Bizarre stories - Believe it or not?

[p.rabbit]

Forum contributors,

Here is a call out for all of those bizarre and unexplainable (miraculous?) stories and experiences that many of us have had over the years. I will start with a few of them.

In my previus life as a Respiratory Therapist, I was working at a moderate (350 beds) sized hospital in Southern California. One night in the ICU a man in his late 60's died. He was a "no-code", as he had end stage pulmonary disease. His death was not unexpected. We saw his rhythm deteriorate to asystole and his breathing ceased, the Nurse called the Pulmonologist, who happened to be in the hospital and he came and pronounced the death in the usual fashion. As the ICU was very busy that night, the death care was delayed, and in fact the cardiac monitor was still attached to the patient. Imagine our amazement, when about 15-20 minutes later, a cardiac rhythm was noted on the monitor, he began breathing and WOKE UP! Yes, folks this really happened. In fact, this man was discharged from the hospital "normal".

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Another time, now working as a nurse for about 10 years in the Cardiac ICU:

Mrs. X, another "no-code" with end-stage cardiac disease, spent the last 20 minutes of her life with a heart rate of about 4, (agonally, agonal) making these strange, spooky moaning noises. My friend and I did not care to go into that room until she was really gone....................and all her spooks with her!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Just last year, Mrs. P, was transferred to our CICU from the floor, with end-stage cardiomyopathy in heart failure. She too was a no code. During the day she was seen to be talking to someone, but there were no visitors in the room. When asked by the day nurse, she said she was talking to her Momma. She would say things like, "Is it time to go now; can I come now"? and so on. Her day Nurse, was very accepting of this, but told the woman quite firmly;" I must go home at 7:15 tonight, so don't leave until 7:30". Sure enough! Margo the day-nurse finished her shift and Mrs. P, gave up the ghost at precisely 7:30pm!

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The stories are out there and you can now unload your burden!

p.rabbit

[Ann4]

How about a patient in neuro ICU who was "brain dead" for days, finally extubated and allowed to die, and upon taking her last few breaths raised both arms straight up and out from under the blankets?? That was pretty creepy.

On another occasion I briefly saw the ghost of a patient that I had taken care of for weeks. He was wandering around in the hospital room where he'd died about 8 hours after his death. I wasn't shaken at all by it, but my coworkers ran back there to check after I told them what I'd seen. I don't think they believed me.

[Tina Harrington, BSN, RN]

This was pretty creepy...... working on night duty on a busy medical ward, there was a young Doctor in a side room and in the next room to him was an old guy, 3am in the morning the young Doctors buzzer rang, when I went to see what he wanted he said "I think ya best go see the guy next door, he just died...... I just saw his soul float through my window"" !!! Went to the old guy's room quite sheepishly to find that he had indeed died....... I fell over my own feet getting back to the nurses station.

[p.rabbit]

Here's another great story,

This was told to me by a Physical Therapist friend of mine who had this experience.

He resides in the San Diego area. He had been seeing and treating a post-stroke patient, a woman in her early 70's. She had a hemi-paresis, such that she absolutely required a walker to ambultate because one of her legs was essentially useless. He had been seeing her on a regular basis, and one morning when he came to her room, he found standing in the room doing her morning care, with no apparent weakness. This is what she related to him:

"Last night I woke up and needed to use the bathroom. I reached for my walker that I normally keep beside my bed, but apparently the Nurse had mistakenly left it across the room and my call bell was not within reach. I saw a man in the room and I asked him for assistance, just to bring me my walker. He told me that I no longer needed it. I told him again, to please bring me the walker, but he insisted that I did not need it. Imagine my amazement to find that I could stand and walk! When I came out from using the rest room there was no one in the room and when I later inquired about who he was, no one had seen him come in."

I guess you might call this an angel or something of the like.

p.rabbit

[JillR]

This is not a nursing story but when I was a little girl of maybe seven or eight my grandfather died. Soon after that I was woke from a dream and went to parents room to sleep with them.

I was standing at the side of the bed trying to wake my mom and ask her if I could get in with them and I looked up and at the end of the bed was my grandfather. I just stood there for a couple of seconds and stared at him, and then when I realized that he should not be there because he was dead, I let out a terrible scream. He just dissappeared in front of my eyes, he kind of dissipated.

Mu parents told me I was just still asleep and dreaming, but I am conviced to this day that this happened.

When, a few years ago, I confessed this to my grandma, she said that she had seen him too.

[Rob Johnson]

This isn't really a ghost story or anything like that. Just sort of an interestingly weird thing that happened.

I used to work as an orderly at a community hospital in the upper peninsula of Michigan in the early 80s. One summer day, an ambulance brought in a man in his early 40s who had been water skiing, let his tips go under, slammed into the water and was brought out in cardiac arrest.

I got called down to assist and was assigned to do chest compressions. The patient was intubated in the ER, and had been in arrest for probably 30-40 minutes. So, I start doing compressions and after a couple minutes he starts making the "waking up with a tube in his throat" noises. So, I get off the chest, and he's in this pulseless idioventricular rhythm and goes out. Back on the chest and after a couple minutes, he opens his eyes and looks around. I stop CPR, and he goes out again. I start compressions again, and after about 10 compressions he opens his eyes, looks at me, and reaches up and grabs on tightly to my arms! So, naturally, I stop compressions and boom, out he goes again. All during this time he's been in a pulseless idioventricular rhythm. This happened two more times, with him waking up and looking around until I stopped compressions, then him going out again. Eventually, he stopped coming around and never regained consiousness and died.

I was 19 or 20 at the time. That's one of the weirder things I've experienced.