to look forward to.

When you're a patient being admitted, chances are, an accident or a bad decision has led you there.

With medical professionals witnessing a garden variety of cases, there must be some cases that surely stuck out in their minds.


Curious to hear examples of these, Redditor insomnia-owl16 asked:
"What is the strangest reason you ended up in a hospital?"

There were things you just don't see coming.

Must've Been Quite The Cough

"I coughed and broke 2 ribs."

– BearJewKnowsBest

Bad Plumbing

"Noticed at some point in my early 20s that fluid leaked out of my belly button."

"Thought it might be a pimple or a small cyst and waited it out, but it was still leaking like two weeks after."

"Went to my GP and he examined it, stuck a q tip in my belly button, smelled it and was like 'in my XY year long career I've maybe seen two or three cases of this in adults... Usually this is diagnosed in infants and it gets fixed then....'"

"What he diagnosed was a 'urachal fistula' a tract between belly button and the... yep, bladder..."

"I had pee dripping out of my belly button... nice."

"He called one of the chief surgeons he knew and is befriended with and got me an exam at the hospital the next day."

"The chief surgeon and multiple residents examed me - they were unsure because this usually doesn't occur in adults. In the end we agreed on surgery, because whatever it is, it needs to be fixed."

"And in the end, it indeed was a urachal fistula..."

"Not a life threatening condition in and of itself, but a risk to nasty infections and a higher risk of cancer long term - also pee dripping out of your belly button, duuhh.."

"Had to have surgery a few years later again, because the fistula reformed (known risk) but since then I haven't had any problems. :)"

– 6800ultra

Gutted

"I dropped a ceramic chef’s knife and it bounced off the counter and stabbed me in the stomach. It took longer to convince the medical staff and social worker (I am a disabled veteran) that my SO didn’t stab me, than it took to close the wound."

– LordInventus

Things happen, but these could've been preventable.

Expensive Ride

"I got the tip of a Q-Tip stuck in my ear and my roommate at the time went to pull it out with a pair of tweezers and hit a nerve or messed with my equilibrium or something and I passed out. She freaked out and called 911 and I woke up in the ER. Was absolutely fine until a couple weeks later when I got a $2k bill for an ambulance ride that was literally down the block."

– Equivalent-War-2378

Toy Cut

"Lacerated scrotum after getting it stuck in a PEZ dispenser."

– BurlHead

Playing Stupid Games

"Was chasing chickens for no apparent reason and caught my shoulder on a piece of sheet metal. 38 stitches."

– cabllc

Kitchen Hazard

"Cut my wrist on the cutter thing on a box of Saran Wrap. They had a counselor come and make sure I wasn’t suicidal. 'No. I was wrapping ham.'”

– Sasquadtch

The body works in mysterious ways.

When The Body Fails

"Had a ct scan… 1 hour later the guy called and told me to go the hospital now. Rock up to the ER with a swelling in my neck, pushing on my jugular vein, vomiting, headaches, severe pain in collar bone neck area. After days of blood test and blood cultures I got a diagnosis of some rare as f'k severe illness called 'Lemierre’s syndrome caused by the anaerobic bacterium, fusobacterium necrophorum' and I also had necrotizing fasciitis in my neck from the really bad case of tonsillitis I had 2 weeks prior that spread beyond the infected site. Got straight into the ER, practically no wait in the ER .I ended up with septic shock, Blood pressure was super low. 70/60. never felt a thirst like it. Got 5L of fluids within the first couple hours( mind you I’m only 47kg) I couldn’t pass urine, ended up with a catheter. Stayed in hospital for 5 days and left with a PICC line in my arm. Had 4 weeks of intravenous antibiotics 24 hours a day, had to carry and sleep with a little bag to hold my antibiotics. Had a nurse visit me every day for 4 weeks. Worst part about it is I didn’t even want to go to the hospital and I thought I’d be fine to just sleep it off. If you feel so sick you feel like you’re slowly dying you probably are."

– Low-Promise1628

Intense Cinema

"Saw Mel Gibson's Apocalypto in the theatre. Movie stressed me out soon much i fainted or had a seizure. The date I was with apperently freaked out and she started screaming that Im not breathing. Two solid guys carried me out. Ambulance was called... my date was a doctor lol"

– eduwhat

No wonder why medical dramas on TV have no shortage of ideas when it comes to featuring bizarre cases involving patients.

They're most likely inspired by real-life hospital situations.

Kudos to all the medical staff who've seen it all and still manage not to pass out like yours truly, who gets very light-headed at the sight of blood from a pricked finger.

Yes, I had blood drawn from finger when I was a kid and I passed out.

I eventually woke up in a hospital bed with a bandage wrapped around my head after I apparently fell off the chair and landed on my forehead.

That's one way I was kind of admitted to the hospital. Not a strange reason at all. Just a a really embarrassing one.

More from Trending/best-of-reddit

Halle Berry
Fortune Magazine

Halle Berry Warns That Women Are Turning Themselves Into 'Monsters' With Cosmetic Surgery

Academy Award-winning actor Halle Berry pushed back against the stigmatization of women and aging in a powerful interview with Fortune magazine.

The 58-year-old Hollywood bombshell established herself as a leading actor in 2001 when she became the first African-American woman and first woman of color to win the Oscar for her captivating performance as a struggling widow in Monster's Ball.

Keep ReadingShow less
Khalid
Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Audacy

Musician Khalid Opens Up About His Sexuality After Being 'Outed' By Ex On Social Media

Singer-songwriter Khalid opened up about his sexuality in a series of candid tweets in response to being "outed" by fellow musician Hugo D Almonte, who implied they'd been in a relationship.

Khalid shared a Pride flag emoji along with the following short and sweet message:

Keep ReadingShow less
Rudy Giuliani
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Courtroom Sketch Artist's Drawings Of Rudy Giuliani Looking Unhinged Are An Instant Classic

Courtroom sketch artist Jane Rosenberg's latest sketches of the disbarred former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have gone viral after she captured him in remarkable detail lashing out in court.

Giuliani appeared in federal court in Manhattan for a case where he has been ordered to pay nearly $150 million to two Georgia election workers he defamed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Man appearing shocked and regretful while on the phone
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

People Share Their Biggest 'I F*cked Up' Experiences

We're all human here, so we all make mistakes. Most mistakes can be resolved with a genuine apology, hot glue to fix a broken vase, and a good cleaning solution for a big spill.

Other mistakes, like bullying someone or breaking someone's heart, are much more guilt-inducing and harder for everyone to get over.

Keep ReadingShow less
Ariana Grande; Grande's nonna
Neil Mockford/WireImage/GettyImages, @arianagrande/Instagram

Ariana Grande Watched 'Wicked' With Her Grandma At Her Childhood Movie Theater—And We're Sobbing

Ariana Grande took her 99-year-old grandma, Marjorie Grande—affectionately known as Nonna—to see the film adaptation of Wicked at a very special movie theater last week, a moment the pop idol has waited for since, since birth!

Grande has been obsessed with Wicked ever since her Nonna took her to see the Broadway musical version in 2003 when Grande was ten years old.

Keep ReadingShow less