History NightmareFuel / UntoldStoriesOfTheER

* The young mother's situation in "Diagnose Me!" is quite the AdultFear. You collapse in front of your young daughter who calls 911 like she's learned but is completely deaf so she's not immediately able to be reassured by the doctors and nurses treating you because they have to fetch a translator. And even after that, you're aware you could die and leave her alone.

* One episode has a doctor treating a patient he suspects is suicidal and is concerned about leaving him near the sharp instruments. Towards the end, it's revealed it's quite the contrary. He had murdered a patient who was brought up in a passing mention earlier in the episode. When the doctor runs to apprehend the suspect, he discover the man taking a nurse hostage in the elevator. [[spoiler: Luckily the nurse had taken self defense classes and was able to subdue him allowing the cops to put him away.]]

* The diver in "Deep Trouble" ''repeatedly'' gets WorstAid, with a doctor dismissing her symptoms ''twice'' because he doesn't know anything about diving and thus didn't think any of it was serious.

* The young mother's situation in "Diagnose Me!" is quite the AdultFear. You collapse in front of your young daughter who calls 911 like she's learned but is completely deaf so she's not immediately able to be reassured by the doctors and nurses treating you because they have to fetch a translator. And even after that, you're aware you could die and leave her alone.

* One episode featured a homeless woman in the ER who kept saying "I've got worms in me". Whereas one may be initially confused or even somewhat amused by this statement and her relatively calm demeanor, sure enough on closer inspection, the woman ''did'' have a worm sticking out from underneath her skin. Upon one nurse even realizing what she was witnessing (the fact that she cut a hole in her forearm and placed a worm inside herself), she recoiled in horror but still was able to assist her. In the end, the woman not only had one cut for each of her forearms and her upper thighs, but the nurses ending up pulling out '''''twenty four''''' worms from underneath her skin and she kept repeating the phrase until there were no more. Fortunately, she was miraculously able to avoid infection or other serious injuries and illnesses from this, the nurses saved the worms for her (she considered them her pets to the point of ''naming them'') and they were able to send her to a psych ward to get the help she needed.

** Sadly, the latter scenario is probably very common, which the doctor insinuates when he remarks: "We have an old saying that every crazy person dies of a medical condition." Imagine how many people with mental illness have died of a physical illness because their symptoms were dismissed as psychosomatic, a hypochondriac, or delusional.

* One woman had bug larva actually burrow into her head and were eating her scalp.

* One man had a personal living nightmare. A man was admitted to the ER, completely unresponsive except he kept randomly screaming in a high pitch. Eventually they found an insect stuck in his ear and removed it. The second he did he comes to and starts thanking the Doctor. Turns out that he had such a fear of insects the bug in his ear he completely shut him down, except to scream when the bug moved.
* Any scenario where someone who seems to be in perfect health suddenly declines to a life-threatening emergency. Scary not only because they were fine just a couple minutes ago, but because the sudden onset of symptoms makes it difficult to figure out what's even wrong with them, let alone what caused it. And it also often means you don't have much time.
** Imagine that one morning your perfectly healthy wife suddenly collapses in the bathroom. You're a paramedic, and you call an ambulance but don't think it's likely anything serious. You come into the hospital some time later to check on her, and find out that her condition is so dire that she's undergoing an ER thoracotomy — something patients rarely survive, simply because if they need one, it's almost certainly too late for them. And because you're a paramedic, you know ''exactly'' how grave this is. Also imagine being the daughter in this scenario: Your mom goes into the bathroom to get ready to take you to school, the next minute she's unconscious, and before you know it the only thing keeping her alive is a doctor manually squeezing her heart.

** Sadly, the latter scenario is probably very common, which the doctor insinuates when he remarks: "We have an old saying that every crazy person dies of a medical condition." Imagine how many people with mental illness have died of a physical illness because their symptoms were dismissed as psychosomatic, hypochondriacal, or delusional.

* In "Stabbed in the Heart", the eponymous patient has a hole in his heart that squirts blood all over the doctor and nurses, and a good distance beyond. After they hand the patient off to a surgeon, a nurse notices that the glass wall behind them is completely covered in blood except for their own human-shaped outlines. "It was really gruesome and awesome all at one time."

** Sadly, the latter scenario is probably very common, which the doctor insinuates when he remarks: "We have an old saying that every crazy person dies of a medical condition." Imagine how many people with mental illness have died of a physical illness because their symptoms were dismissed as psychosomatic, hypochondriacal, or delusional.

** Sadly, the latter scenario is probably very common, which the doctor insinuates when he remarks: "We have an old saying that every crazy person dies of a medical condition." Imagine how many people with mental illness have died of a physical illness because their complaints were dismissed as psychosomatic or delusional. The episode doesn't say whether this patient recovered from his cancer, but he was lucky nonetheless that his complaint was taken seriously, and his illness diagnosed as a result.

** Related to the above: Cases where the patient is a medical professional, being treated at the same hospital they work at. If they're your coworker, they may also be your friend, and you work alongside them every day to save lives. Now, all of a sudden, ''their'' life is in your hands, which makes the case more personal and emotional than possibly any other case you'll ever have — not to mention that you obviously don't have their help as you usually do. And if they don't make it, not only do you lose a coworker and friend, but you'll be reminded of it every day by their absence in your workplace. Both of the above cases qualify: In the first, the patient was a nurse who worked at the same hospital as her paramedic husband, which is where she went to be treated; he wasn't the one to treat her, but her other colleagues were. In the second, the patient was a young nurse who collapsed while chatting with a senior nurse.