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...

[Cute_CNA, CNA]

Brought tears to my eyes......

ditto

[BabyRN2Be]

I love all these stories, and I'll share one although it's not related to nursing.

In 1988, my precious, dear grandmother become the victim in an auto vs. pedestrian accident. Not her fault at all, it was a 16 y.o. driver who hit both my grandparents, twice. They tried their best to save her, as she was LifeFlighted to the nearest trauma center. She just had too many internal injuries. My grandfather faired better, and survived.

Her best friend and neighbor, Kay, was in Boston on a business trip. My grandmother died at 9PM Pacific time, so it was midnight in Boston. Kay says that she was asleep, but awoke to the figure of my grandmother sitting on her bed. My grandmother communicated telepathically to Kay, "Take care of Ralph for me." (Ralph is my grandfather). Kay said, "I will." And my grandmother was gone.

Kay married my grandfather a few years later with the family's blessing. He eventually develops Parkinson's and deteriorates rather fast. In August of 1998, the end was near for him. My mother and aunt are with him. They start talking in the living room while hospice was there for a visit. They said to each other that it was 10 years ago today that my grandmother died. My grandfather had lost all sense of time and my aunt goes in and tells him, "It was 10 years ago today that Mom died." He then quietly passed away. It was as if he was waiting for the anniversary of my grandmother's death so he could go join her. It was OK for him to go.

[kastas, BSN, RN]

I love all these stories, and I'll share one although it's not related to nursing.

In 1988, my precious, dear grandmother become the victim in an auto vs. pedestrian accident. Not her fault at all, it was a 16 y.o. driver who hit both my grandparents, twice. They tried their best to save her, as she was LifeFlighted to the nearest trauma center. She just had too many internal injuries. My grandfather faired better, and survived.

Her best friend and neighbor, Kay, was in Boston on a business trip. My grandmother died at 9PM Pacific time, so it was midnight in Boston. Kay says that she was asleep, but awoke to the figure of my grandmother sitting on her bed. My grandmother communicated telepathically to Kay, "Take care of Ralph for me." (Ralph is my grandfather). Kay said, "I will." And my grandmother was gone.

Kay married my grandfather a few years later with the family's blessing. He eventually develops Parkinson's and deteriorates rather fast. In August of 1998, the end was near for him. My mother and aunt are with him. They start talking in the living room while hospice was there for a visit. They said to each other that it was 10 years ago today that my grandmother died. My grandfather had lost all sense of time and my aunt goes in and tells him, "It was 10 years ago today that Mom died." He then quietly passed away. It was as if he was waiting for the anniversary of my grandmother's death so he could go join her. It was OK for him to go.

How in the world did he hit them twice?

[driftwood52]

The best I have heard is from a nurse who said that one night she was floated to oncology at the hospital she used to work at. She was given a patient who was passing away and had been unconscious for several days. At one point during the night the nurse went into the room and the patient was at the top of the bed and looked at her and said, "don't let them take me!", the nurse was freaked out and asked her who was going to take her and she said that black thing up there and pointed up in the air. This patient died within minutes.

Come on now share your stories, I know you have seen and heard freaky things.

I was working in Surgical Intensive Care one evening. Mr. B was well enough that he was to be transferred out of ICU the next day. The three of us nurses were busy with outher patients, and in ICU you can see in all the rooms at once. Mr. B was sitting up on the side of his bed watching us. We checked on him by visually seeing him well enough to sit on the side of the bed. On one of my glances, I noticed that he had fallen to the floor, monitors were beeping EKG etc.....we all went running into his room and saw that he was not breathing and did not have a pulse, we started CPR and called a code.......we coded him for about 45 minutes before the physician called the code - Mr. B was gone. After things had calmed down the three of us nurses were rehashing t he event - which is common. Janet, one of the nurses asked me: "Who was that sitting on the bed beside Mr. B before he fell to the floor?" I said, "No one had been in his room all evening......." But someone or some spirit had visited him right before his dying - I'll never forget!

[suzy253, RN]

These aren't nursing-related stories but they've happened to me.

I used to work for this guy--wonderful person and he became like a 2nd father to me (my father having passed several years before). He would give me advice, build up my confidence and we became great friends--also with this wife and the rest of his family. We were all very close. He became sick with cancer and was in the hospital; his wife, wanting to make sure someone would be with him 24 hours started making up a list of people she would ask. I was #1 on the list. During the night, the day before I was to go and sit with him, I woke up saying to myself that I have to get ready to see Jack. I tried to sit up in bed and distinctly felt this gentle hand pushing me back down. It was a very strange feeling but I knew that Jack had died. I lay there crying until morning when I got the dreaded phone call. Broke my heart. I still miss him terribly.

another one--my childhood girlfriend who I hadn't seen in about 25 years--I had a dream that her mom had died (I hadn't seen her mom for even a longer amt of time). Something made me look her up and when I finally did talk to her, I asked about her mom and that's when she told me that she died on the night of that dream.

[General E. Speaking, RN, RN]

we had an elderly 102 yr old in our hospital who kept talking out the "white birds from Jesus" she prattled on and on about these white birds. Later that day I went in to check on her and found her sleeping. I looked outside the window and sure enough a white bird came and landed on the ledge. She passed later that night.

[onesmallspark]

My grandparents had made an agreement that whoever "went first" would send a sign (if possible) to let the remaining person know that they were okay and watching over them. If the person's spirit could come back, the sign would be that a specific knick-knack shelf would be knocked off the wall. My grandfather fell asleep at the wheel of his truck in 1978, went off the road, and hit a concrete embankment. He was still alive when they brought him to the ER, but died shortly thereafter. When my grandmother returned home from the hospital (she was alone - it happened so fast none of the family was there yet), that exact knick-knack shelf was laying the in middle of the living room floor. That sign gave my grandmother considerable comfort because she knew without a doubt that it was grandpa telling her he was okay.

For those of you who have been reading through this whole thread - my grandmother that I'm talking about in this post is the same one that I talked about in a previous post - she's the one my mother is convinced came to the family after her death as a huge snow white dog.

[BabyRN2Be]

How in the world did he hit them twice?

I'm not entirely sure how it happened. My grandmother was hit twice. I think that the driver (a 16 y.o. female) was distracted that she hit them once, my grandmother was actually able to get up after the first hit and went to aid my grandfather when the driver swerved and somehow hit them both again. It doesn't make sense, I know, but they were hit twice.

[Cute_CNA, CNA]

I'm not entirely sure how it happened. My grandmother was hit twice. I think that the driver (a 16 y.o. female) was distracted that she hit them once, my grandmother was actually able to get up after the first hit and went to aid my grandfather when the driver swerved and somehow hit them both again. It doesn't make sense, I know, but they were hit twice.

Was she ever charged with vehicular manslaughter?

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

in august of 1998, the end was near for him. my mother and aunt are with him. they start talking in the living room while hospice was there for a visit. they said to each other that it was 10 years ago today that my grandmother died. my grandfather had lost all sense of time and my aunt goes in and tells him, "it was 10 years ago today that mom died." he then quietly passed away. it was as if he was waiting for the anniversary of my grandmother's death so he could go join her. it was ok for him to go.

you know, i think a lot of folks wait to die until someone "gives them permission" to do so. years ago, when i was working in eastern washington state, i had a patient who had been on vacation in western montana when he arrested in the middle of the night. he was down for awhile, i guess. he was airlifted to our hospital. i got rather close to this man's family -- wife, sons, step-sons, daughters-in-law (or were they step-daughters-in-law?) it was a lovely family.

i think you can tell a lot about a comatose patient by what their family is like. but that's an issue to be taken up in another thread..

the patient wasn't quite brain dead. if he were, it would have been easier. he wasn't waking up, and neuro saw no hope for a meaningful recovery. his kidneys failed, and renal got involved. his wonderful family was supportive of each other, and took turns sitting at the bedside, reading to and talking to dad. meanwhile, his organs were failing and his family was being run into the ground by the ordeal. the time came when one of the sons approached me about letting dad go. a family meeting ensued, and dad was made a dnr. after a couple more days, the family decided to withdraw care. and still dad hung on. his wife and two sons were in the room one day when i was caring for dad.

"how long can this go on?" they asked me, in anguish. i had no answer for them. "but," i told them, "sometimes i think people hang on because of their families. they don't want to leave you, or they're afraid they have to stay to protect you. maybe if you tell him that you'll be ok without him, and that you're letting him go he'll be able to leave."

tearfully, the family told dad what a wonderful husband and father and step-father he'd always been, and how much they loved him. then they gave him permission to go to god. and just like that, his breathing eased and he passed. the family was so grateful to me for taking such care of dad, and of them. and i've never forgotten that family. i feel as if i witnessed a miracle.

ruby

[Jo Dirt]

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.[/quote/]

OMG!!!

I would have had nightmares for YEARS after seeing that! It probably would have scared me into going to church every sunday for the rest of my life! This has to be the scariest story I have ever heard in my life!!

If I was witness to that I wouldn't be alive now. I would have literally $h*t myself to death. My sphincter blown right out my behind, giving one last merry toot as it blew in the wind.

That has to be the scariest story I have ever heard.

[cloudydrms]

If I was witness to that I wouldn't be alive now. I would have literally $h*t myself to death. My sphincter blown right out my behind, giving one last merry toot as it blew in the wind.

That has to be the scariest story I have ever heard.

:roll :rotfl:

Cindy