Your most memorable “oops” moments

6. “I witnessed a colleague bring a CO2 fire extinguisher instead of an oxygen cylinder.” —Moira S.

7. “I gave a confused elderly lady 30 units of regular insulin instead of her 30 units of N insulin at bedtime…then spent the entire night forcing her to eat sugary snacks. She kept telling me, ‘Honey—I’m full. I’m not allowed to eat all this sugar.'” —Elizabeth D.

8. “My first clinical without supervision…TPR rounds and I walk in to an elderly man’s room. I made my intro and wrapped the cuff around his arm. I proceeded to pump it up, but couldn’t figure out why I didn’t hear anything (I’m laughing about this still)! I leaned over and the bell on my stethoscope smacked him in the forehead…I was getting embarrassed and mad at myself when the man said, ‘It might work better if you put that thing in your ears.’ I had my stethoscope hanging around my neck the whole time. When I got it right, I apologized, walked out of the room and cried. That was 30 years ago, LOL.” —Diane D. 

9. “I’m a terrible speller, and one time while I was writing a progress note, I wrote, ‘The resident demanded to be whipped harder because we weren’t doing it good enough.’ Meant to write ‘wiped.’ Yup—that’s a funny story I’ll be able to share many more times.” —Amanda G. 

10. “Tripped on Foley tubing. Patient didn’t appreciate it.” —Kathy G. 

Come on…we know you’ve made a mistake here and there. Go ahead and let the cat out of the bag in the comments section below. (They say this kind of thing is cathartic.)