ER nurse saves a man's life despite getting stopped in the hallway by an entitled Karen demanding a turkey sandwich: ‘I [don’t] have time for a customer service attitude, GET OUT OF MY WAY'

Author image for Jesse Kessenheimer
Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Mar 19, 2026 4:00 PM EDT

She was literally rushing to save a person's life, but in this emergency room Karen, a turkey sandwich order was far more urgent. 

I love a turkey sandwich as much as anyone, but I would never order from the lunch menu while emergency sirens are blaring and nurses are sprinting around the hospital with their non-slip shoes. That's something only a tone-deaf, unaware, and totally entitled Karen would do…

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  • Lo and behold, there is no limit to what a Karen believes is theirs. Able-bodied and well enough to wait for medical attention, it should have become clear to this woman that they might not be at the forefront of the task list of a short-staffed group of lifesaving nurses. While everyone should be treated fairly, it's not fair to the guy with tubes in his nose and heart rate monitors beeping incessantly to be ignored for the likes of a woman who's inevitably going to complain about the tap water quality in the hospital cafeteria. 

    As if the emergency room were a 5-star hotel, this Karen's entitlement was left unchecked until a brave nurse stood up to her, told her like it is, and took the rap for it from management. Some things in life are more important than a BLT, namely, the life of a patient whose heart has stopped in another room. 

  • Emergency room nurses rushing to save a Code Blue patient.
    via DAPA Images

    Emergency room nurses rushing to save a Code Blue patient. 

    (Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)

  • AITJ for yelling at a patient's daughter to "get out of my way" because she was blocking the hall demanding a turkey sandwich during a Code Blue?

    I (32F) have been an ER nurse for ten years now. I enjoy my job, but the level of entitlement that some individuals bring into the Emergency Room is draining my soul.
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  • Last weekend, I worked one of the most brutal night shifts in the ER. We were at maximum capacity in the Emergency Room. I was assigned to one
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  • section of the Emergency Room that had critical patients and less critical patients. One of my patients was a 60-year- old male who was in for a minor laceration on his
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  • arm. The guy was fine, stable, just waiting for the doctor to stitch up his arm. However, his daughter, let's say her name was "Chloe" (maybe in her early 20s), was like the ultimate 5-star hotel guest.
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  • In the space of two hours, Chloe stopped me at least six times while in a hurry to get from one room to another. She asked for a warm blanket, to change the TV channel, ice chips,
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  • and a phone charger, among other things. I tried to oblige her whenever possible, but explained to her that my other patients were critical and that I was likely to be delayed.
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  • At 2 AM, the overhead alarm blares: "Code Blue, Room 4." (For those unfamiliar with hospital speak, this means a patient's heart has stopped and they are d_ng). Room 4 was my patient.
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  • I abandon my charting and run down the hallway to the room with the crash cart waiting by the door.
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  • Then, out of nowhere, Chloe steps out of her dad's room and stands in the middle of the narrow hallway, phone in hand.
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  • I said loudly, "Excuse me, | need to get through, emergency!" She didn't budge. She literally put her hand out with her palm facing me,
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  • saying, "Yeah, I know you're busy, but my dad has been waiting for a turkey sandwich for like an hour, and his blod sugar is probably crashing. You need to get it now."
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  • I was completely tunnel- visioned. The guy was d ng 20 feet away from me. I didn't have time for a customer service attitude.
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  • Emergency room nurses hurrying through the hospital to save someone.
    via ckstockphoto

    Emergency room nurses hurrying through the hospital to save someone. 

    (Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)

  • I yelled, "GET OUT OF MY WAY, SOMEONE IS D NG!" and physically pushed past her shoulder with the crash cart to get to my room.
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  • We ended up getting the patient's pulse back after 15 minutes of CPR. When I came out, covered in sweat, the Charge Nurse asked me to come over to her. Chloe had gone to the
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  • front desk and filed a huge complaint against me, saying that I "assaulted" her, screamed at her face, and was refusing her diabetic father medical care.
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  • Management had to do an "incident report." My manager called me into the office yesterday and gave me a verbal warning for my "tone and bedside manner." She told me that,
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  • in responding to an emergency, I still need to be "professional" with the family member. I told my manager that I'd do the exact same thing again. My husband thinks |
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  • was completely justified, but the older nurses on the unit tell me that I should have simply barked "Not now!" at the sandwich girl, rather than yelling at her and making physical contact with her,
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  • because now I have a strike on my work record. For context, in ten years of nursing I've never had a complaint filed against me before.
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  • I'm exhausted, and I'm questioning my sanity. AITJ for how I handled the sandwich girl?
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  • We've all met a Karen in the wild. They're entitled, they're cruel to customer service agents, and they believe the entire world revolves around their menial schedule. As unlikable as their signature bob haircut, it's a miracle that Karens still exist, but alas, everyone feels like their pig is the prize-winning hog at the fair, and when that blind confidence and cruel pride start welling up in a person's soul, the entitlement festers. 

    Although we can't change the behavior of the entitled people around us, we can augment our own reactions to teach them a lesson. Like this nurse, sometimes a reality check is warranted, and even if it's not well-received, at least the truth got said. I'm not one to be confrontational, but there are moments where confrontation could just save the life of a patient who needs urgent attention. The turkey sandwich can wait; after 15 minutes of CPR, it'll still be waiting there on the service counter at the hospital cafeteria. 

  • MixandMaxy NTA. A Code Blue literally means someone's heart has stopped. In that moment your only job is to get to the patient as fast as possible.
    via MixandMaxy
  • Anyone standing in the hallway arguing about a sandwich while someone is actively ding is the one in the wrong here, not you.
    via MixandMaxy
  • No_Reputa... When writing you up I would ask for it in writing that under no circumstances, including at the cost of someone's life, are you to touch another
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  • person. You asked her to move nicely, and she refused to let you. So saying that you were out of line and you need to be professional.. That's
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  • just crazy. I think I would start looking for another job at a different hospital or something. The second that they put someone's life on the line for entitlement, nope. NTJ
    via No_Reputa

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nurse karen ER entitled people
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