What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

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...

We had a patient just the other last night. She had had severe abdominal pain all day, but it had stopped. She wasn't doing well though. Her sats had dropped, she'd only put out 10cc of urine in the past 8h, her BP was dropping rapidly, her extremeties were mottled, and she was getting more confused. She had an odd look in her eyes. They were half rolled back and her eyelids here half shut, but at the same time her eyes seemed to be popping out of her head. She kept asking "Is someone's at the door? Dear, go get the door, there's someone there." that then became "Who's that on the ceiling?" The consensus among the nurses was that angels were coming to pick her up. The doc's decided to start fluid recessitating her, and starting epi IV. She stopped talking shortly after this point. Finally, they decided to CT her, and her POA decided that all tx should be stopped because her bowels had perfed, and it was her time. We just made her comfortable and took turns holding her and telling her to rest, and close her eye and relax. I swear her breathing eased when I said a little prayer for her. She died just after I left.

So...this got my preceptor talking (who is the most level headed nurse I've ever met)...

When she was at another hospital on a medical floor (where most patients were quite stable) she was the primary nurse for this one older man. He wasn't very nice, actually she used the word evil. He had pushed his wife out a 15th story window a number of years earlier. He would betrate her and everyother nurse, or anyone that walked into the room. He didn't have a nice bone in his body. Anyway, he died a few weeks after admission, and everyone was relived that he was gone. In the week following his death, 10 patients died on the unit. Most of them were not expected to die, and many of them happened bizarrely. One man dropped while on the phone mid-sentence , another in the shower. I guess it stopped evenutally, but it creeped her out.

The next story was from when she was on the same unit. She had had a patient die in this one room. The next admission to the room, didn't seem to sleep. He tossed and turned all night, was never rested the next day. She finally asked him "What's going on? You don't seem to sleeping at night, what's wrong?" He said that everytime he closed his eyes he saw a man in the corner of the room at ceiling level, and it was creeping him out. So she asked him what did he look like. Well, the guy described the patient that had died to a tee, right down to the scar on his face.

When things like this happen. Can't you get the hospital minister to bless the room?

Another story shared with me...........

I used to be an engineer/maintenance man at a private hospital outside Eastern New Orleans. Once, when I was on an evening shift, I was walking toward the PICU, and I was approaching the passenger elevators, when an older woman & her preteen daughter of maybe 10 years old were getting off the elevator in somewhat of a hurry. She approached me, and asked me if there were any accidents or incidents of possible violent death with anyone employed there. I had to think on it for a second, because I knew one story, but I wanted to know why she asked before I told her. She said her daughter saw a black male wearing a plaid shirt with jeans and work boots, but he appeared to be transparent. My mind instantly said "Damn, it can't be." She also informed me that her daughter had an unusual talent for seeing spirits.

Thats when I told her about "Reggie" or "Larry",the name has been disputed over the years, falling to his death down the elevator shaft while the hospital was under construction. I didn't know him, but several other people including doctors,RN's, and fellow co workers have reported catching glimpses of him jumping into the elevator doors or hiding behind dark corners. Her story creeped me out because no one had ever actually described him before. We only knew he was a black man who died during construction. Also of note, he is famous for sending the elevator to a roof, which is only accessible by using a key. The happened to me personally a couple of times. I would always yell out," Hey Buddy, chill out!!", and the elevator would leave that floor on it's own an take you to basement level.

Another one tells of the mysterious black shape moving through the Day Surgery Unit an scaring the hell out of several housekeepers so bad, that they wouldn't set foot in it to clean it unless I or someone else was with them. I never experienced that one, but I believe them.

StatBlues said:
When things like this happen. Can't you get the hospital minister to bless the room?

I dont know if that would do anything. I mean they are not neseccerally (spelling?) sent by the devil.

schroeders_piano said:
The rose petals just started floating down from the ceiling. It was like someone was just showering the room with them. This has happened several times over the years.

My creepiest and scariest ghost story for me happened about a year ago. It really was more of a posession than a ghost story. I was helping another nurse with a patient that had lived a very hard life. It had numerous things going on with him from cardiac to renal failure. You name it, he had it going on. This man was very much afraid to die. Every time his heart monitor beeped, he would just go into a rage screaming, "Don't let me die! Don't let me die!" The other nurse and I found out why he didn't want to die. About 0200 his cardiac monitor starts alarming V-Tach. We both rush into the room. I am pulling the crash cart behing me. When I get to the room, the other nurse is completely white. This man was sitting about 2 inches above the bed and was laughing. His whole look completely changed. His eyes just had a look of pure evil on them and he had this evil smile on his face. He laughed at us and said, " You stupid b****es aren't going to let me die will you?" and he laughed again. We were kinda frozen. I did reach up and hit the Code Blue button and when I did the man went into V-fib. He crashed back onto the bed. We started coding him, but after 20 minutes it was called. 5 minutes after the code was called several of the code team is in the room cleaning up when this man sits straight up in the bed and says, " You let him die. Too bad." and then begins laughing. The man collapsed back to the bed. We heard a horrible, agonizing scream ( actually every patient in the unit that night commented on the scream), and then you could hear "don't let me die" being whispered throughout the unit. Everyone of the nurses that night was pale and scared. No body went anywhere by themselves. By morning the whispers of "don't let me die" were gone. The night shift nurses had a prayer service in the break room before we left for home and then we all had nightmares for weeks.

OMGosh.

Specializes in Picu, ICU, Burn.

I hate to believe that children are ever left behind as ghosts. That said we have a room in the PICU I used to work at that is reserved to accomodate families with a dying child. Older patients who have died in the room have reported seeing other children in the room with them. Younger children have been known to point and track unseen things. Even the most hardened skeptic on the unit will tell you there is a strange static feel to the room.

On my third day of orientation at this hospital my preceptor took me for a walk through the 'old hospital' Its all boardrooms and resident's sleeping quarters now. But it was the night shift and all the sleeping rooms were empty. When I asked her why she grinned from ear to ear. She told me stories of nuns floating and kids giggling and running down the halls, lights flickering, and shadows darting. We didn't see anything that night but you couldn't get me out of there fast enough. I could have killed her! Then I understood why our residents and fellows will find an empty room anywhere in the hospital before sleeping up there.

Takem said:
Um, I'm not a nurse yet. Not even in college lol. But I lurk alot and had to share my story. It's part of the reason I want to be a nurse.

My mom was dying (we didn't know it at the time) and was in our small, West Virginia hospital. She wasn't on any medication (at least none that would make her...well, out of it). But she started drifting in and out. She would stare and the window and say stuff like "I've never seen so much candy, can we really eat it all?" Then look at me and said sorry I must have been dreaming. This went on for a while. She seemed to be talking about stuff she did as a kid with her brothers.

As she got sicker we had to move her to a hospital in Charleston. I knew she kept talking about dying, but nobody would let me know. Once before they took her took to get a stent placed in her kidney she told me "be all that you can be." I laughed at first because we always used to make fun of those lame Army commercials. But then it dawned on me that it was her wish.

Well the nurses in the MICU had a huge effect on me. I loved them. When we recieved news that my mom had to have a heart transplant...and wouldn't survive the operation...I ran crying from the conference room. I ran all the way down to the bathroom at the entrance of the area. This beautiful, beautiful nurse followed me all the way there. I even pushed her I think (I barely remember) but she just hugged me and wiped my tears up. I told her my mom was going to die and she said "not on my shift". She held me up as we walked back to the conference room. The doctor had mentioned that they had taken my mom off morphine a while ago and was going to ask her if she wanted to be a put on life support.

I left the room and went straight to my mom and asked her myself. She smiled and said no. She always said to keep her alive for me, not matter what. But I honestly believe she saw enough to make her want to go home.

After that the nurses had a hard time with her, she kept pulling out her oxygen. I tried talking to her but was scared of her. I asked her if she was going to dye her hair again and she laughed and said "no, what's the point?"

A few days before she died a distant relative called up to say she had saw my grandmother pulling up a black Caddy to take my mother home. She was convinced she already had died.

The night she died I wasn't with her. At first I was angry but now I'm glad I wasn't. My mother requested my father be allowed to sleep in the room with her that night, because she knew she was going to die. He did and around 4 AM she pulled off her oxygen, said take care of Beth (me). Then looked at the ceiling and said she was going to heaven. Then it was over.

I'm such a wussy, I would fall apart if I had a real experience like you all had. But I do have these dreams with my mom and grandma where we're riding in a red Mustang, in the sun with our black hair (no more gray for them!) just a flowing. My mom got the Cadillac, I know when my time comes, I get the Mustang.

I made up my mind after witnessing how the nurses cared for my mother, that it was the path meant for me. All this happened 4 years ago, when I was 12. I know my mom's with Jesus and that makes me happy.

Hi Beth......I work in the MICU at CAMC in Charleston where you are referring to.....I've posted a couple of ghost stories on here from the unit...Glad to hear that you had a good experience with our nurses in the unit when you were having a horrible experience in you life with your mother dying.......Keep your goals set on becoming a nurse...you'll make a great one, and who knows...maybe you'll work in the MICU at Charleston!!!

Nurse Valium said:

My favorite ghostly nursing story was actually experienced by my husband who is also a nurse. He was working at a small private hospital on a med/surg unit in a large metropolitan city. One of their "frequent fliers" was a woman named Louella who always requested the same room at the end of the hall if it were available at the time of her admission. Louella's husband Roy was very loving & doting and they refused assistance with her personal care when she was a patient as Roy did everything for her. The only time Roy left the bedside was to step to the nurse's station for a cup of coffee & inevitably before he returned to her side, Louella would be heard calling "Roy....Roy..."

Eventually Louella died at that hospital in "her" room.

Many months later a salesman is traveling through the state, experiences chest pain & pulls into the hospital. He was treated & placed in the same room that Louella had always requested. Younger, awake, alert, oriented & non-medicated.

My husband said that during the night the patient called the nurses station and asked if someone could "please help that lady so I can get some sleep."

The nurses hadn't heard anything but quickly made rounds to see if someone needed assistance. No one claimed to have called out & no one else heard the disturbance.

Shortly thereafter the patient calls the nurses station again requesting that someone "please make her shut up so I can get some sleep."

Again, made rounds, didn't hear anything, didn't see anyone that needed help.

The next call to the nurses station the patient asked if someone could "please help her find Roy so she will be quiet." My husband said that even then the staff wasn't unusually alarmed & even discussed the possibility that it was coming through the air conditioning vent & was maybe someone on another floor that was calling out.

The NEXT call to the nurses station, the patient says "She says her name is Louella & she needs help finding Roy." Everyone at this point is quite freaked out having known Louella & the history. Hubby says that a seasoned nurse walked into the room in question, opened the window (the inch that they will) and said very loudly "Get out Louella! You have to leave now."

My husband worked at that facility for another year & they never heard another peep from Louella.

That was a good one, I worked in a hospital where it was part of a post code to open the window a crack. As a new manager I had never heard of it but there was no changing it!

StatBlues said:
I should have been more clear.

I meant to bless the room and ask God to send someone to take these souls over to the other side.

Wont hurt.............ya know.

O ok sorry I misunderestood. I was thinking the thought was "this is evil" not "O these poor souls" or something like that.

Specializes in Case Management.

Sorry, I just don't want to let this thread die, pardon the pun.

When my grandma was diagnosed in the early 80's with leukemia, she was treated at one of the best and largest teaching hospitals in the city. She received the latest treatment, but back then, cancer treatment was not as advanced as it is now. She fought the good fight, and when it was her time she was resigned that she had lived a full life and was ready to go.

In the end, she went into multiorgan failure, and the sight of her all swollen and in a coma was too much for me, I broke down at her bedside and I was inconsolable. A young nurse and mother, I had had my share of treating the dying, but when it is your own family, it is different. My mother and grandmother had an agreement, if there was some way for Grandma to let her know she had passed, she would do so in a way that Mom would recognize. As it turns out, I was alone with her when her heart rate dropped to the 30's, and death was indeed very near, a called out for my Mom who was calling her brother on a phone outside the curtains, As my mother stepped around the curtains, I whispered, she is going. Mom said, Patti, what is that smoke coming out of her head. I thought she was thinking I set Grandmas hair on fire. I did not see the smoke. But my Mom did and swore she was looking at my Grandma's spirit leaving her body. I didn't really believe her, however, when the resident approached my Mom about donating Grandma's body to medical science for teaching, my mom said she would check with my Grandfather who was at home, exhausted from the daily trips to Pittsburgh, he had stayed home this day. When she dialed his number, she only received static, she tried several times, and continued to hear static on the line, and the calls were not able to go through. Knowing Grandma like we did, we were sure that she was making her feelings known. She always used to say, "You know Patti, when I was young, I was a flapper" she was all proud of how she looked. Knowing what those medical students do with the cadavers, I am sure she did not want to have her body treated that way. So anyway, fast forward 5 years or so, My grandfather hit the lottery, for a good amount, it came out to about $30,000 a year, enough to take care of his needs along with his social security, etc. A couple years later, he started losing his ability to care for himself, and Mom made the decision to place him in assisted living. It just so happened that at that very time a new assisted living facility was opening up in the town where Mom lived, and the money he won in the lottery with his social security was just enough to cover his expenses in this new facility. We are pretty sure Grandma played a part in it from up there. I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Specializes in Labor and Delivery.
gr8rnpjt said:
I keep hoping Grandma will throw me some numbers some day soon.

Maybe she could throw some my way too. :chuckle

When I first started working as an LPN I worked the night shift at a LTC facility. There was a young woman I cared for who was in the end stages of MS. She was basically in a vegetative state. About a week after she passed away I saw her. She was wearing a pink, silk nightgown. Her posture was erect, arms hanging straight at her side. Her hair looked so soft and shiny. Her complexion so clear and glowing. I saw her walk right past me. It was the most wonderful experience...to see her healthy and whole again. It wasn't at all scary, and to this day brings tears to my eyes to think how beautiful and peaceful she looked. I have debated about whether to tell her mother, who occasionally still visits other residents, about what I witnessed. I wouldn't want her to think I was some kind of nut.

Many other strange things would go on at night. Call lights would go off in empty rooms. We would hear doors opening and closing. And one night while sitting in the breakroom, there was a knocking sound on the wall...and on the other side of the wall was an office that was locked!!

Working the night shift definitely made me a believer!!

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