What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nursing is a profession that often involves long lonely night shifts in eerie hospital wards. It's a perfect breeding ground for ghost stories. These stories often involve sightings of apparitions, strange noises, and unexplained events that are said to have taken place in hospitals, hospices, and other healthcare settings. Some of these stories are believed to be based on true events, while others are purely fictional. Regardless, they continue to captivate and intrigue both nurses and non-nurses alike - providing a spooky glimpse into the world of healthcare after dark.

I know you have seen and heard freaky things. Share your nursing ghost stories...

[thomas81z]

OK people this thread has been going since 2000 ,lets keep it going , someone post up a new experience please

[SmilingBluEyes]

Not the best story but at the clinic  I was at,  it was known to be haunted.

Techs came in at 230 to open. They ALL reported seeing ghosts in the storage room. Things being pushed off shelves and onto the floor. Our biomedical guys (big dudes) often would never go into that room alone. They were that freaked out.

I have seen automatic doors open and shut and told (it) to STOP IT NOW and it stopped. It was always at night when we were about to close.

Also our scale goes off as if someone is stepping on it. I have also told (it) to STOP and it stops.

We have had many, many patients die over the years and I wonder if they wander our clinic, lost or confused......

I don't know for sure what's going on. I have seen nothing but sensed much!

[SmilingBluEyes]

I don't know if I posted this and am not about to go through 200 pages to find out....

A friend had her 5th child, appearing to have an uncomplicated birth experience. However, a few hours later she was holding her baby and felt faint. Sure enough, her husband pulled back her covers and she was bleeding out and onto the floor. Placenta accreta for those OB nurses among us.

Anyhow, they had to do an emergency hysterectomy to save her life. She begged her husband to care for their 5 kids cause she knew she was dying. In the OR, two figures NOT clad in scrubs appeared in the corner. She could hear them talk to her, although their mouths were not moving. They told her it was not time .....yet. Go back. She felt nothing except a weird floating feeling during her surgery (of course she was out). But she swears it was no dream.

Anyhow she woke up in the ICU in severe pain, asking about her surgery. Apparently she coded twice during the procedure. She was told by her doctor she "died" on the table and they were unsure they could bring her back.

Then suddenly vital signs returned. Just like that.

She thinks those were guardian angels telling her it was not time to die....

I can't disagree.

[guydreamr]

1 hour ago, SmilingBluEyes said:

In the OR, two figures NOT clad in scrubs appeared in the corner. She could hear them talk to her, although their mouths were not moving.

Amazing. Did anyone else see the figures or was it just her?

[SmilingBluEyes]

3 hours ago, guydreamr said:

Amazing. Did anyone else see the figures or was it just her?

She asked the staff and they did not know what she was talking about. But they said her recovery to normal vital signs was nothing short of miraculous given how much blood she lost and the fact she fully coded on the table. She had to have so many transfusions her blood type could have changed!  They tended to believe it was some sort of divine intervention.

[guydreamr]

5 hours ago, SmilingBluEyes said:

She asked the staff and they did not know what she was talking about. But they said her recovery to normal vital signs was nothing short of miraculous given how much blood she lost and the fact she fully coded on the table. She had to have so many transfusions her blood type could have changed!  They tended to believe it was some sort of divine intervention.

Interesting. Something definitely happened. She coded, she was aware that she coded (or was near death), she perceived figures which she thought played a part in preventing her from dying, and she did in fact did recover, and that is significant. Thanks for sharing.

[leilo0, BSN, RN]

I work in a Catholic teaching hospital and the original building was built in the late 1800s. I've heard stories of patients seeing a faceless nun nurse wearing a habit during nightly rounds. 

I used to work in the medicine unit and would rotate to nights often. One night, a co-worker asked me to round on our patients together. For some reason she did not want to go in this particular isolation room alone. Usually with negative pressure rooms, we stay in the ante room and look in on the patient through the glass door to make sure they're okay.

Apparently the night before, she was rounding on her partner's patients when she saw a shadowy figure standing over the patient in the dark room. She didn't think much of it as it was common for family to stay over in our unit. But it turns out, the patient had no family member with them that night. 

During nightshifts we are allowed a sleep break and we have a covering partner. There's a corner storage room where staff can put a few stretchers during break and this place feels creepy even during the day. I don't use this particular area but one night my usual place was occupied. So there I was lying down in one of the stretchers with other people on break. I don't usually sleep during these sleep breaks in case something happens to one of my patients. But I kept having dreams(?) visions (?) of someone in scrubs walking back and forth beside the stretchers. At one point I had my arm sticking out of the blanket when I felt something slowly clasp my hand and hold it. I simply changed position and yelled at it to Go away in my head.

Last one, this happened at the geriatric rehab clinic I worked at. There's an activity corner for the patients located beside the staff office and its visible from the reception area. I walked in one morning and said hello to the front desk when I see an old lady with a neon pink top with her back turned holding on to the grab bars along the wall. Strange, we never have patients this early? As I turned the corner and got to the office, the area was completely empty. I go in the office and go back out to chat with our clerical and mentioned the patient being so early. Our clerical was confused and told me no one has checked in yet. But but, who was that at the back when I said hello to you a few minutes ago??? Needless to say, I gave her a scare early in the morning.

 

[prb65]

I've read this thread years ago and find the experiences fascinating. I've had several experiences that are unexplained. My most recent was a historical learning family vacation to Gettysburg. Because of my experience with the unknown I wanted to stay at an inn on the battlefield that is steeped in history. 

We were the only residents downstairs and after my family fell asleep I went about meditation in front of the bathroom mirror. Looking deep into my own reflection the pupils. Please do not do this do this is the second time and only times I've done this and got disturbing results. I refuse to do this after the second time.

After doing so,  and walking about the inn nothing happened. I decided it was getting late and went to bed. As Iie in bed waiting to fall asleep next to my husband, I hear a clang next to his head. A clang like a  chain pull on a lamp hitting a lamp on the nightstand next to him. My husband who is a deep sleeper woke up asking "what is that"?while still clanging. I answered I thought it was you, then a thud of a chain hits the floor right next to him. We turn the switch of the night stand light on and look all over for anything that fell. Nothing was found.

Going back in time the first time I did the stare was unintentional. I was 13 and living in a new house my parents built. My parents or brother were not home  at the time and it was only me and my sister and we were in our seperate rooms getting ready for  bed. I was brushing my hair and wondering what I would look like as an old woman so I stared deeply in my own pupils till my face came out of focus. It was then I heard mournful crying outside my bedroom door. Thinking it was my sister I opened the door  and she was not there. Her room was next to mine so I knocked on her door and asked her why she was crying, she said she wasn't. My brothers room was across from ours. With the hall light on we both saw the corner of my brothers bed  bouncing on its own. We both ran to my room huddled on the bed and crying.

[prb65]

I'm not able to edit. But there is something  about the meditation pupil stare. I will never do that again! 

[Orion81RN]

Just a weird thing happening right now, I’m sure a coincidence but…

I worked private duty the last 3 years, most of my hours, 24 to 36 hours a week with one patient. He had ALS. On a vent, couldn’t move. We had a routine where in the mornings when he started to wake up a little, I would set up his computer in front of him and put Radio Paradise music on with slideshow of scenic imagines for him to relax and fall back asleep to. Anyway, he just recently passed away & radio paradise player keeps popping up on my phone and even though I think I close it, it opens back up. Every day. I didn’t put radio paradise on my phone but on his computer. I know I can adjust this somehow in my phone, just haven’t gotten to it yet. Weird. 

[Dumpling-mama]

On 9/21/2007 at 11:09 PM, a21chdchic said:

Having worked in Hospice for awhile, I know how common it is for people to talk to family members who have already passed on, prior to their own death.

I've been reading these many posts where the same thing occurs over and over.

I've never really been afraid of death. But I realized through these posts, that I don't have anyone to meet me on the other side. It has deeply saddened me. I have a daughter who God willing, will go after me. But other than that, I don't have anyone. My mother will go to hell, she is very evil, and I never knew my father. Maybe I'll have pets who will meet me, if they can care for humans. However pets do seem to prefer the company of men, sh**, guess I'm out of luck.

Everyone has guides, including your guardian angel.  You can get to know them through shamanic work, meditation, etc.  Ancestors and friends can also come to help with your transition when it is time.  You are not alone and you are loved.

[Winter Arashi, RN]

MN-Nurse said:

People are attracted to stories like this because they reinforce the belief that human beings have souls and will live forever.

I have taken care of many dying people and zipped up my share of them in body bags. I just returned from volunteering at my old nursing home where one of my favorite residents recently fell and broke his hip. He always looked forward to my visits and demands, "Where have you been?!!?" no matter how recently I was there.

He may have had a TIA before or soon after falling. He cannot have surgery, so he is bedridden, on painkillers and quite delirious.

During my visit he was hallucinating quite badly, waving at things that are not there and speaking incoherently. But never for a second did I suspect or even entertain the thought that he was seeing ghosts or having any kind of supernatural visitation.

But this everlasting thread reminds me that others will see his hallucinations in a different light. I am bothered greatly by the fact that caregivers will see this poor man having hallucinations and attribute them to the supernatural in an effort to confirm their own beliefs, or worse yet, just get a kick out of it.

This poor man's dying experience will become the fodder for someone's "ghost story." He is a married father of three, served in Germany during the Korean war, and is a retired railroad worker.

He is not entertainment. He is dying.

Sorry to post a downer on this thread, but I find it a bit sickening.

I was so inspired by your post that I made an account just to respond.

Look, I can see where you're coming from when I think of the insane posts I've read so far of manifesting flower petals, luntics/liars babbling on about talking to dead and the nutters in this forum that nod right along with the bs as though that is the most reasonable thing to do?

Let's be serious for a minute, shall we? You and I both know that the second a patient starts seeing dead people they are doomed to code soon, and it is ALWAYS  dead people. Granted, not all patients do this, but the ones who do die shortly after. There have even been cases in which a patient dying will see people they didn't even know were dead, and again, no visits from the living in these so-called hallucinations.  You have to admit that is d**m strange. Was that what was happening to your patient? Probably not. Sounds like he was just stoned. But let's not run off and dismiss every patients' experiences just because that was not what was going on in one particular incident. Do some people read paranomal into mundane because of personal bias? Absolutely. But that does not mean that some people dismiss the unexplained as mundane because of personal bias as well.