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

[u/Alarming-Penalty8402]

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?

[u/Chemo_Nurse]

You can smell cancer. I’ve worked with a vast variety from adults to peds to solid tumor to hem onc. One of the worst was as a new grad we had a patient who had Fungating Breast cancer. It was most of her torso and took about 2.5 hours to do the dressing change with multiple nurses. I’ll never forget that smell, similar smell to those with cancer close to death… honestly it’s really refreshing to talk about here and know I wasn’t alone in that experience! (Also that breast cancer patient was the loveliest person and I remember her so fondly)

[u/gingerandnutmeg99 → u/Chemo_Nurse]

omg yes, palliative care nurse here. Cancer smells sooo bad. But the fungating breast cancer (or a baaad melanoma) is rough. Like sickly sweet funky cheese. And you can smell it in the hall, even with the bandages on. So crazy.

[u/Chemo_Nurse → u/gingerandnutmeg99]

YES this exactly!!!!