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]

Neat story. Have you had any other experiences?

[missingmydad]

I really don't mean to digress, but this thread has led me to my own question on death and the spiritual after life. My father died recently from cancer. We experienced a lot of spiritual stuff--virtually his family members would pray for something, the answer would come from other family members that were unaware of original prayer, my 4 year old would see "angels"/floating objects that followed family members. My father was very angry with God and had been since he was a teenager. He was a wonderful man, but you could almost see the anger in his eyes if a hospital pastor offered prayer. Anyway, all this strange stuff seemed relevant to my father's preparation for death and eventually seemed to pave the way to acceptance/forgiveness of some sort. He even accepted prayer.

Where do nurses think these ghosts come from? Lost souls that didn't go to the light, or didn't even get the light? Demons waiting to take us away? And does any pariticular religion seem crucial to having a positive death experience? Why are their so many ghost stories in this thread?

It seems that hospice nurses often see patients of all faiths experience similar positive visions. What seems to make one death spiritual comforting, while others die in fear?

I know these are loaded questions, but I'm asking as many nurses as I can. ANY thoughts are helpful! Trying to understand my dad's death seems to be a major part of my healing process. I'm going crazy with these thoughts. URGGGH! If I discuss it with church members, I virtually hear : the good things are from God, all bad things (what's considered bad by their theology is from the devil). So if a Christian had a positive death and saw relatives than they went to heaven, but if an "unsaved person" had the same experience it is because the devil is tricking us.) Thus, I want to go to the people that witness death first hand.

Thanks so much.

[CNA_J]

i currently work in a small long term care facility that was built in the 1970s. one night we were working the 11-7 shift when we received a call at the nurses station from our hospice room. on the end was a rather desperate sounding patient saying "help me, help me! im in room 110." the only problem was, our hospice room was empty at the time. on other occasions, fellow CNAs and nurses have seen a woman in a white gown walk out of one room at the end of the hall and into the other. the call lights in those rooms go off frequently when they are empty. the faucets have also been known to shut off without being touched, toilets flushing on their own in vacant rooms... to say in the least, 11-7 is not my favorite shift.

[StatBlues]

I am sorry for the loss of your dad.

I know we all would like the answers to your questions.

Fact is we do not know for sure. We can only guess.

I believe whatever your dad was mad at God about. Was

cleared up when he, crossed over. :)

And, I believe your dad will be watching over you, as he can.

Perhaps you can talk to a counselor about missing your dad.

Better way to go than in this, thread xoxo

================

I really don't mean to digress, but this thread has led me to my own question on death and the spiritual after life. My father died recently from cancer. We experienced a lot of spiritual stuff--virtually his family members would pray for something, the answer would come from other family members that were unaware of original prayer, my 4 year old would see "angels"/floating objects that followed family members. My father was very angry with God and had been since he was a teenager. He was a wonderful man, but you could almost see the anger in his eyes if a hospital pastor offered prayer. Anyway, all this strange stuff seemed relevant to my father's preparation for death and eventually seemed to pave the way to acceptance/forgiveness of some sort. He even accepted prayer.

Where do nurses think these ghosts come from? Lost souls that didn't go to the light, or didn't even get the light? Demons waiting to take us away? And does any pariticular religion seem crucial to having a positive death experience? Why are their so many ghost stories in this thread?

It seems that hospice nurses often see patients of all faiths experience similar positive visions. What seems to make one death spiritual comforting, while others die in fear?

I know these are loaded questions, but I'm asking as many nurses as I can. ANY thoughts are helpful! Trying to understand my dad's death seems to be a major part of my healing process. I'm going crazy with these thoughts. URGGGH! If I discuss it with church members, I virtually hear : the good things are from God, all bad things (what's considered bad by their theology is from the devil). So if a Christian had a positive death and saw relatives than they went to heaven, but if an "unsaved person" had the same experience it is because the devil is tricking us.) Thus, I want to go to the people that witness death first hand.

Thanks so much.

[nenurse5]

I personally believe that every slightly seasoned nurse has a ghost story (especially if they've ever worked a night shift)! I worked in a hospital that hadn't changed rooms since the 70s.. right before our transition into new and upgraded rooms I had a patient that was admitted for cellulitis of the LLE, he had experienced polio in his earlier life and obviously high-risk for amputation. Apparently he had a new-onset peanut allergy and was given "ants on a boat" with his supper meal. Needless to say, he went into an anaphylactic reaction... being a small hospital (in the middle of the night, without ancillary staff, RT for instance, being there) this was a big deal. After the CRNA finally arrived, it took at least 5 minutes to intubate him... his last words before intubation were... "Ask the girl in the white cap to do, she's telling me I'm going to be ok". Literally, a man that had virtually no airway said those words. Needless to say, there were no "girls" in white caps. So this man actually lived, without permanent damage. I took care of him for pneumonia a few months after that and asked him about the girl in the white cap. He said, "That's why I lived, because she said I would".

Inspiring...but creepy.

[zephyr9]

Hi, frist please forgive the spelling in this post . I found this thread on the net and have been reading it all night and it has helped me so much . My mom just passed away in July she had been sick for years and was in the hospital when she passed .my dad did tell me how sick she was becouse I have been sick for months myself and he did not want me to get upset. So he told me she was geting better the night befor she died.

the next day I went to vist my mom and becouse I am leagly blind I could not read the sign that said to go see the nurse befor going in . I walked in the room and my mom laying on her bed her face was this odd yellow and she was not moving they ran in and told me that 15 min. Befor she had vomited so much that she breathed it in and died becouse her small bowl was blocked.

I sat with my mom for about an hour or two and when I went to leave I kissed her and said I love you ,you know I love don't you ? And right then the tv turned on the remote was on the table next to bed so there is no way I hit it . I now beleave my mom was and maybe still is in that room I am now thinking of doing something in the nursing feld as soon as I find out what I can do being half blind I have never run into a blind nurse

Trekfan, I was just reading a book entitled "Just a Nurse," one of the nurses featured in this book is blind: she got her master's degree and works counseling seriously ill children and their families. She may have been an RN before her blindness, I am not sure, but, she makes use of her faculties other than sight in the work she does now, and says that her dog plays a role in her work with families, putting them at ease. She worked at CHOP in Philadelphia, I believe.

[Bhavana]

I have no answers for you. None of us can really know the truth about death till we experience it ourselves. I would guess that the difference between those who die in peace and those who die in fear may have something to do with their faith, and in the way they have lived their lives....but on the other hand, you have science minded people who explain the "bright light at the end of a tunnel" and voices/visions of loved ones who previously died as nothing more than synapses firing off in the dying brain. Something to do with the peripheral vision being the first to go, which explains the "tunnel" effect with the "bright light" at the end (remember what we learned when studying diseases of the eyes) and the visions of loved ones nothing more than flashback memories from the dying "computer" that is our brain. But who really knows? In spite of all of these stories about ghosts and visions, there is really no proof of what happens to us. I think that people want to believe that death is not the end, after all, life would be pretty meaningless to most if death WAS the end...so therefore, we believe what we want, we believe whatever it is that makes life more bearable.

For sure, we will all find out when we die.

[conim2002]

I don't share this very often because it is more "Sacred" to me then scarey. My last full time job was with Hospice. I really enjoyed the one on one with my patients. You get to know the family quit well, working with them on a daily basis. We did become quit close.

On this particular assignment, I was caring for an elderly lady who had been on Hospice for over a year. Usually they don't keep you as a Hospice patient for much longer then that, but this little lady kept beating the odds. We called in the family on several occassions during that year, because we thought she was going to die....but she kept on bouncing back. It became kind of a light hearted joke.

My story: Toward the end of her life, this sweet lady lost her oldest son in an auto accidient. The family chose not to tell their mother about her son's death. They figured it would serve no positive purpose....so we never spoke of it to her.

Continueing on: The day before this woman expired she called me into her room and asked me if I saw "Michael"? "Michael, your son?", I asked. "Yes", she said...."He was with me all night". "We had a wonderful visit..he wants me to get ready, because he is going to come and get me in the morning" All I said was, "How wonderful it must have been to see your son". My first impression was that she was just having illussions.

The next morning upon reporting to work at 6am, I said goodbye to the family as they left for work, as I had done for over a year...I went about my usual routine. I walked down the old familiar hall to my patient's room and down the hall, ahead of me, I saw a man all dressed in white walking away from my patient's room. I went into my patient's room and she indeed had expired. I mentioned nothing of this to the family, but I did speak of it to the Hospice RN. "Thank goodness!", she said to me. "I thought maybe I was losing it". Apparently she had seen the same gentleman the day before standing in the corner of this sweet little ladie's room". This is not my only experience of this type. Like I said....some things you are reluctant to share. It is a great testimonial to me that we do go on. I must mention that there was such an enormous feeling of peace that morning when my patient left this world.

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

That is such a wonderful story. I can see why you hold that experience so sacred. Thank you so much for sharing it.

[CFitzRN, ADN]

@Irishpsychnurse - You're Irish so there's a fair chance you know about this, but when our Blessed Mother appears anywhere, there is almost always a strong fragrance of flowers (many times roses but not always). And sometimes one only smells the fragrance and doesn't see an apparition. Being that you were in an old monastery (cool!) I'd say there is a fair chance there was a lot of Marian devotion there, so it's not out of the realm of possibilities that you experienced a visit from our Mother.

[boojum]

The rose petals just started floating down from the ceiling. It was like someone was just showering the room with them. This has happened several times over the years.

My creepiest and scariest ghost story for me happened about a year ago. It really was more of a posession than a ghost story. I was helping another nurse with a patient that had lived a very hard life. It had numerous things going on with him from cardiac to renal failure. You name it, he had it going on. This man was very much afraid to die. Every time his heart monitor beeped, he would just go into a rage screaming, "Don't let me die! Don't let me die!" The other nurse and I found out why he didn't want to die. About 0200 his cardiac monitor starts alarming V-Tach. We both rush into the room. I am pulling the crash cart behing me. When I get to the room, the other nurse is completely white. This man was sitting about 2 inches above the bed and was laughing. His whole look completely changed. His eyes just had a look of pure evil on them and he had this evil smile on his face. He laughed at us and said, " You stupid b****es aren't going to let me die will you?" and he laughed again. We were kinda frozen. I did reach up and hit the Code Blue button and when I did the man went into V-fib. He crashed back onto the bed. We started coding him, but after 20 minutes it was called. 5 minutes after the code was called several of the code team is in the room cleaning up when this man sits straight up in the bed and says, " You let him die. Too bad." and then begins laughing. The man collapsed back to the bed. We heard a horrible, agonizing scream ( actually every patient in the unit that night commented on the scream), and then you could hear "don't let me die" being whispered throughout the unit. Everyone of the nurses that night was pale and scared. No body went anywhere by themselves. By morning the whispers of "don't let me die" were gone. The night shift nurses had a prayer service in the break room before we left for home and then we all had nightmares for weeks.

:eek::eek:

I haven't read them all yet, but this is by far the scariest so far! This one sent me over the edge. I am officially spooked!

[Siss]

This lady has tried to assist me on late night rounds every now and then.

Looks like this nurse would finally give up and quit nursing:lol2: