[Erin RN]

I was just wondering if anyone out there has had any "ghostly" experiences as a nurse? I have had several unexplainable things happen during my career but two really come to mind..

I took care of a beautiful little old lady when I was a fairly new nurse in a nursing home. This lady used to sit next to me at the nurses station nearly all night long when I worked nights. I would give her a pile of washcloths to fold which she would do then I would mess them up and she would do it again..we would "chat" and have a cup of tea...she was a darling. She always used to reach over and touch my hair and say "your hair is so pretty". I was charge the night she was dying and I spent quite a lot of time in her room with her keeping her comfortable since her "family" could not "handle" being there.. As I was listening to her lungs she passed. I stood there and of course got all teary..I swear I felt a hand touch my hair and I heard a sort of a woosh by my left ear..

The other was not so pleasant..this woman (also at the nursing home) was a mean and nasty person and she did not have dementia. She would scratch and try to bite and spit her pills all over and swear..I came on shift at 11p and saw her at 1130..I was at the nurses station charting probably an hour later when the CNAs did 12 pm rounds and all of a sudden I hear a loud scream from her room. Myself and the other RN on ran to the room and the woman was dead but she was grasping the side rails and she had a look of utter terror on her face..I still have chills when I think of what she looked like..there was no warning of her death..If there is a grim repaer, she looked like she saw him. The other nurse and I have been best friends since working together there and we still talk about that night..

I was just wondering of anyone else has ever experienced anything like this while nursing...?? Erin

[zenman]

There's been ghosts at almost every hospital I've worked at. Some stories too long to go into, however in our ED here we have a ghost kid that pulls the sheets down (at foot) of patients while on gurney.

[suzanne4]

Cardiac monitors having runs of V-tach suddenly when the bed has been empty for several days---------------------lights going on and off in a room when no one was in the room..................
these happened when I worked in Scottsdale, Arizona long ago

[momrn50]

Little old lady at a LTC facility i worked for, precious little thing, kept telling us her husband was coming after her. He had died about 3 years before. I went to check on her one night and she was looking up at the ceiling with a big smile on her face. I asked her what she was looking at and she said, "It's my John, he's come after me." I looked up and there was a ball of white light hovering above her bed. I looked back down and she was gone, very peacefully, and the light slowly faded away.... also, had a lady who rearranged the chairs in the dining rooms 2 months after she passed away. She had done it everyday when she was alive, and didn't stop after she passed...very comforting in a way and not scary at all.

[Franemtnurse]

had a similar experience to your own, Erin. I was a new employee working in LTC. I had just left my resident after performing his ADLs, and had gone to take care of another. After I was finished, I reentered my first resident's room to check on him, and I found him dead with his eyes literally bulging they were so wide open, and he had a look of horror on his face. That disturbed me for a very long time. And now many years later, I can still see him.

[kc ccurn]

I have chills....

Many years ago we had a patient, 19 years old or so, who was in a car accident and had bad pulmonary contusions. He was on a "jet vent" which is a high frequency vent, rr is about 200/minute, had 6 chest tubes, numerous vasopressors and knocking on deaths door for weeks. I was in his room with the curtain pulled to do his assessment and I felt someone looking over my shoulder watching what I was doing. My back was to the window, NOT the door so I knew no one had come in the room. I mentioned it to a few of my co workers what had happened, they said that they had the same experience in his room.

He actually survived his injuries and we heard afterwards that he told his sister that he would leave his body, fly out the window and go visit his family members at their houses. And he would be in the corner of his room watching the nurses take care of him.

[JenRose]

Hello,

This is my first post to this board. Your subject of ghosts caught my attention. When I was in nursing school, I worked weekends as a companion for the elderly. Late one night while working in the home of a 95 year old woman, I overheard her talking about me in another room of the house. I naturally assumed she was talking on the phone. When I went to check on her, she was not on the phone. She told me her sister wanted to know who I was. Trouble was, her sister had been dead for many years. This was a well-kept old victorian home, with all the rooms still filled with the possessions and furnishings of those who had passed on, as if they were coming home soon. Even before that night, I never felt quite at ease. I would go down to the kitchen around 3 or 4 AM, for coffee, and run back upstairs as fast as I could. After the old woman died, the house was sold several times. No one wanted to live there more than a few years.

[Rapheal]

The previous owner of the house I now own died here and laid here three days in the dining room before his body was found. I constantly am subjected to the screen doors locking behind me in the summer when I do yard work. Nothing wrong with the latches. At first I blamed my dog for doing this- until the dog and I were both locked out one day.

The dog occasionally gets all fired up and starts growling at what appears to be nothing. But my daughter and I know it's Tony and I tell him to please be nice to the dog. He has also turned TV's on, faucets on and drops things in the basement. Occasionally my daughter and I can see this black shadow in the upstairs hallway that nobody else but us and the dog can see. It is like a black wall and always stops us in our tracks.

The last house I owned before this was haunted with the best ghosts. Long story but I can tell you that some ghosts are nice, and some are not. I miss the nice ghosts.

[navynurse29]

Man, you guys gave me the creeps! Especially about the patients you found that looked terrified. I have had my own ghostly experience although it is not patient related. When I was in the Navy stationed in New Orleans, I had a spooky experience. A bunch of us were coming back from a bar in Metarie. We couldn't get in for various reasons so we weren't drinking....yet.....anyway, as we coming back over the bridge, I saw a man in a rumpled,gray dusty suit standing on the edge of the bridge. As I watched to see what exactly he was going to do, he vanished into thin air! I remember asking my friends if anybody else saw what I saw, and of course no one had. I remember wondering if he was a suicide ghost which he probably was, who knows?

[mittels]

Originally posted by momrn50
Little old lady at a LTC facility i worked for, precious little thing, kept telling us her husband was coming after her. He had died about 3 years before. I went to check on her one night and she was looking up at the ceiling with a big smile on her face. I asked her what she was looking at and she said, "It's my John, he's come after me." I looked up and there was a ball of white light hovering above her bed. I looked back down and she was gone, very peacefully, and the light slowly faded away.... also, had a lady who rearranged the chairs in the dining rooms 2 months after she passed away. She had done it everyday when she was alive, and didn't stop after she passed...very comforting in a way and not scary at all.

Just thought I would mention: Pt's who are nearing death see their loved ones (who have already died) and other figures not seen by those taking care of them. I have cared for many pt's near death in hospice and experience them telling me these stories. I whole heartedly believe them.

When I worked at a hospital, there was a room that was picked for the terminally ill. The hospitals reconstruction on the floor stirred up alot of odd feelings in the corner where the room used to be and now is a ns station. Sudden cold brisky winds would be felt by everyone. Things lost when not more than a minute placed on the counter. Least to say, not many nurses challanged to sit back there during noc shift.