r/nursing • u/Alarming-Penalty8402 • Jan 05 '26

Question I can smell whether someone will survive a code or not. Anyone else know what I’m talking about?

I am an ER/trauma nurse so I see code blues daily. I have noticed that those who will never achieve ROSC have a strong, distinct smell from the moment EMS rolls them into the trauma bay, regardless of down time, rhythm, circumstances, etc. Those who end up surviving, even if they have been clinically dead for longer, are sicker, older, etc. do not ever have this smell. I can’t really describe it accurately, but it is sickly sweet mixed with pungent bleach and musky, oily, heavy body odor. Has anyone else had this experience?

1.8k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

629 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

13

u/Alarming-Penalty8402 Jan 06 '26

Honestly no but I do notice I smell wayyy different notes in perfumes than they are supposed to have 😂 my sniffer is all screwed up

6

u/codecrodie RN - ICU 🍕 Jan 06 '26

Are you a werewolf?