Freaky Things

[ThrowEdNurse]

So, am watching tv with the hubby. We are watching some ghost hunting show which he totally loves. I think it's poo poo. My arguement, "if places where people die are so haunted, wouldn't I always get spooked @ work. We don't have any ghosts or anything like that." He says we do, but we are just too busy to notice. Anyway, I think it would be fun if everyone told a freaky story. Surely everyone has a freaky death story, right? You know, the story everyone loves to tell. Here's mine. A few years ago a pt came in and she was really sick....near code sick. One of the md's was at the foot of her bed giving verbal orders. The pt begins moving her hand in this shooing motion. The nurse asked her what was wrong, what was she doing? The pt says, "get him out of here. make him leave!" The nurse said, "that's the dr, honey, he's trying to help you." The pt said, "no, not him! That man next to him, please, make him leave, he's scaring me!" (there was no one else there.) Seconds later, the pt coded. (insert scary music here)

[marmsgirl]

I've had a couple experiences with weird happenings with patient's death. One recently that comes to mind:

We had patient (mr.Y) who had been patient for week or so. He was elderly and not in good health but not circling drain so to speak. Mr Y was typically sundowner, he came awake at dusk. Anyway, one night Mr Y kept telling aid "I am going to die". at one point during early morning aid told Mr Y "you are not going to die". He was right~~Mr. Y died that day. We were shocked when we came on shift that night and learned he had died. We definitely learned a lesson!

[I_LOVE_TRAUMA, RN]

The most important thing that I have learned in the last almost 13 years is that if a patient says that they are going to die-they usually are dead within 48 hours, no matter what interventions we do. Also when they start seeing dead family members-you better put the code cart outside their door!

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

I was taking care of a lady with Alzheimer's who barely spoke anymore, and when she did, it was usually random syllables, not words. I hadn't heard her utter a full sentence in months. Well I was giving her a bath on the commode and I had my back to the door, and all of a sudden she looked over my shoulder, her eyes got huge, and she said, "Don't turn around" clear as day. This was in her home and we were the only ones there.

Oh my goodness that freaked me out just reading about it!

[Ouch!]

My story isn't set in a hospital enviroment, but it happend when I was still a nursing student.

A longtime friend of my gran was terminal with Ca breast. I visited her once while she was sick and cared for at home. That day she gave me all of her nursing certificates and documents that she considered important to her, because she was thrilled that I had decided to become a nurse. Anyway a few weeks later I had a dream that I saw her and she was fine ( she had bilat mastectomy). She was happy and cheerfull and when I asked her how she was doing, she said that she felt fantastic. She gave me a hug and off she went!

Needless to say that when I spoke to my mom later that day, she said that aunt Lou had died early that morning, I said "I know, she came to me early this morning to say goodbye"

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

years ago, i worked with a nurse who was in an abusive marriage. for some reason, she picked me of all the nurses in our unit to be her confidante. (perhaps because i, too am a domestic violence survivor.) i was working the night shift; i had two icu patients in a double room at the end of the hall. it was about 4 in the morning, and i was sitting in the room charting and watching my demented little old lady try to pull out her lines, tubes, etc. nancy came into the room and began speaking to me.

"i just wanted to tell you thank you," she said. "thanks for letting me vent, and thanks for letting me know i'm not the only person who was ever stupid enough to get into a situation like this."

"what are you doing here at 4am? you're not supposed to be to work until 7!"

"i wanted to tell you thank you and goodbye," she said. i thought that was pretty weird, but about that moment my little old lady managed to get her hand wrapped around her chest tube and gave it enough of a yank to pull it out. nancy pushed the code light for me, and then i was so busy i lost track of her. she wasn't in the room when we were staunching the bleeding, doing a stat chest x-ray and placing a new chest tube. and she didn't show up at 7am to relieve me. i ended up staying until 11.

by the time i went home that morning, we'd tried to call nancy several times to find out why she wasn't at work. strangely, i didn't tell anyone about her visit at 4. i'm not sure why i didn't, i just didn't. it didn't seem right somehow. and afterward, when i was sitting in the church at her funeral, i was really, truly glad i hadn't said anything. you see, when she visited me at 4 am, she was already dead.

[texastaz]

I was working night shift in an assistant living facility. At about 2am a call light came on so I went to the room to check. The room was empty - no furniture, nothing, empty. I told the other CNA that was on duty. She said -Yes - it happens all the time, it is The Ghost. Sure enough it would happen every night-even as many as 3 times in one night. Everytime the light would go off the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up. I was told electricians had been to the room several times trying to figure out if there was a short and nothing could be found. I had one day time CNA tell me that is why she won't work night shifts because of The Ghost. After four nights of that I was glad I worked for Agency. I never went back to that facility again eventhough it was one of the easiest assignments I ever had.

[ERjodiRN]

we have an area called 1 south that we have designated as our fast-track area. it's in the older part of the hospital, is run down, and everyone swears there's a ghost there. there are always doors closing without help, call lights going off, etc. up until a certain point i had always chalked it up to something more logical than a ghost. like if there was a window open somewhere the pressure can force doors closed, and that electrical shorts with the call lights are very common. well one night i was the lucky nurse who got to close down that area. i was cleaning the room that was notorious for having the ever-ringing call light. i turned off the lights and walked out. seconds later the call light went off. i walked back in and saw the call light on the floor. i couldn't honestly remember placing it anywhere in particular so i wasn't bothered by it. i tied the cord around the side rail, made sure everything was plugged in correctly, then walked out again. i got to the nurse's station and heard the call light go off again. sure enough....room 108. so i'm just thinking it's the connection so i was going to go in and unplug it completely. i walked in there, and saw that the call light was on the ground again....totally unwrapped from the side rail. that's when i got chills and left without stopping:)

[AngelfireRN, MSN, RN, APRN]

years ago, i worked with a nurse who was in an abusive marriage. for some reason, she picked me of all the nurses in our unit to be her confidante. (perhaps because i, too am a domestic violence survivor.) i was working the night shift; i had two icu patients in a double room at the end of the hall. it was about 4 in the morning, and i was sitting in the room charting and watching my demented little old lady try to pull out her lines, tubes, etc. nancy came into the room and began speaking to me.

"i just wanted to tell you thank you," she said. "thanks for letting me vent, and thanks for letting me know i'm not the only person who was ever stupid enough to get into a situation like this."

"what are you doing here at 4am? you're not supposed to be to work until 7!"

"i wanted to tell you thank you and goodbye," she said. i thought that was pretty weird, but about that moment my little old lady managed to get her hand wrapped around her chest tube and gave it enough of a yank to pull it out. nancy pushed the code light for me, and then i was so busy i lost track of her. she wasn't in the room when we were staunching the bleeding, doing a stat chest x-ray and placing a new chest tube. and she didn't show up at 7am to relieve me. i ended up staying until 11.

by the time i went home that morning, we'd tried to call nancy several times to find out why she wasn't at work. strangely, i didn't tell anyone about her visit at 4. i'm not sure why i didn't, i just didn't. it didn't seem right somehow. and afterward, when i was sitting in the church at her funeral, i was really, truly glad i hadn't said anything. you see, when she visited me at 4 am, she was already dead.

mother of god in heaven.

[wndblws]

One of the ICU's I worked in had a room where I saw someone standing over the bed of a comatose vented pateint, at first I thought it was the resp therapist, next thing I know the resp therapist came walking into the unit. I was telling another nurse that I has seen someone standing beside the bed and she said a lot of strange things happen in that room and one nurse refuses to be assigned to that room.

[Glaiza_mei]

cool! I love hospital ghost stories. hehehe... There's one which was shared to me by a friend during his student days rotation in the Adult ICU.

They say that there's a cubicle in the ICU in a particular hospital which was haunted. When placing a patient there, he/she will always end up in a code and expires. They say that a child is playing in that room or roaming the ICU plus other spirits living there. So that cubicle was usually close and is only used when there's no more vacant room.

My friend was assigned to a patient whose cubicle was right beside the haunted one. His patient was still conscious but drowsy. I think the patient has a pacemaker or something. During the night shift, my friend was there taking care of her. OF course my friend had to go somewhere at times to check on somebody, or take a break or pee. One time when he went to take a pee, he endorsed his patient to his classmate to check on his patient once in a while. He told the patient that he had to go to the comfort room.

When he came back, he saw his patient somewhat irritated. So he asked her what's the matter. The patient told him, "Will you please tell that child to not enter my room?! He's so noisy. I'm trying to sleep." My friend was like..."O_O Ma'am, there's no children allowed in the ICU." He was so scared that his patient my end up in a code or something. He told their clinical instructor of what his patient told him. Even his instructor had goosebumps and told him to keep watch of his patient. They payed twice the attention to that patient. Praying, etc.

Thankfully, nothing happened to the patient and was still alive and stable until the end of their shift. ^__^