What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

What Members Are Saying (AI-Generated Summary)

Members are sharing personal experiences and stories related to ghosts, spirits, and paranormal occurrences in healthcare settings. Some members discuss encounters with deceased loved ones or unexplained phenomena, while others share their interest in ghost stories and movies like "Doctor Sleep" and "The Shining." There is a mix of skepticism, curiosity, and belief in the supernatural among the forum participants.

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...

Thanks, Leoduola, for the information you provided on the sanitarium in Kentucky. My Mom and several members of her family were diagnosed with tuberculosis around 1940 and Mom spent a couple of years in a sanitarium in Minnesota. She rarely talked about it but as she got older, she said that she always scared doctors when they saw her for the first time because they "removed her lung". When she passed away 3 1/2 years ago, it was because her remaining lung was just plain worn out - she lived for around 70 years after her bout with tuberculosis.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Hi! This is my first post so please bere with me! it's going to be a long one!

While I haven't had anything happen at work yet,I am a paranormal investagator outside of work. I noticed that Waverly Hills has been mentioned several times. I have investaged it multiple times and it is my "pet" haunted place. I just feel so drawn there. The running joke on my team is I'd rather go to Waverly than eat ice cream and I love ice cream! I've been 5 times in 2 years and know the place like the back of my hand.

Most people know of Waverly Hills from tv shows like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures and the many documenteries made about the place. Sadly a lot of the history has been drummed up to make for interesting tv and the current owners of the place play right into it. I can understand why..they are making a living off of the building being haunted.The current owners sell tours and ghost hunts for a fee and the money is going to restore the building and eventually turn it into a 4 star "haunted" hotel.But for those of you that may be interested in the real story and in some of the ghosts here you go!

History: I've spent many hours researching this place and this is the most factual info that i have found so far.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is located in Louisville, Ky and was first opened in 1910 to house TB pts. The origonal building was wooden and could only house 40 pts. This proved to be too small for the ever climbing TB rates. In 1923, it was decided that a state of the art hospital would be built to meet the needs of the state. The doors of the new hospital opened in 1926 and could house up to 500 pts and usually had a long waiting list because it was the nation's top TB ward for many years. The hospital featured a Salon,a library,a gift shop, it's own radio sation and the latest medical advancements. Waverly played a large part in the development of x-rays and many surgeries that we would now concider shocking and brutial.

Remember anti-botics wasn't a treatment yet. The most common treatments for TB were freash air,that the pts got plenty of due to the open breezeways on every floor, good food and lots of rest. The pts beds were wheeled out on the open breezeways rain or shine, warm or cold. They used electric blankets in the winter months to keep pts warm.

Other treatments included-Pneumoectomy, the surgical removal of part or even a whole lung. Phrenic Nerve Crush- The nerve supply cut off to one diaphragm to allow the affected lung to heal. Thoracoplasty- The removal of several ribs (usually 7 to 8) to collapse the lung and to permit swelling, this was usually carried out over several surgeries because most Drs only like to remove 2-3 ribs at a time. And Artificial Pneumothorax- the introduction of air into the pleural cavity causing it to collapse.

As you can gather very few made it out alive. Around 8 to 10,000 people died there and at the peak of the TB epidemic the hosptial lost an average of 1-3 pts a day.To keep up pts spirits the Dr's thought it was best that they not see just how many were dying. The hospital is built on top of a large hill. There was a service tunnel that staff used to carry up goods for the hospital from the train tracks below. It also served as a warm way into the hospital for dr's and nurse's who lived off site. The tunnel was rigged with a pulley system so that bodys could be taken out of the hospital with no ones notice. This is where the tunnel became known as "The Death Tunnel" and "The Body Chute".

After the introduction of anti-botics pt numbers dwindled and Waverly Hills closed in 1961. It didn't say closed for long as it re-opened as Woodhaven Medical Services in 1962. Woodhaven was a LTC facility for the elderly and the mentally handicaped. They "specialized" in treating dementia, which at the time was electro-shock. Woodhaven was open until 1980 when it was shut down by the state for pt abuse and neglect.

It has stood open and empty ever since to the elements, to vandals, and to thrill seekers. The current owners bought and opened it to the public for tours and ghost hunts in 2001. They regularly hold a haunted house around Halloween as well to raise money to restore the buliding.

Now for the ghost stories: These are the basic tales told about the place. These are NOT my personal experiances and I will add them later if you'd like.

1. Room 502- There are 2 nurses that are said to haunt room 502. The first was reported to have died in the 30's. Supposedly the young woman was having an affair with one of the dr's and became pregnant.Well being unmarried and pregnant in the 1930's didn't fly very well so she hung herself from a light fixture in the hallway right in frount of room 502. Another verson of the same story goes: that the dr tried to preform an abortion on her and it went wrong and she bled to death. To cover up what he had done he staged her sucide. And yet another version claims that she was unmarried, pregnant, and contracted TB so she hung herself.

The second nurse in 502 either fell,jumped, or was pushed from the window inside the room sometime in the 50's.

2.The 4th floor OR is said to be haunted by a dr,maybe the one who killed the nurse in 502?

3. The 4th floor is also home to "Big Black" a very large shadow figure that is said to go from floor to ceiling, and "The Creeper" a smaller shadow figure that scurries along the walls and ceiling.

4. The spirit of a small boy is said to roam the whole hospital and play with the many toys people bring for him.

5. The 3rd floor is supposedly inhabited by the ghost of an old man and his white dog. A group of cultists brought a homeless man and his dog into the hospital and murdered them. The Police found him the next day after answering the call for a tripped security alarm. They had thrown him down the elavator shaft.

All over the hospital people have reported hearing footsteps, whispering, people talking, seeing shadows, seeing people, smelling food, feeling something touch them ect.

I'm happy to answer any questions about the place or to relay my personal experiances.

PLEASE tell us ur personal experiences!! I would love to read them and I'm also off work 2day so it will give me something to do later on!!

Specializes in LTC, Acute care.

Leodoula, please more of your experiences. I can hardly wait...

I cant believe I finished reading all 203 pages. Took me about 5 months. Cant wait to hear more stories.

This is not a "ghost" story but instead proof to me that spirits do exist.

One morning in March of 2011, I was filling out paperwork that required family member's names for an upcoming activity. When I went to write my dad's name down, I thought don't put his name because my dad had been in an accident and he won't be able to attend. I did not write his name and forgot about the entire thing until later that afternoon when I had been notified that my dad had a massive heart attack while he was driving causing a multiple fatality car accident. The time of his death was the exact time that I was filling out the paperwork. I know it was my dad stopping by on his way to heaven.

Personally, I have had many encounters with ghosts that I usually only share with a select few. I believe that many people have their minds closed to such encounters and think of those of us that believe as crazy. It is refreshing to read this thread and know that so many people have experiences similar to mine.

Did you not think about this at all after you did this? Very interesting.....

I am sorry for your loss xoxox

Thanks, Leoduola, for the information you provided on the sanitarium in Kentucky. My Mom and several members of her family were diagnosed with tuberculosis around 1940 and Mom spent a couple of years in a sanitarium in Minnesota. She rarely talked about it but as she got older, she said that she always scared doctors when they saw her for the first time because they "removed her lung". When she passed away 3 1/2 years ago, it was because her remaining lung was just plain worn out - she lived for around 70 years after her bout with tuberculosis.

Just wanted to leave you some hugs**:redpinkhe

Leodoula, please more of your experiences. I can hardly wait...

The first time I went to Waverly Hills was a fluke. My SIL knew some people that had payed for an 8 hour private investagation. Over half of the people that wanted to go bailed on them pretty unexpectedly. These tours are not cheap. They are $1000 minium and you can take 10 people in for that. SIL knew I was into "that sort of thing" and told DH about it. He reserved us 2 places with them and gave it to me as a christmas gift. I had to wait until late April to go though.

The day finally came and we arrived at Waverly. It's a very impressive building to see and you can tell that it was once very beautiful (still is). The tour guide lead us into what was once the laundry room for the hospital. It's now an office, gift shop, and meeting area for guests. It was quickly determined that there were only 5 of us that had ever been on an investagation before. The other 4 formed thier own group and went off by themselves leaving me in charge of all the noobs. I really wasn't there to "investagate" as much as I was there just to experiance the place.

The tour guide takes us outside and lets us take some pics of the outside of the building and then gives us a quick tour of the inside. He fills us in on the ghost stories and "hot" spots as we go. The hospital isn't a small building so you can imagine. We then split into groups and went our seperate ways. The first group started out in the tunnel and we started on the 1st floor of the hospital. We worked our way up to the second floor which features the cafeteria, the bakery, the dining rooms and a pt wing. As we were walking down to the cafeteria everyone started to smell bacon. As we got closer to the dining rooms and the cafeteria it got stonger just like someone was cooking bacon. It was almost overwhelming by the time we got there. All 6 of us smelled it. We examined the room carefully and knew that no one had brought any bacon with them.We never found any source for the smell.

We continued on back to the pt wing. Each wing is made up of 2 hallways. The outside hallway is made up of the open breezeway (which the hospital was famous for)with a row od pt rooms behind. The inside hallway is where the closed rooms are. These were the rooms used for dying pts. When you were moved to a closed room you knew you didn't have much longer left. We started walking up the outside hallway, everyone was taking there time, chatting since it wasn't dark yet. I crossed over to the inside hallway and was taking pics of some of the rooms. The group continued forward on the other side. DH came to see what I was doing and he took a few pics as well.We started to walk forward and were going to cross back over at the end of the hall and re-join the group. We were walking when we heard shuffling foot steps behind us. We both turned to look at the exact same time and there was nothing there. We continued down the hall like this. Every few steps we'd stop and it would stop. We were taking pics and giggling about it when the rest of the group caught up with us. After they came it stopped though.

We continued on though out the hospital for a few hours with nothing happening. It got dark and we were on the 3rd floor. We were on the outside breezeway and one of the guys with us told everyone to stop. We all froze in place and he told everyone to look at the end of the hallway. My BIL chimed up and said it looked like there was a person standing there. We all saw a dark shadowy out line of a person. I thought it was an acctual person it was so solid looking and immeadately started running to it.There was no way I was going to let someone that wasn't supposed to be there ruin my evening. DH and BIL took off after me. I got there first and followed it into one of the open rooms and though to the inside hallway. There was nothing there. We split up and looked for a person and came up empty handed.

We took a break after that and had lunch. Afterward we went to the tunnel. We tried doing EVP on the way down and using a K2 meter. We had a few spikes on the k2 but we didn't get any EVPs. We found that the end of the tunnel was open so we went out of it and took pictures of the places where supplies were picked up and bodies were taken away so many years ago. We also found a building and took pics of it. (on a side note the owners and guide both claim that this building is not there even though I've touched it and given them pics of it. Research has lead me to believe it was a power house or water treatment.)

We trecked back up and 2 members of our party was over all the fun of the evening but they kept going. We went up to the 4th floor where we started hearing voices and foot steps all over the place. One of our group members had had enough at the point and broke down so we took her out. After seeing that she was ok and comfortable we went back in and did a EVP session in the childrens cafeteria During that time it felt like there were children tugging at the hem of my hoodie and one of the guys we were with kept feeling like he was being touched. We were able to document a cold spot right next to both of us his was 20 degrees colder than the rest of the room and mine was 30.

We then hit the OR on the 4th floor and tried to do another EVP session. We were getting lots of responces on our k2 though. DH was sitting in a metal folding chair holding it. We were getting answers to our questions when all of a sudden the chair felt and sounded like it was kicked hard. We got a few more questions after that and then it stoped. Pretty much everyone was done at that point so we walked out and rested for a moment. DH and I went back in on our own and did another run though of the whole hospital. We found the other group and ened up spending the last hour or so with them. Nothing else really happened that night but it was awesome.

I booked my next trip before we left!

Here are some pics of that night.I did my best to add as much info as possiable to them. NOTE: there is some graffic graffitti in the pics if you are easily offended please do not click the links!!! Also these pics are NOT up for debate. They are what they are and have not been altered in any way. They are there to show people what Waverly is like and not to prove or disprove ghosts.

www.flickr.com/photos/leogirl13/

www.flickr.com/photos/leogirl1333/

Specializes in LTC, CPR instructor, First aid instructor..

Thank you for posting those photos leodoula. They were great. I was very fascinated with them, expecially the graphic graffiti. Someone was very artistic. Although you mention orbs and a figure though, I wasn't able to see any, but I am grateful for what I saw since I have had a few minor experiences. I believe mine were due to the fact that I was married to a mentally ill man in the past who talked about demons all the time though.

Thank you for posting those photos leodoula. They were great. I was very fascinated with them, expecially the graphic graffiti. Someone was very artistic. Although you mention orbs and a figure though, I wasn't able to see any, but I am grateful for what I saw since I have had a few minor experiences. I believe mine were due to the fact that I was married to a mentally ill man in the past who talked about demons all the time though.

Orbs are a great debate of those amoung the paranormal groups. Orbs are the little balls of light everywhere in the pics. While many orbs can be explaned away by dust, moisture, bugs, and light refraction some are concidered to be signs of spirit activity. These usually seem to emit a very bright light in photos and will often appear to have a "tail" similar to a comet. In video true orbs tend to have an "intelligent" flight pattern. Many investagators (myself included) do not think that orbs are ghosts but are a indecator of paranormal energy...kinda like a by-product of ghosts.

The shadow is super hard to see and may very well be a trick of lighting. I've just not had the time to go though and circle it or play around with the pics to know for sure. I wasn't really investagating that night and was more babysitting others. So it's kinda fell in the cracks due to work and "real" investagations.

--- had to delete this because I remembered that too many people at work know the story and I would HATE for one of them to find out this me! I'll try to think of a way to adapt it so it's not so obvious---

Specializes in ICU.

Don't remember if I posted this before or not, but this is one of my experiences on a night shift. I was in the treatment room, washing out cups for medication (in the days when we did that :eek:) and two members of staff came bursting in the doorway, going on about a white light over a bed. Well at the time I thought they were mucking about and turned to say 'don't be daft' or similar. What I saw was a ball of white light, which came bouncing through the doorway, skittered along the ceiling and disappeared into a side room. The girls were terrified and one of them - an agency care assistant - said she would never come back although she did finish the shift.

Specializes in Med/Surg, DSU, Ortho, Onc, Psych.
Don't remember if I posted this before or not, but this is one of my experiences on a night shift. I was in the treatment room, washing out cups for medication (in the days when we did that :eek:) and two members of staff came bursting in the doorway, going on about a white light over a bed. Well at the time I thought they were mucking about and turned to say 'don't be daft' or similar. What I saw was a ball of white light, which came bouncing through the doorway, skittered along the ceiling and disappeared into a side room. The girls were terrified and one of them - an agency care assistant - said she would never come back although she did finish the shift.

OK MaryAnn...I wanna know what drugs you were taking that night!!

I've had a few older patients say they see a white light, and I often wonder - how come nobody ever sees BLACK lights? Why is it always white? Has it something to do with cataracts and poor vision maybe?

I nursed an old lady years ago who always used to talk to her 'friend' in the corner of the room who used to visit her. Cos I was young, I thought she just had dementia, but she was pretty convincing somedays.

Makes you wonder doesn't it.

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