There’s never a dull moment during Halloween in the emergency department. Depending on what day Halloween falls on, there could be people in costumes for days leading up to the holiday.
Walking out into the lobby to call a patient back is like walking out to a costume party. It’s entertaining when people come in a group, and they’re all dressed cohesively. For example, you may walk out to a group of female college students dressed as a six-pack of your favorite seltzers. Or perhaps Ken is here for a sprained ankle in a Barbie and Ken duo.
But today’s story involves an angel and a very unfortunate mix up.
Sealy Crider, RN was working in the emergency department one Halloween night a few years back. She went out to the lobby to call back her next patient when an angel stood up. But this was not your typical angel- this was a Victoria’s Secret angel decked out with giant wings, perfect nails, and everything.
Sealy noticed this patient had glitter all over and her friend guided her back to the room. This was a little odd, but Sealy wrote it off because she had seen many things in her days as an ER nurse.
Once they were in the room, Sealy began her assessment and asked what brought this angel to the emergency department. At that moment, Sealy began to realize what was going on. This was a college student who was getting ready to go out to a Halloween party. Being in a college town, this was pretty typical for Halloween in her ED.
The patient was drinking while getting ready for the party and made a pretty big mistake. She was wearing press on nails and had put on her nails a few hours before starting her make up. However, she did not put her supplies away.
When she went to put her eyelashes on, she accidentally used her nail glue instead of her eyelash glue.
By the time she realized her mistake, it was too late. In a haste after realizing she used the wrong glue, she tried wiping the glue off her hands on her skin. At this point, the glitter from her outfit was on her skin. It was a mess, and after a few seconds, her eyes were glued shut.
With this explanation in mind, Sealy was able to alert the providers and they immediately got to work. After a few hours of work, they were able to soak the glue off and the patient was able to walk out of the hospital.
Who knows if she still went to the party, but she vowed to triple check her glues moving forward.
If you have a crazy story from working in the ER on Halloween, send us an email. We would love to hear your stories. You can email us your stories at hello@travelnursesinc.com.
