Working Halloween has made for some haunting experiences for ER physicians. Three recently shared some of them with ABC News.
1. Ronald I. Paul, MD, professor of pediatrics and emergency physician at Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Children's Hospital, described a case from about 15 to 20 years ago involving a tween patient. He told ABC News the patient tried to fake piercings as part of his costume but ended up having to go to the ER to have the opposing magnets removed from his nose.
2. Manish Garg, MD, emergency medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian and emergency medicine residency program director at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia in New York City, described cases involving two patients who visited the emergency room on the same day about 16 years ago. An insect crawled into the ear of one of the patients, a woman in her 30s. The other patient, a 3-year-old boy, had Halloween candy stuck in his ear, Dr. Garg told ABC News. Both patients had the objects removed.
3. Baruch Fertel, MD, director of quality and operations for the emergency departments in the Cleveland Clinic Health System, told ABC News about a teenage boy who visited the ER about five or six years ago after drinking a green drink at a Halloween party. The patient had mistaken green liquid antifreeze, which was not in its original container, for festive punch. Physicians were able to counteract the poison using an antidote.
Read the full ABC News report here.
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