Spooky Stuff

Nurses General Nursing

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Anybody out there ever have any spooky things happen at work? You know, like ghost stories?

Here are two of my recent experiences (there have been lots more: I do private duty as a CNA with hospice pts at home)

1) Lady is dying at home with lung CA. Her family has, as hospice tactfully says "poor coping skills". When I went to care for her she looked at me and said "you are going to help me die". She started declining sharply after that, and one afternoon I was sitting with her and she said "I'm going to cross over the bridge and I want you to go with me". I told her "you need to step over, but I can't go with you, but I will walk with you as far as I can". The hospice nurse came over later and said "for whatever reason, she has chosen to die with you". I went back into the room after the nurse left and she told me "there are two angels that stand behind you and follow you everywhere you go". She slipped into a nonresponsive state soon after, and she waited until all her family had either gone home or left the room, and she died holding my hand.

2) Liver CA pt, at home was slipping fast. I was working the overnight shift so family could sleep, but had instructions to wake them if anything might be happening. They wanted to be alone with Mom at the end. I felt the angel of death come in the room, and the ladys breathing became very slow and irregular as did her pulses. I ran and got the family. They all gathered around and she was like this for a few minutes, then all of a sudden she seemed fine, and the angelic presence left. Later that night the Dh came in and I felt that there was something that needed to be said, so I left them alone and went to make coffee for morning. When I came back she was sleeping peacefully. She finally did die 24 hrs later. Why the death angel left and then returned I have no idea.

Laura

Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics.

I work in a large LTC facility that is on the grounds of an orphanage from the late 1800's. When residents see children in their rooms (and no children have visited) there is a death pending. The death is usually the one who sees the children but not always. One resident described them to me while they were sitting in her room; I was in the room too and did not see the children but of course was quite curious so I asked questions. A little girl with dirt on her dress and tangled hair was sitting on the bed and a little boy at first sitting on the floor then 'making mischief' in the room and also very dirty. The children spoke to her and said they were not here for her just visiting and that the soul they were coming for was on the unit above hers. They had come for someone else but the time wasn't right so they visited with this resident for a while. Another patient on the named unit died about 3 hours later, quite unexpected too. And....we found a lost personal item (glasses) of the first resident in the dead residents room...now that was spooky. These glasses had been missing for about a week and could not be located. Either the glasses were "shared" at an activity......and the little boy making mischief and the little girl answered the residents wish in returning a belonging or it was just a really weird coincidence.

being a hospice nurse, i have experienced a few visitis from my patients who have passed....but not spooky to me, but that's another thread.

anyway, there was one patient who just refused to leave this earth.

she went kicking and fighting, angry, crying and in so much emotional anguish.

and right before she died, she promised "i'll get you for this".

she used to wear this God-awful perfume that had a very distinct odor on her.

a couple of weeks after she died, i smelled this perfume, just around the area i was standing.

and no matter where i walked, it would follow me.

and other coworkers noticed this smell too...just in my area.

so i said aloud, "mary i hope you have finally found peace"....

the others knew who i was talking about and to.

after i spoke with 'mary'....the perfume disappeared.

leslie

being a hospice nurse, i have experienced a few visitis from my patients who have passed....but not spooky to me, but that's another thread.

anyway, there was one patient who just refused to leave this earth.

she went kicking and fighting, angry, crying and in so much emotional anguish.

and right before she died, she promised "i'll get you for this".

she used to wear this God-awful perfume that had a very distinct odor on her.

a couple of weeks after she died, i smelled this perfume, just around the area i was standing.

and no matter where i walked, it would follow me.

and other coworkers noticed this smell too...just in my area.

so i said aloud, "mary i hope you have finally found peace"....

the others knew who i was talking about and to.

after i spoke with 'mary'....the perfume disappeared.

leslie

oh...and another observation.

it was unusually cold in my immediate area and nowhere else.

again, other colleagues noticed and smelled the same thing.

I actually have two stories. When I was working at one hospital, all the nurses were sitting at the nurses station and a call light goes off for the room at the very end of the hallway. We thought the system was just not working because there was no patient in the room. Then over the intercom we heard a voice saying "please help me." This really spooked us because the intercom system hadn't worked in 10 years. We got up and started walking toward this room. When we got halfway down the hallway we see this lady wearing the old fashion white nursing uniform start to walk into this room. She turned to us and said, "It's okay. I'll get this light." By the time we got to the room she was gone and the call light was off.

At a Catholic hospital I worked at, were the OB unit is was once the convent for the nuns. Anytime a laboring mother is having difficulities, the room is filled with the scent of roses. If the mother or the baby dies, rose petals appear all over the room out of nowhere. It is very creepy.

Have you ever heard that saying that death comes in threes? If one patient dies, it seems like two more expire soon afterwards.

Yep...I've heard that. And I totally believe it to be true. I work in dialysis and although we don't get pts dying at our clinic, we do lose them at home, hospital or LTC. We'll get the news and someone will write it on our staff white board. When you see one, you know you'll see 2 more within a week or two. And if you end up with 4 passing, you know it'll go to six. That's when it gets eerie. :uhoh21:

Last summer I worked nights as a CNA on a surg/oncology floor. While I had several less tangible 'encounters' the most dramatic was when the call light went on for a pt who had already expired. It was around 3 am, everyone was at the nurse's station and the pt was in a private room. We looked up at the sound of the bell going off and had the collective realization that no one could possibly be pushing the call button.

We had a woman in the LTC facility where I work who was known to stay on her call light through the night. She died about a month ago one evening, and for HOURS after she expired her call light kept going off, even after her body had been moved to the funeral home.

They were renovating the nurses station so we were using an empty room where a patient just died for a makeshift station. At the time I had a bad tooth. I sat down on this woman's bed to chart and my tooth would start throbbing so bad I couldn't stand it. So I would get up because the pain was so bad I couldn't sit still and immediately the throbbing would go away. I thought this was weird because the difference was so pronounced so I sat on the bed again. Sure enough the pain would start coming back and would immediately subside when I would get up. To this day it freaks me out. This woman was pretty much a vegetable so I don't know what kind of person she was, but she sure left a strong energy behind when she left.

Yep...I've heard that. And I totally believe it to be true. I work in dialysis and although we don't get pts dying at our clinic, we do lose them at home, hospital or LTC. We'll get the news and someone will write it on our staff white board. When you see one, you know you'll see 2 more within a week or two. And if you end up with 4 passing, you know it'll go to six. That's when it gets eerie. :uhoh21:

But it is TRUE! At the LTC facility where I work they almost always die in groups. One goes and a whole bunch more go soon after. It is a common topic of discussion where I work. Perhaps it is the grim reaper coming to collect whats his?

One of the older nurses told me this story. One night she was working and she saw a tall woman in a Victorian style dress and hat walking down the hallway, it was the middle of the night. When she went to ask the other nurse who that was she was gone, apparently she stays near the end of the hallway.

Well one night when I was working there was a very sick patient on the unit, anyway when we were doing rounds, we went into the room at the end of the hall and got goosebumps allover, we both freaked out and practically ran back to the nurses station! Well a couple of hours later the patient died so we knew she had been there to bring him with her. Freaks me out!

Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.

My unit is in the "old" part of the hospital... One room at the end of the hall just has this sense, of SOMETHING... If you walk in to round, the pt will say, weren't you just in here? I say NO & they look at me like I'm goofy, & tell me sure you were, you just were here to check on us...Or they will ask why does the toilet keep flushing through the night. The toilet has been checked by maintenance numerous times.

Another room closer to the nurse's station also has an odd sense to it.... If you walk past the room, you can see a dark shadow in the corner, no lights on in the room, just the low light from the hall... One night, a nurse I was working with, was walking down the hall with me, past the room, stopped in her tracks & looked at me all freaked out & asked "who is in that room?" The room was empty, but that shadow was still lurking. A few nights ago, I swore I saw someone go into the bathroom, but the current occupant of the room is unable to get up without assistance.... I didn't go in there by myself after that.

Lots of weird little happenings like that....usually something at least twice per week...

hello shed...

as i said before, this was an individual nurse's project. she wanted to see, based on something she had heard before, if a person's soul has weight. presumably, if a person has a soul, it would leave the body upon death. the best way to see if a soul has weight is to weigh a person right before and immediately after death. this was my co-worker's research project, based on curiosity. weighing patients after they die is not a routine thing in my hospital.

hope that explains it.

maureen

thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my question. i thought it seemed a little odd. have a great day.!!

I haven't seen anything to unusual so far, but some of the other nurses in the unit have some spooky stories...

One story takes place in an ICU. On this unit all the rooms are private rooms, joined by sliding doors that lead to shared bathrooms. When this story happened there was a patient in bed one (down in a corner away from the nurse's station) one in bed two, and one in bed three. The nurse's station is probably about ten feet from room three. So, the patient in room one dies, and then the patient in room two starts screaming about seeing "an angel of death all around". Right after that the patient in room three died! Freaky!

Although not exactly scary, another nurse I work with had the idea (not sure if she thought about it on her own or heard about it from another medical professional) that immediately after a patient dies he or she loses like two pounds (not sure of the exact number...something like 2.something). She thinks that it is the person's soul leaving the body. She was talking about this one day and one doctor overheard her. He thought the weight loss was just due to loss of air from the lungs. My nurse coworker did some empirical research for a paper she had to write for school, and her findings were pretty consistent! She even found that a patient who was totally nasty during his hospital stay (and from visitor input generally mean) didn't lose any weight after he died. I don't know what it really is, but it really makes you think! Anyone else have experience or thoughts about that?

Everyone's experience and stories are really interesting...hope I never have experiences with a possessed patient or a patient who comes back to life!! Just thinking about it is scaring me!!!!! LOL

Maureen

Maureen What hospital in New york did this happen in just curious since I am from NY and wanted to know . Found all the stories interesting

Take

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO YOU

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