# Nurses/Doctors: Have you seen any accident victims with dirty underwear? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 6, 2016, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232 "2016-09-06T21:56:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr.Arthias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f19dbf/32.png) [@Dr.Arthias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Arthias)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/21 "2016-09-08T23:40:29Z")
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPMmsUICHNE) Wear clean draws Everyday ‘Cause things may fall The wrong way Then you’re lying there Waitin’ for the ambulance And your underwear Got holes and shit Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Fotheringay-Phipps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d9b06d/32.png) [@Fotheringay-Phipps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fotheringay-Phipps)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/22 "2016-09-09T13:26:00Z")
The way I’ve always heard it, it’s not about dirty underwear but about ripped/worn out underwear. Most people who adhere to basic standards of hygiene don’t go about in dirty underwear, and that’s not really an issue. But many people keep wearing old underwear after it wears out and frays, because it’s regarded as more of a functional item than a clothing item that’s intended to be seen by the public. So as long as it “gets the job done” people wear it, even if it doesn’t look decent. And that’s where the “mother’s advice” comes in - you’re not _intending_ for anyone to see it, but you never know what might happen … ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/23 "2016-09-09T15:14:46Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Many years ago I got in a car accident and I wasn’t wearing any underwear… More importantly… Did your MOM find out about this? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/24 "2016-09-09T15:48:08Z")
> [@Me\_Billy](#): > > More importantly… Did your MOM find out about this? Ha! Not at the time of the accident but I did tell her about what the driver said. She thought it was pretty funny, though a bit tacky for him to say it in front of a car load of virtual strangers. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/25 "2016-09-09T16:16:27Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If I left my fly open she would say “Watch out, there are ducks about.” My stepfather would say “Watch out, a seagull’s gonna get you!” It ranked down there with the “I’ve got your nose” nonsense as being completely unbelievable. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/26 "2016-09-10T01:54:20Z")
An injured yuppy is brought into the emergency room sobbing uncontrollably, “My BMW…my BMW…” The nurse grabs him by the shoulders and tells him, “Snap out of it! You have more important things to worry about, your hand has been cut off!” He quiets for a moment and stares at the stump. “My Rolex, my Rolex…” Dennis ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/27 "2016-09-10T07:30:39Z")
I wonder if some of this old trope goes back to the days of heavy-handed “charity” in hospitals and other rudimentary social services, when a poor-but-respectable mother might dread the prospect of some interfering do-gooder concluding that she wasn’t caring properly for her children? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2016, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/28 "2016-09-10T09:50:22Z")
> [@pendgwen](#): > > As an ER doc I’d say this is fairly accurate. It doesn’t happen for all or even most trauma patients but we see it fairly regularly. > This is less accurate. An essential part of evaluating a major trauma patient is removing all of their clothing. That includes underwear. You need to be sure that there are no injuries hidden by the patient’s clothing. Leaving people in soiled clothing is also bad for the skin and can lead to breakdown. I work at a trauma center so we get a lot of transfers from smaller hospitals that can’t handle major trauma. When they transfer me a trauma patient and the patient arrives wearing their original clothing I assume that the transferring facility has no idea what they’re doing with regard to trauma. And besides all that, if the patient has been incontinent, we don’t want to smell it the entire time they’re in the ED. They’re not going to get a full bed bath but they will get a basic cleanup. The retired E.M.T. in me adds this: Clothing is removed in the field as is required by the presentation of the patient. A serious fall to me would indicate possible spinal cord injuries. That would require collaring, assessment of the body by touch- and in this particular case would require a brief examination of the genitals to check for [priapism ( non-sexual erection )](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2596691/). I’d leave underpants on unless there was a clear indication of need to remove them but in the case of a non site-specific trauma such as a serious fall, everything would go but underpants and bra. Thinking back, I am not sure I ever encountered a patient who was not in a health care facility such as a nursing home who had soiled themselves. Post-trauma, bowel movements rarely occur right away. Incontinence is different. As to the post up above regarding running into someone who had been your E.M.T. who remembered that you had no underpants on, I personally find that to be pretty unprofessional. I lived in a small town when I was riding as an E.M.T. I heard and saw things- like every E.M.T., Paramedic and Doctor and Nurse does. I took the privacy of every patient and family member incredibly seriously. Never would it occur to me to discuss the lack of underpants with a former patient. Not even years later. Not even in a light-hearted situation like a limo. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/29 "2016-09-12T21:05:01Z")
> [@Cartooniverse](#): > > As to the post up above regarding running into someone who had been your E.M.T. who remembered that you had no underpants on, I personally find that to be pretty unprofessional. Same here. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/30 "2016-09-13T00:55:35Z")
I was in a nasty semi-on-car accident some years back that involved a ride in an ambulance to the ER. When my mother came to pick me up from the hospital, she asked me if I had been wearing clean underwear. She wasn’t serious, she was just trying to inject a little levity in an otherwise intense situation. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/31 "2016-09-13T08:06:48Z")
Oh yes. Once when working in the hospital of a small town, we had a young woman get hit by a car and broke her pelvis. She was a member of a well-known developmentally disabled low socio-economic spectrum inbred family. Her underwear were so old and filthy they sort of fell apart as we were getting them off her. And they smelled really, really bad. The poor girl needed a mother to tend to her underwear. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/32 "2016-09-13T08:31:41Z")
I used to have a _Punch_ cartoon of two parents walking down the street with a child with his a saucepan stuck on his head, and the mother is saying “I know what they’re thinking: they’re thinking what a dirty old saucepan to let a boy get his head stuck into.” ---
**Author:** ![sweat209](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@sweat209](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweat209)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232/33 "2016-09-13T11:58:28Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Yup. > I remember one patient; cyclist, didn’t make the turn on a long downhill, right into a telephone pole. Knocked unconscious. The back of an ambulance is small; it was quite olfactorily obvious he soiled himself among everything else. In & of itself it wasn’t an issue or concern (other than smell) but it was an indication of how hard he hit/head trauma, which is a concern. I read some where that in sports and MMA there been cases people having a accidents.:mad::mad::mad: And in car accidents and trauma too.:(☹ I think the excitement and shock may be trigger. I know lot my urge to have bowel movement are after I eat or exercising.:eek::eek: And if I was doing some thing really big like sports or MMA where your exercising is to extreme or got into a car accident or trauma!! Black out for some time like in Boxing!! And not gone before I left house:mad::mad::mad::mad: I may have accident.:eek::eek: I’m sure some doctors here can explain the body mechanics of this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nurses-doctors-have-you-seen-any-accident-victims-with-dirty-underwear/765232.md?page=1)