Be Careful What You Wish For On Halloween!

madwife2002, BSN, RN

When I was a new nurse back in 1993, I worked in a very old hospital in the UK. It was an old TB institute that became a large teaching hospital probably around the 1950's.

It had old long drafty corridors which didn't lock to the outside. The wind would whistle through them all night long. The 'wards' as we call floors in the UK were all long nightingale wards with about 15 beds either side.

On the way out of the wards we had a couple of single rooms where you would put patients who were dying or in isolation.

The main door way would lead to one of the long drafty corridors which would take you to either the staircase leading you up to B or C wards on the second or third floor... or connect to other ground floor wards.

All wards were identical, they were dotted along the corridors. Along these corridors, were offices opposite the wards.

Ok, so I hope you have some sort of picture in your mind of the setup of the hospital.

As a nurse in the UK in the 90's you would rotate from days to nights, normally even the newest nurse on nights would be 'in charge'.

My specialty was Nephrology; I worked in a renal unit which is very different in the UK.

As a renal nurse you would look after Acute, Chronic and End stage renal pts from admission to discharge, from all the surrounding local hospitals. You would be their surgical and medical nurse.

We had a lot of patients on peritoneal home dialysis, which meant they called us all night with complications to trouble shoot, and often we would admit the patients directly.

If we admitted the patient directly, we would inform the Dr that we had a sick patient on their way in, and we would have to go and find their notes-huge big files which were stored either in an office on the 'kidney unit' or in an office off the main corridor called TU6.

So when a patient called the ward at 4am to say he had peritonitis and was on his was in for antibiotics or admission depending on the severity, we needed to get their notes.

So on this warm summer night I went to the 'kidney unit' which was our chronic hemodialysis unit to look for the notes. Located between our ward and the male nephrology ward was our sister ward which was a female nephrology ward.

I looked high and low and couldn't find them, so I went to the female ward and retrieved the keys to go and look in the main offices on TU6.

To get to TU6 I had to go down the cold, windy badly lit corridor! I was very familiar with working in this environment because in the UK at night all the lights are either off or dimmed.

I unlocked the corridor to TU6 but couldn't find the light switch so I went down there in the dark until I reached the door to the office. I unlocked the door and entered the charting office. There was enough light spilling from the main corridor to allow me to see where I was going.

I went in and searched for the patient's notes, but it was chaos in there and I didn't find them. So I left the office with my mind thinking about where I was going to find the patient's notes and how the Dr was going to be annoyed that we had no previous information on the patient.

I left the room turned to lock the door when I felt a cold dark menacing presence behind me! My back turned icy cold and the hair on my neck stood on end. I felt an overwhelming feeling of evil! I froze for a second then all I could think of was getting away from what was behind me!

My hands were shaking as I put the key in the lock and turned it, all the time I could feel this menacing icy cold presence behind me pressing into me.

At no time did I turn round, I walked yes I really did! I walked towards the main corridor; I could see a small amount of light spilling in through the half glass doors and I walked towards it without running because that's really what I wanted to do!

All the time, I could feel this thing behind me following me. I went through the door, and shut it quickly, I turned and locked the door looking for the first time down towards where I had come from, I could see nothing but the horrible icy feeling had gone.

I returned to my ward where the other staff said to me "You are so pale and white you look like you have seen a ghost?" I told them where I had been and what had happened and they all looked at me with deadly seriousness, they told me that nobody ever went to TU6 at night alone ever because it is rumored to be haunted!

I don't normally believe in rumors but that was one rumor that was true, I know that something evil was down that corridor and it didn't like me. I never ever went to TU6 at night again, and even when I had to go there in the day I would be scared. Yet it never happened to me again.

I never felt that feeling again. But I can never ever forget how it made me feel!

I have had other ghostly experiences in my 23yrs as a nurse but they were pleasant and non-threatening, they did not scare me.

I know for sure there are evil presences out there, I know because I experienced it!

Be careful of what you wish for this Halloween, because it might not be just trick or treats

Be Careful What You Wish For On Halloween!

About madwife2002, BSN, RN

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