What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nursing is a profession that often involves long lonely night shifts in eerie hospital wards. It's a perfect breeding ground for ghost stories. These stories often involve sightings of apparitions, strange noises, and unexplained events that are said to have taken place in hospitals, hospices, and other healthcare settings. Some of these stories are believed to be based on true events, while others are purely fictional. Regardless, they continue to captivate and intrigue both nurses and non-nurses alike - providing a spooky glimpse into the world of healthcare after dark.

I know you have seen and heard freaky things. Share your nursing ghost stories...

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

scroll down to the bottom of this page to the NEED HELP link. There you will see a link to the Information Center and FAQ. Log onto that link. You most likely will find what you are looking for there.

[caeRn]

i worked in ICU straight out of grad school. I had a patient who was dying and was all alone. The family was there early in my shift. (7p-7a) We informed them he wasnt going to make it through the night. They left anyway and told us NOT to call through the night. They said they will call in the morning to see if he passed. They also told us they didnt need to see the body just send it along with his belongings to the funeral home. I thought to myself, "you have got to be kidding me! how can you leave your loved one. i felt sick for the patient." anyways long story short he was a DNR went into lethal rhythm brady down and passed. Once i saw the monitor I did not want him to be alone in his last moments. I asked the charge nurse to come in with me. We held his hand as he passed away. I was very emotional for me being i was new at this. We completed postmortom care and as you all know there are 3 tags. one goes on the toe and one goes on the outside of the bag after it is locked and the other goes with the belongings. We filled all 3 tags out. I personally put tag on his toe. had my charge double check it. We closed the bag double checking the tag was still on the toe. Once the bag is closed the tag ties through the zipper so it can not be opened with out taking tag off. The other tag was on the outside of personal belonging bag tied tightly. The supervisor came to get the body and took it to the morge. Shortly after she left house keeping came in to clean the room. They brought me out a tag filled out with his info on it. I looked at the charge nurse she said oh it must have fallen of the bag. She called the supervisor and the bag tag along with the personal item tag was intact. It was very freaky because I filled the tags out there were 3. I put toe tag on it was secure and double checked prior to zipping the bag. The other 2 tags were in morge. Where did this tag come from? How did it get off the toe and out of the bag???? it was a cold chilloment for me.....

[Susan567]

Thanks

[friendlysmile]

some of these story are freaking me out but thanks for sharing your experiences with the paranormal with us : )

[friendlysmile]

wow, that must have been a very special experience.

[UnicornRN]

*bump*

I love this! Keep 'em coming!

[ShayRN]

Not so much a ghost story, but interesting none the less... Had a patient recently transfer from a hospital that was completely unresponsive for 3 days. 6 hours into her stay at my facility she woke up, looked her daughter straight in the eye and said "Where is Bill, he needs to know he is going to have a heart attack!" (Bill was the patient's youngest brother) Daughter asked what she should do and I highly recommended she call her Uncle Bill and tell him to make a call to his cardiologist. Would you ignore such a message?

[BabyRN2Be]

2. When my husband and I first moved into our house we live in now. We could hear all kinds of noises....file cabinets shutting ( and there weren't any ), chairs scooting across the tile floor in the basement, toys randomly playing themselves ( musical ones ), and the piano play by itself one or two notes. We ignored all of it and it all quit. [/quote=trmr;4134825]

Not to ruin any fun, but I do have a partial answer to this one: we have a two year old and over the last few years, we've accumulated a mass of electronic/musical toys. These appear to go off by themselves when neither myself, my husband, or our little girl are nearby. I was freaked a few times when these would appear to go off by themselves, but apparently the TV sends out a signal (ping) that activates these toys. Although I now know how this happens, it is a little disconcerting when late at night our child's little horse starts playing... especially when watching "Ghost Hunters."

OK, speaking of "Ghost Hunters", hubby and I had a chance to visit one of their haunts (pardon the pun... or not ). We went on a ghost tour at the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR. This is the one where they caught a full-bodied apparition staring back from them out of a locker. The locker has a number "2" painted on it which appeared to glow on the FLIR camera. We gathered together for the tour, which had a designated meeting area in the hotel right across from the bar, in which it seemed almost everyone (excluding hubby and myself) visited. A lot of them carried alcoholic drinks on the tour. It seems as if a few people saw things on the tour (including a low growl, which I did hear - but I couldn't exclude the possibility it was somebody's hungry tummy). Most of the people who "saw" things on the tour were the ones who visited the lounge before the tour started. Long story short: Be skeptical of any ghost sightings at a location that contains an alleged morgue and bar on the same premises. The scariest thing happened to us in broad daylight several hours before the tour in the hotel lobby: It was scary how $36 will disappear right out of your wallet... especially at the prospect of seeing the locker in which Jason and Grant actually stood in front of while filming the apparition.

[imintrouble, BSN, RN]

I posted earlier about an old farm house I worked in as a private duty nurse. Being tired all the time is a side effect of working nights. Working nights as private duty is almost torture. Some nights I was so sleepy I would stand against the door frame just to stay awake. Every 2 hours I did care, including chest percussion. Ten to fifteen minutes on each side. I kneeled on the floor by the bed for this, sometimes on auto pilot. The house gave me the willies. One night while I was groggily doing chest percussion, I saw the door to the bedroom shaking. Very slightly going back and forth as if someone was on the other side. I watched it for awhile thinking I was just seeing things r/t being tired. The house was dark, the room was dark, but there were night lights on in the room. Dark enough that I questioned what I was seeing. I am not brave, I thought maybe one of the parents was on the other side of the door and decided to investigate. I "walked" on my knees over to the door and opened it. The floor outside the door was what I saw first. I thought I saw a pair of gray shoes and lower legs, only I could see the carpet through the shoes. Again, I was so tired I thought I was seeing things. I stared at these shoes until I was sure I saw translucent gray shoes. I didn't look up cause I didn't want to see what was attached to the shoes and legs. I slowly closed the door, moved away and continued with care. I think my reaction was so calm because I was in a sleep deprived fog. I did not mention it to the child, the parents or the other nurses. I always felt when I left the "nursing" area of the house at night, in the dark, I was being watched. If I had looked up that night I would have seen what was watching me.

[JDZ344]

I;m finally at the end of this thread! (took me a month to read!). Any more stories?

[gr8rnpjt, RN]

It has taken me almost a month here and there to read through the whole thread. I was one of the initial posters in 2005. I wrote about my horrible experiences that caused me to leave bedside nursing. First, I want to say I was sleep deprived for 3 years of workng steady nights. That's not to say something sinister didn't happen when I laid down to rest before leaving for work those 2 nights, so whether it was an overtired gr8rn, or something more sinister, I have to say it was good that I left either way. I have had this "night paralysis a few times since, but nothing as sinister. No red rooms, no voices whispering. I still hear a rushing in my head and have a feeling that I am not alone, and its very scary when you are trying to scream and nothing comes out and you are paralyzed unable to move or get the heck off the bed! Since it continues to happen but not in such a sinister way, I guess I can live with it.

I also wrote about my Mom seeing my grandma's spirit leave her body in the ICU at the moment of her death. Same grandma who helped my grandfather win money in the lottery, just enough so that he could live in the new nursing home near my Mom, till he died several years later. I didn't see the spirit, but my Mom sure did!! And no, grandma never gave me any numbers and I never hit big when I plaly, but I keep trying!!!

I had some more things to add: first, some of you talk about angels, and how they help people especially children. I had my daughter, who is now 17, she was a toddler at the time, in a shopping cart in staples. It was one of those very deep carts, she was standing up. Well, She was on the opposite side of the buggy and I had to stop suddenly. I watched her tumble over the side in slow motion, head first and then, while I maneuvered around the big cart, I watched as she kind of hung upside down suspended in air as if being held by her feet by an unseen person. I was able to make it around the cart in that split second and kind of catch her in a bear hug upside down like that. It's kind of weird to describe, but she should have fallen on her head. Instead, I was able to get around the big cart and watch her hang in the air for the moment it took me to get around the cart. Everyone seeing it saw how it looked and we all felt the same thing--that she was being held up by her feet till I could get around to get her.

People talk about astral projection and children talking about old lives. I remember as a kid talking about my previous life. I had friends we all talked about what we did "last time we were big" my children have said things as very young children, of things they did when they were bigger. I remember a strong memory from my childhood and had dreams about it: I have this recall of large groups of people gathering by a body of water and all looking skyward and amazing things in the air, the air filled with things we were looking at but not remembering exactly just the awe of all of us experiencing the same thing: then the feelign of all the people on the ground laying flat, unable to move after the "event" whatever it was. I remember flying up by the ceiling of my house, through the rooms and down to the basement where my parents were playing cards with other people, not being able to get their attention but knowing I was flying over them and flying back to my bed. Talking about it when I was older to my mother she was not surprised and told me she still did it sometimes, it had become for her something she could will herself to do if she wanted.

My Mom, I told you was able to see her mothers spirit leaving her body at the time of death; not the first or the last time Mom has seen things like that. Full apparitions are seen by Mom, ususally right before or after being asleep. Something about the in between of sleep and awake that makes the dead things visible to my mother. She has stated she woke up to full room of dead people, all trying to get her attention and trying to get her to talk to them. Mostly not able to communicate with them. I have said to her why are you not afraid, I would be so scared. She says she knows they aren't here to hurt her. She thinks if people are afraid they won't see; but if you are open to it and not afraid, then you will see. I obviously am not ever going to see anything since I DON"T WANT TO!!! skeered to death!!

Anyway the last thing I want to talk about is Mom..She is very OK with seeing things like that. A couple of years ago, before she sold it, she lived on a farm that was very isolated. The house sits on 72 acres, very peaceful. I used to love it there because it was so calm and nice, I had come out of an abusive realtionship and this place was where I took my kids and got some peace. There was no cellphone service, so my abuser could not get in touch with me. It was a good way to get away from the constant distractions from this person. Just peace. He was too dumb to remember how to get there, so I felt relatively safe, the only time I worried was at night because it was PITCH black outside when it was dark out. No city lights, nothing but DARK. There were security lights with motion sensors, occasionally they would turn on when a deer or other large animal came too close to the house. But relatively I felt very very safe when I was visiting the farm. Until one night. We had all been watching tv, Mom had fallen asleep in her easy chair, my son had fallen asleep on the couch. I had fallen asleep on another couch. I got son up and took him into his room and laid him down. Then I went out to wake Mom to tell her I was going to bed. I woke her up and with a start she looked over my shoulder and said, "who is that man?" I said, "Mom what man?" The whole living room was top to bottom windows with drapes but you could really see outside unless it was dark like this time, I loooked there was nothign out there past the window it was all dark, and the motion sensors had not turned on any of the flood lights, so I turned back to Mom and said, "no Mom there is no man out there, its dark, the lights are not on you can't see anybody out there!!?" And what she said next made my hair stand on end.."No Patti, he is not OUTSIDE the window, he is INSIDE right next to the TV" BWAAAAAAHAAAA!!! I was so scared. I did NOT want to turn around to look. I said "I don't see anyting Mom, I am going to bed" She got up too and went to bed and nothign was said until the next morning, I asked her what she meant, then she told me there was an old man she did not recognize standing in the living room by the tv. She said that this happens a lot, that sometimes it startles her when she wakes up and sees these people, but she justs accepts it as something she can do, like a party trick, or a hidden talent. As she has gotten older, she doesn't like to talk about it. She suffered for years with severe OSA and I think that attributed her to being able to see things like that. As I said before since I am getting lots of sleep, the problms I had have gotten better, and now that she is on Bipap, she is sleeping better and she doesn't like to talk about anything like that.....Except for the doorbell she took from the farm when she moved. SHe liked that doorbell and has meant to put it in her new house near me. She hasn't connected it, it is in the hall cupboard, unconnected. But sometimes she hears the chime of the doorbell from the farm, chiming, while disconnected. She thinks it is my stepfather, checking in. He died up at the farm house a few years ago, and had told her he would ring the doorbell if he could to let her know he was thinking of her.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

What is OSA?