I was just wondering if anyone out there has had any "ghostly" experiences as a nurse? I have had several unexplainable things happen during my career but two really come to mind..
I took care of a beautiful little old lady when I was a fairly new nurse in a nursing home. This lady used to sit next to me at the nurses station nearly all night long when I worked nights. I would give her a pile of washcloths to fold which she would do then I would mess them up and she would do it again..we would "chat" and have a cup of tea...she was a darling. She always used to reach over and touch my hair and say "your hair is so pretty". I was charge the night she was dying and I spent quite a lot of time in her room with her keeping her comfortable since her "family" could not "handle" being there.. As I was listening to her lungs she passed. I stood there and of course got all teary..I swear I felt a hand touch my hair and I heard a sort of a woosh by my left ear..
The other was not so pleasant..this woman (also at the nursing home) was a mean and nasty person and she did not have dementia. She would scratch and try to bite and spit her pills all over and swear..I came on shift at 11p and saw her at 1130..I was at the nurses station charting probably an hour later when the CNAs did 12 pm rounds and all of a sudden I hear a loud scream from her room. Myself and the other RN on ran to the room and the woman was dead but she was grasping the side rails and she had a look of utter terror on her face..I still have chills when I think of what she looked like..there was no warning of her death..If there is a grim repaer, she looked like she saw him. The other nurse and I have been best friends since working together there and we still talk about that night..
I was just wondering of anyone else has ever experienced anything like this while nursing...?? Erin
I too have read that book by James Van Praugh. I loved it and thought he had some great insight on life after death.
Another great one to read is embraced by the light. Not sure of the author but she tells of an incredible near death experience.
As to weather we as healthcare proffessionals have a sort of sixth sense; I too believe that we do, like Erin mentioned about that "gut feeling." I've had that many times in my life even outside of work, I also call in women's intuition, but it works. I am so glad that this thread was started because this sort of topic is one of the reasons I personally got into the healthcare field and hope to work as a Hospice nurse one day. I just have so much belief and passion in this topic and yearn to always learn more about our purpose here in life.
Did anyone else out there feel like they were literally "called" to a life in nursing? It was a very spiritual experience and gift to me. Also, has anyone talked to or dealt with any patients or children who have had near death experiences?
you asked about near death experience.I' don't know what to call it,but it was an experience.I had a lot of bleeding after my son was born.i went back to the or the next day to see what was going on.i remember waking up in post op and feeling like someone was choking me and trying to sit up grabbing my throat,then it all went black.I then was looking at myself on the bed for a brief second from the corner of the room.Then i was back in the bed with someone calling my name,but i was so tired and far away from them.I opened my eyes and looked up in the corner.Two black floating "things" without facial features that had the appearance of human form were floating in that corner.they were talking to each other without speaking for a little while. they turned to me and told me it's not time to go yet.I remember being shaken and poked and prodded.Multiple staff were all around me calling my name and shaking me.I was told i sat up and pointed to that area and was saying "take me with you"over and over afterwards.i had an almost deadly reaction to anesthesia and had to be zapped. 3 times.i really freaked the Mds and nurses out.i worked in ICU at this hospital.The black things followed us in the elevator to my room,then left.I don't know what or who they were,but that's ok.:chuckle Now I can really tell a lot of times if pts pr people in general are going to die soon.it is creepy.I guess those things left more here than they took with them.
Shortly after my Mom passed my daughter and I were making my dads bed. I was telling her that maybe someday Nana woul let us know that she was okay. Sounds dumb, but I felt she might be ticked off as she'd told my father under no uncertain circumstances did she want to have an open casket and have people gawking at her. Well, he decided to have the open casket anyways and that has always bugged me.......but back to the story.....shortly after I said maybe some day Nan will let us know she's okay......the lights flicked on and off......only in that bedroom.....not in the living room where my husband and son were....no where else in the house. It was kinda weird.
Also another great book is "Hello From Heaven." A good friend bought that book for me shortly after my mom passed. It has several short stories of incidents like the one I just mentioned. Well worth the read.
This thread is AWESOME, thanks for starting it Erin
i worked in a LTC facility and took care of a very nice man who was dying slowly of CHF. His family wouldnt believe us. A few days before he passed, he was sitting in a chair in the hall, and began singing about angels he could see.....
Had loads of ghostly experiences but two that stick in my mind are the time a lovely gentleman passed away and for days after and sometimes even now the call bell for the bed he was in will go off for no reason, even when there are no patients in that bed or we have had patients who have not been able to use the call bell for that bed.
Second one was one time I was attending to a patient's IV and out of the corner of my eye I saw "the other nurse" I was on duty with, I was telling her something, when I turned round she had gone so I assumed she had gone to attend to another patient. When I returned to the nursing station and asked her opinion on something she didn't have a clue what I was talking about and said she had been with Mrs. **** for 10 minutes. I checked this out with Mrs. **** who said that Nurse *** had been with her for at least 10 minutes because her catheter had blocked.
I have no idea to this day who I was talking to, other than it was definitely a nurse, (but there was only me and Nurse ***** on duty) spooky!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..
I had a near death experience in April 2001 Louise.
I had caught a cold that just would not go away. I made and ate chicken soup, kept hydrating myself with lots of warm liquids, etc. the works. But it just would not go away.
Then one night after I had the cold about a week, my breathing didn't seem right, so I asked my daughter to go with me to the ER to get the pain in my side checked out. I was treated for an hour with albuterol, was infused with mega doses of Solu-Medrol, etc, and was admitted with a diagnosis of status asthmaticus R/T acute bronchitis. I was slowly getting better, and was walking the hall tid. I was pushing a wheelchair with an oxygen tank on it for my assisted breathing. I got half way down the hall when I suddenly became breathless. I sat down in the wheelchair and rested a few minutes, then I got back up and when I got to the end of the hall, I had to sit down again.
An on call physician was watching me, and I didn't know it. But he came to where I was and listened to my lungs, then he turned around and went back to the nurses desk area. I eventually made my way back there too, but when I did, I asked my nurse if I could take the rest of the afternoon off, because I felt like I had just run a marathon, and I weighed two tons. The doctor was talking on the phone. A little while later, I was taken for a chest
X ray.
I don't remember much after that until the following morning when my doctor came to see me and asked me what happened.
After I related my experience, he ordered a CT scan with a contrast dye. I was so breathless.
Two IV teams were unsuccessful in getting an IV to stabilize. Every time they gained access to a site, my vein would pop. They finally convinced my doctor to order a central line placed in my jugular vein. I have severe osteoarthritis of the neck and I sometimes wear a cervical collar to stabilize it. That day was one of the days I was wearing it. When the physician saw it, he asked me why I was wearing it. I told him, and the then said he couldn't put a central line in then.
On my third breathless and extremely weak condition, I was transferred to a lung perfusion machine. A Pulmonologist was called in to listen to my lungs, and then I had the test.
Sometime during that very weak and breathless yet peaceful day, I seemed to have dropped off to sleep. I dreamed I was sitting down, leaning against a tree, when all of a sudden I was above the clouds looking down toward the earth. I was with God, and He took me on a tour. It was so bright, and warm, and pretty there. But He showed me the people in a tan, waferlike form, and told me that we think we're so strong when in fact we are weak and frail like the wafer-like forms I was looking at.
Then He showed me people in all situations, and told my what made Him sad, or even cry, and what made Him smile, laugh, and even rejoice. Then He told me I had to go back to earth because He had some more for me to do. I didn't want to return.
After I was nicely settled back in my bed feeling like a baby bird all curled up in its nest, the Pulmonologist entered my room and said, "You've got a bunch of blood clots in your lungs."
Since that incident, I seem to now have a premonition about when to go to the ER. (I have COPD) Twice, right after I entered the ER, I went into respiratory failure, and was intubated. I had pneumonia three times that year, and it was accompanied by septicemia the second time.
And oh my did I ever have spasms from the central line that was inserted in my neck.
I currently also saw a figure in my bathroom on Christmas Eve. I had to go to the bathroom, but I heard someone in there urinating. I glanced in there and saw someone with white underwear on facing the toilet. So I waited a few minutes, and the figure then sat on the toilet. Thinking by this time it was my grandson, and each time I glanced in there, the figure leaned forward to look back at me, I decided to lay back down for a few minutes. Then after about 15 minutes, I got up and went to the bathroom, thinking that my daughter and grandchildren had arrived, but were extra quiet so I wouldn't be disturbed.
The next morning, as I got up and went into the livingroom, fully expecting to see my grandson laying on the loveseat, the room was empty.
Just wondered if anyone else on the board ever heard of that specifically happening.
D... [/b]
When I worked in hospice, I saw this happening with most all the people I took care of. It was very rare for it to not happen. Pts have what we called roller coaster effects. Before they die, they are at the highest peak and the most alert they have been in a long time. They talk with their family members that are deceased and sometimes talk with people not known by the living family members. This is very real to them. They cant understand why we cant see such and such in the corner, on their bed, or at the foot of their bed. I personally believe there is a presence beyond what we can see. I have seen this take place one week to minutes before their death. Their pupils actually dialate as if can visualize a presence.
I noticed that several people mentioned some good books about death/dying. Another good one is called The Evolution Angel : An Emergency Physician's Lessons with Death and the Divine. It is fascinating! The back cover reads: "For years, emergency and trauma physician Michael Abrams saw his patients dying in every conceivable way. In time he began to wonder if there was anything he could do to help the souls of the dying make the harrowing transition into the next world. Extending himself to the dying in a silent communion akin to prayer, he made a life-changing discovery."
There is also a website on Dr. Abrams and his book:
I too have read that book by James Van Praugh. I loved it and thought he had some great insight on life after death.
Another great one to read is embraced by the light. Not sure of the author but she tells of an incredible near death experience.
As to weather we as healthcare proffessionals have a sort of sixth sense; I too believe that we do, like Erin mentioned about that "gut feeling." I've had that many times in my life even outside of work, I also call in women's intuition, but it works. I am so glad that this thread was started because this sort of topic is one of the reasons I personally got into the healthcare field and hope to work as a Hospice nurse one day. I just have so much belief and passion in this topic and yearn to always learn more about our purpose here in life.
Did anyone else out there feel like they were literally "called" to a life in nursing? It was a very spiritual experience and gift to me. Also, has anyone talked to or dealt with any patients or children who have had near death experiences?
Louise
Louise
"Embraced by the light" is by Betty Eade..For anyone who has not read it..it is a thin, quick read and fascinating..I have read it a couple of times. I love that book...now I will have to go and dig it out as it has been a couple of years since I read it!! Erin
In a hospital's Intensive Care ward, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11am, regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the supernatural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11 am on Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents. The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11am, all doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.
In a hospital's Intensive Care ward, patients always died in the same bed, on Sunday morning, at about 11am, regardless of their medical condition. This puzzled the doctors and some even thought it had something to do with the supernatural. No one could solve the mystery as to why the deaths occurred around 11 am on Sunday, so a worldwide team of experts was assembled to investigate the cause of the incidents. The next Sunday morning, a few minutes before 11am, all doctors and nurses nervously waited outside the ward to see for themselves what the terrible phenomenon was all about. Some were holding wooden crosses, prayer books and other holy objects to ward off the evil spirits. Just when the clock struck 11, Pookie Johnson, the part-time Sunday sweeper, entered the ward and unplugged the life support system so he could use the vacuum cleaner.
Louisepug
151 Posts
Erin,
I too have read that book by James Van Praugh. I loved it and thought he had some great insight on life after death.
Another great one to read is embraced by the light. Not sure of the author but she tells of an incredible near death experience.
As to weather we as healthcare proffessionals have a sort of sixth sense; I too believe that we do, like Erin mentioned about that "gut feeling." I've had that many times in my life even outside of work, I also call in women's intuition, but it works. I am so glad that this thread was started because this sort of topic is one of the reasons I personally got into the healthcare field and hope to work as a Hospice nurse one day. I just have so much belief and passion in this topic and yearn to always learn more about our purpose here in life.
Did anyone else out there feel like they were literally "called" to a life in nursing? It was a very spiritual experience and gift to me. Also, has anyone talked to or dealt with any patients or children who have had near death experiences?
Louise