Nursing and the supernatural

[nursingaround1]

Just wondering if anyone has seen some patients near death/in the process of dying, have something supernatural happen. I can't say I've ever seen anything with the deaths I've seen, in fact generally it hasn't been very pleasant at all, but within the last year, some spooky things began to happen when a new nurse joined our team, and the school bought an run down old people's home and renovated it, to use as our new health center.

Two things happened recently; the first was on the night shift, when the clinic was empty, with my new colleague. She was just about to go to sleep, when there was a loud bang, and her bed shook violently. She was pretty freaked out, and refused to sleep there, and every night shift stayed up all night with the light on, reading or on her laptop - unless of course students are in for observation, whereupon she's busy.

The second thing happened soon after this first event, which we were both discussing one evening, was she got a phone call saying a friend had died in an accident. She was naturally upset, and we were discussing whether we thought there was more beyond this life, when the door between the offices swung closed and clicked shut. Sent a shiver down my spine, and hers too. It's an enclosed space, with no breezes. We were quite freaked out.

Anyway, we find in a cupboard in the bedroom some salt, incense, candle and big crystal rock, with a hole cut out to put the candle in, and talk about this with the other nurses, and one admits to being a 'spiritualist' and the noises in the night are nothing to worry about.

Anyway, the new nurse is quite upset, and we agree to get the local minister in to have a look around. He blesses the place, and since then nothing has happened.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced anything.

[TheGooch]

I did some CNA work for a friend of a friend. Her dad was dying and on Hospice, but wanted to die in his home so he had aides come at certain points in the day to take care of him. His daughter didn't trust the CNAs who came by, so she set up baby monitors all around the house. After seeing those CNAs doing horrible things over the nannycams (neglect, abuse), she hired me to take care of him.

The night he passed away, I was in the kitchen doing dishes and I kept feeling someone tapping on my shoulder. I also felt a lot of unexplainable breezes, and just a warm presence. I thought I was just spooking myself out, until we looked back at the nannycam footage. Cups sliding multiple feet across the counters, and random bursts of white light across the screen, and his dog barking at something that wasn't there. I think it was his wife taking him to the other side. It was a very spiritual experience!

When my Mom was dying she told us that she saw dead relatives.

[chopwood carrywater]

Nope.

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

LOL. I guess the person you replied to never thought of that.

Never considered it as I don't believe in ghosts as they are an extension of the concept of everlasting life which is in turn a concept propagated by organized religion as a means of controlling the masses. Just sayin'. I'll know for sure when I'm dead. Or not.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Ya know, if there was actually anything to the supernatural thing, those of us in the er & units would be tripping over ghosts and slamming doors and such. Be really hard to get any work done.

I think you somehow have to be "open" to it to see anything supernatural. And I'm thinking that folks who were given to seeing the supernatural would stay away from the ER if at all possible.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

Nope.

Using the quote function would be helpful so we'd all know what you're disagreeing with.

[Purple_roses]

When my Mom was dying she told us that she saw dead relatives.

Whoa.

[TheGooch]

Never considered it as I don't believe in ghosts as they are an extension of the concept of everlasting life which is in turn a concept propagated by organized religion as a means of controlling the masses. Just sayin'. I'll know for sure when I'm dead. Or not.

LOL. I don't subscribe to any religion. But I do believe in ghosts. Maybe you need to see one-then you'll believe.

[TheGooch]

Whoa.

She saw dead people even before she was dying. She saw my dead cousin at a relatives house that she spent a lot of time at. We never went to the funeral because we were in another state but she said the little girl she saw had a pink dress on.

My cousin was buried in a pink dress.

[Purple_roses]

She saw dead people even before she was dying. She saw my dead cousin at a relatives house that she spent a lot of time at. We never went to the funeral because we were in another state but she said the little girl she saw had a pink dress on.

My cousin was buried in a pink dress.

That is pretty creepy.

[proud nurse, BSN, RN]

I worked in LTC for 7 years. It was very common for the residents to see or call out for deceased relatives before they died, whether the death was expected or not. Where I worked, we had cameras everywhere. Sometimes I would just watch the colored monitors and see fuzzy white images floating through the halls.

For weeks after a resident who pretty much ran the unit died, her room was left vacant. This lady was a constant call light user/abuser. We had a panel that lit up with the room number when the call light was pushed. The panel would light up with that room number but it was vacant. We put in work orders to fix that numerous times, but it kept happening.

[guestng82]

The night my grandmother died, she was in her room talking to her mother, who had passed long before. My aunt was her sitter at night, and at about two or three that morning, someone kept knocking on the front door. My aunt tried looking out the windows to see who it was. As she couldn't see anything, she called my mom, who sent my dad over to check. When my dad got there, he did not see anyone at all, but my aunt stayed on the phone with my mom and told her that she saw my dad pull up in the driveway, and someone was still knocking on the front door the whole time! It finally stopped right before my grandmother died.

We also have an "ancestral" home in the town I grew up in (and most of my family still lives in) that was built by my grandfather (with a couple of greats added in). He was the mayor of that town back in the 1800s and held that position for the longest time in city history. But the home was a huge gathering place for family, and we held funerals there (the last one was for my grandfather in 1991) so we had a lot of supernatural happenings there. It kind of stopped when my cousin died as she was the last person to live there full time, which is kind of sad because I loved being there and the feeling you would get from that house.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

One day I was chatting with my patient's son. He mentioned that he had an implanted defibrillator. I said, "Yikes. So I'm guessing you arrested at some point?" He said that he had a cardiac arrest and it had taken 15 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, even though it happened in a restaurant across the street from a hospital! Anyway, two nurses were at the scene and did CPR until the ambulance arrived.

I asked him if he remembered any of the incident and he told me that he had a full blown near death experience where deceased loved ones greeted him to take him to a tunnel, he went through a tunnel and went into a very bright light, and he saw God. He told me "imagine the most love and joy and peace you've ever experienced, and multiply it times one million." He said he wanted to stay, but was told it wasn't his time yet, and he returned to his body. He said "I was raised Southern Baptist, but I can say that they've got a lot of it wrong." I asked, "What do you mean?" He responded, "well first of all, everyone goes to Heaven." Incredulous, I said, "What?! Even murderers and child abusers?" He said, "Yep. But you are confronted with all your actions. Every single one."

He gave me his business card and told me I could call him if I wanted to talk about it some more. I did want to hear more, but for some reason, never did call him.

After that, any time I witnessed an arrest and resuscitation, I would ask the patient NOT if he had had a near death experience, but simply if he remembered anything from the arrest. Sometimes they would say no, then other times I would hear about going through tunnels into the light into beautiful meadows or reunions with dead relatives and friends.

I'm not expressing any judgement as to the implications of these stories, just mentioning that they were relayed to me.