Worst Patients Ever! — Read Health Care Workers’ Horror Stories

I'm a dentist. One time I refused to see a patient after they refused to stop chewing gum. I mean, during the appointment. I asked her three times, and every time she pretended to take her gum out. Which, at 16 years old, seemed pretty childish. I finally worked on her, and as I took my hands out of her mouth for an instrument, she started chewing again. It was STILL in there. I told the parent that their daughter was not ready for braces. They argued, but she would not follow the simplest instructions, let alone habits she would need to form to keep her teeth clean throughout treatment.

I'm a dentist. After spending multiple appointments explaining concerns with healing after an extraction, she continued to be argumentative and then said, "You Arabs are so stubborn." I told her she can be a racist out on the street but not in my office, so please leave. As a side note, I'm Iranian and I practice in Canada (I came here when I was 9).

My mom works as an OB/GYN at a local hospital, and has encountered many unusual patients but this one crossed the line. This lady comes in asking for an ultrasound, like a normal expecting mother. Well I guess this was her first one because when showed that she was expecting twins, she freaked out. Like full on off your medicine, get sent to a mental facility freak out. She jumped up out of the bed and ripped the equipment off of herself screaming about how she wasn't ready for "two little f***ing b****es to ruin her life." She then proceeded to blame this all on my mother, throwing whatever she could at her and literally attacking her. One of the nurses heard the yelling, called security, and she had to be escorted out and was banned from stepping foot in the building again. She must have been on drugs or something. I don't think it's normal for a pregnant woman to do that, emotional or not.

I have "fired" two patients in my career. The first was a family of a man about to have a planned surgery. They were upset that they had to wait until the following week to see the cardiologist, and because of their influence, they called their State Representative. He called the hospital CEO, who called me. I explained the situation. I then called the patient and told him that trying to force the system to work solely to his advantage was not how this was going to work. I explained that the doctor-patient relationship in non-life threatening situations is voluntary and gave him a list of other specialists in our area.

The second had a wife who was very mean to my staff over several visits. In their last visit, she made my lead nurse cry and actually hit one of the techs as she was helping the patient put a sock back on. The patient made no apology for her, supported her actions, and seemed to think that this was normal behavior.

When I was a paramedic a call came in that a child was suffering from a severe peanut allergy. She was seven and her older brother thought it would be funny to force feed her peanut butter. Either way, we get her loaded in, but the mom is just dragging her feet. She forgets her purse, then her phone, then her brush, then her gum, or whatever.

I just sort of waved at her, “Hi… We need to go the hospital now… Child… Sick… Hospital… Let’s f***ing go?”

So, she waddles her way over to the ambulance and gets in. It took about three minutes before her phone is out, and she's snapping pictures of her daughter for her Facebook page. One of those, “'Like' to make my baby better!” things.

So once again, I just sort of wave at her, “Hi… please stop… We’re trying to help your daughter…”

She ignores me, more Facebook or Twitter pictures. Click, click, click. I just lost it. “STOP. Taking. Pictures!” Then I took her phone away.

So, now Mom is flipping out because I took her phone away. We get to the hospital and Mom is still flipping out over her phone being confiscated. People at the hospital think she’s distraught over her child and try to calm her down until they figure out it’s about her phone being taken away by the mean man in the ambulance.

They quarantined the so called “Mom” in the waiting room until she calmed down about her phone. Hospital security came to me, got her phone back and she was allowed to go in and see her daughter, provided she stopped taking pictures of her daughter and instead try to comfort her.

Click, click, click. “'Like' to save my baby!” Click, click, click. Then I hear the attending M.D. just explode, “Okay, get the f*** out! Just get the f*** out of this room!”

Our unit refused to assume care of a patient because every time they would place a PICC line for IV nutrition (which he needed because of his diagnosis), he would use it to shoot up all sorts of stupid stuff. He put beer in it one time, crushed up oxy and shot that up... And so he would get a massive blood stream infection. After the third or fourth time, caring for him became such a liability.

I had a healthy 18 year old come in via ambulance the other night at 2am. Chief complaint? He couldn't feel his pulse. Despite the fact that ems had shown him that he did in fact have a pulse, he still demanded to be seen. I had to teach an adult how to check a pulse, and that if he is awake enough to know to check his pulse, he definitely has one.

A 18 yr old came in for his medication check and refill. He told the doc that he only uses his Ritalin before a test so he could have an "edge." He doesn't need the Ritalin for anything else. The doc refused to refill his medication, on the grounds that it didn't appear he had ADHD and was just abusing the Ritalin for personal gain.

The next day, his mother came and started to demand to see the doc. She was Korean. When the doc sat with her, she started yelling at him telling him that if he didn't prescribe the Ritalin, she would sue him. She said that her son needs the Ritalin since he just got into med-school (a special 6-yr program in Ohio), and she wanted to be sure he did well on his tests. The doc told her that he didn't feel comfortable prescribing a controlled medicine like Ritalin to someone who was using it just for an edge during exams. She kept yelling. The doc eventually told her to go find another doc.