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...

Something I have read time and time again on this thread.

It's about the good guys wearing white and the bad guys wearing dark. That's a New Age Twinkie concept, not something for real.

What if you were dying and Uncle Charlie came to visit you? What if Uncle Charlie always wore brown or dark suits? Wouldn't it make sense that he would wear something you would recognize?

I guess it just bothers me ever so slightly that so many assume if they aren't wearing white flowing gowns they are all about evil. I just don't agree!

I'm with many folks here, I've seen too much, I KNOW something exists out there. I don't claim to know what or how it all works but SOMETHING is coming to help our patients cross. Just because they aren't wearing long, flowing, white gowns (men, anyone???) doesn't mean they are all evil.

Let's let love flourish when and where it can.

How many have sat with someone while they die to witness the following: they are actively dying, OR.... they don't want to die and nobody is going to make them! They fight death tooth and nail. They refuse to go and nobody can make them leave. They'll even TELL you that!

Suddenly, they look, take a quick double take, smile, try to say something, and die.

Something or someone is coming to get these folks and it isn't a bad guy. It's someone these folks feel comfortable with.

Just because it is something we don't understand or see for ourselves, that doesn't mean it is all evil. Some folks just plain don't wanna go.

My Dad was one of them. He was dying of colon CA. Long story short but he didn't have enough time to prepare for what would happen to him. He was verrrrry clear that he had an angel and his angel was named Pete. He knew about Pete long before the Duragesic, Oxy's, or Vicodin 10's. Pete was there and Pete was real. My Dad didn't pray to his God, he prayed to Pete and asked Pete to talk to God on his behalf. When Dad did end up on mega narcs he could still carry on very clear and lucid one sided conversations with Pete. These conversations made total sense.

Even with Pete and totally trusting Pete, my Dad was scared to death to die. He was a hard core, long term Catholic and he was afraid he hadn't been a good enough Catholic. He was afraid of spending eternity in hell.

When he died (he bled out and vomited pure blood, a ton of it) he strained to turn and look at me, had an absolute look of horror on his face, closed his eyes and died. That look has haunted me from that day. I'm not afraid he really is in hell, my heart just goes out to him that he thought it could happen.

He wasn't afraid of Pete, he was afraid of what his religion taught him. He was verrry afraid, but not of what came to help him cross. He was afraid of his religious teachings.

About 4 hours before my Dad died I saw what looked like a half dozen folks coming to him. They formed a half circle and just stood there watching him. I couldn't see their faces, just their body outlines. I told my sisters about this and they were sure his time was up, I disagreed. I was in mega denial at the time and dismissed it as nothing. He wasn't even supposed to die for a few months.

Long after he died I finally came to realize I wasn't dreaming. There were people, loved ones from previous times coming to get him, help him cross, however you want to say it.

The ONLY thing that made me feel better was the following web site:

www.georgeanderson.com

I'd still be a neurotic mess had it not been for emails between folks at this site and me. They made me realize what I *really* saw. It wasn't fear, it was something else.

Point being, those that come to get our patients and loved ones may not be evil simply because they aren't wearing what we prefer they would wear. Maybe they just have boring taste in clothes. Nowhere does it say only evil will wear a brown suit.

I'm not so sure about all this God stuff, but from watching people die over the last 20+ years I am sure about there being something else after this life. I don't claim to understand it, I just believe it is there. But I have yet to be convinced that they have read our books and I don't believe they are aware they are supposed to wear white flowing gowns. ;)

For many years now I've come to believe that no hell exists. In order for me to believe that a God of pure love exists, I can't also see him as a God who would create such a place. I'm probably going to hear it from everyone now! I really hope I'm right because when I hear about beings in black robes and those on their deathbeds horrified about something evil taking them, it starts putting doubt in my mind. But then I start questioning whether God is a God of love and that resolves the problem for me. I think those that fight their death in the end may just be fighting the fear of the unknown and/or fighting because they just don't want to leave yet.

For many years now I've come to believe that no hell exists. In order for me to believe that a God of pure love exists, I can't also see him as a God who would create such a place. I'm probably going to hear it from everyone now! I really hope I'm right because when I hear about beings in black robes and those on their deathbeds horrified about something evil taking them, it starts putting doubt in my mind. But then I start questioning whether God is a God of love and that resolves the problem for me. I think those that fight their death in the end may just be fighting the fear of the unknown and/or fighting because they just don't want to leave yet.

What a wonderful post. I'll give you this, it tooks guts to post this one. :wink2:

Cheers. Cheers to common sense and critical thinking skills!!!! And another thing.... ((((hugs))))

Specializes in critical care, med/surg.

There is an old hospital in Louisville Ky called Waverly Hills that has many stories of spookiness! Back in the 40's it was a TB hospital, then a home for the insane and finally a longterm facility before it's doors were closed in the early 80's. There was an underground tunnel that ran from the main building down to the road where they wheeled out the recently deceased so that residents would not see them. Many people reported slamming doors, ghostly apparritions and my favorite (and personal) the squeaking of wheels in the tunnel, years after it was closed!

I've always been fascinated by the paranormal. When I fininsh nursing school this Spring, I plan on learning how to do investigations. I watch a show on the Sci Fi channel called TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society). They go and do investigations at places that are said to be haunted. Sometimes they find good evidence of ghost activity and many times they don't. They research the paranormal from a sceintific approach. They even have a website where people sometimes send in impressive photos that could be paranormal.

Specializes in Adult SICU; open heart recovery.
I've always been fascinated by the paranormal. When I fininsh nursing school this Spring, I plan on learning how to do investigations. I watch a show on the Sci Fi channel called TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society). They go and do investigations at places that are said to be haunted. Sometimes they find good evidence of ghost activity and many times they don't. They research the paranormal from a sceintific approach. They even have a website where people sometimes send in impressive photos that could be paranormal.

I love "Ghost Hunters"! It's such a great show. Did you see the season finale? They caught some really interesting footage.

Yeah, that episode was great. There is another show on the Travel Channel called Most Haunted. It's about a group of investigaters that go to many historic places in the UK. However, I don't think that this show is as credible as Ghost Hunters.

Specializes in Adult SICU; open heart recovery.
Yeah, that episode was great. There is another show on the Travel Channel called Most Haunted. It's about a group of investigaters that go to many historic places in the UK. However, I don't think that this show is as credible as Ghost Hunters.

I used to watch "Most Haunted," but unfortunately it was outed as a fraud. I felt so gullible. I always thought that Derek guy was over the top. I really believe in TAPS, though. I think they've proven themselves to be very credible.

In the mid 80's I was working day shift on a med-surg unit at the hospital. One morning in June I came in to find a new patient that had been admitted the evening before. She was in her 40's and diagnosed with terminal cancer. She wasn't expected to live 2 weeks. Three months later she was still with us and the staff had grown very close to her and her family. The morning of September 9 I entered her room and knew that was the day she would die. The atmosphere of the room changed the second you crossed the threshold, it felt oppressive. You could tell Death was in the room. It was as if Death was a physical presence. When her doctor made his rounds he asked me how she was doing and I just told him to let me know after he saw her. His only response after leaving the room was "I see what you mean". Even though she had not changed physically in 3 months, at the end of the shift all the staff members made a point of going in to say goodby to her family. As far as I know not one staff member ever mentioned it to any other, it just happened. Just after the evening shift came on and made their visit to her room she passed. We later found out that it was on the one year anniversary of her sons death.

Happy New Year Everyone--Now to my story. Back in the mid 1970's I worked at a drug rehab for drug dependent teens. I normally worked the 3-11 shift but had decided to do a double since we had a young lady in the observation room. The facility had been an old WW I airforce base and a state mental institution before being changed to the live-in rehab. The observation room was on the second floor which had nothing except a very large dorm room and the small observation room. The nursing desk was just outside the door of the observation room. At the end of the large room was a metal door leading down to another metal door via metal stairs. All doors were locked and checked before my shift began. Exposed metal pipes were around the large dorm room which were for heating and cooling. At about 2 AM I am sitting at the desk and I hear the bottom door open and footsteps coming up the stairs. I am already on the phone to security for help. I see the door open at the end of the room and then close. In about 30 seconds a pounding started on the pipes. It was if someone was going around the room hitting the pipes with a stick. The pounding stopped and I saw the door open again and close. Needless to say I was petrified. Security was there within 3 minutes of my call and all the doors were still locked. That is one night I will never forget.

I work for a pediatric home health agency and unfortunately have known many children who have died. One boy stands out in particular. He was 6 years old and had severe CP, with daily seizures. He also had an ASD, and some respiratory issues, so that whenever he got a cold, he got really sick and needed lots of suctioning and oxygen. Last winter, he had an awful cold, and was sicker than usual, wanting to sleep all the time for two days, so we took him to the pediatician. After consulting with a neurologist, the pediatrician said that the little boys "respiratory center" in his brain was shutting down, and we should call hospice.

Hospice came the same afternoon and agreed that he was dying, and proabably only had a few days to live. He only lived about 3 more days, and became less and less concious over those 3 days. He would no longer make eye contact with his mom or me, but would look just above our heads and smile this beautiful joyful smile. He died peacefully in his moms arms.

Antother interesting thing with him is the dream that his grandfather had, the day BEFORE the pediatrician told us to call hospice. At that time, we knew that this child was sick, but he had been very sick many times before, so we certainly weren't expecting him to die. The night before we saw the pediatrician, the grandfather (who was VERY close to the little boy) had an dream that was unlike any he had ever had. In reality, this little boy had never walked, talked, or eaten by mouth, but he was a loving little boy who smiled, laughed, and loved his Mom and Grandfather more than anyone. In the dream, the grandfather was putting his grandson in his wheelchair, and the little boy said " What are you doing grandpa? I don't need this anymore!" , and he went running off to play with some other children.

on my current ward, haematology a exit lights flash on the ward flashers for a about half a day just before we have a really bad death or code. as soon as the code or death has happened the exit light stops flashing.

it's only happens on the really bad deaths and codes. it most of the time gives us a chance to over stock the arrest trolly just in time.

Not a ghost story, but really magical..........

Years ago I worked at an assisted living facility as an aide. One woman who lived there, "Verna", basically lived in the past all the time. She had been a school teacher and would sometimes correct our grammar, but otherwise she talked about the house where she used to live, and she didn't know how she had ended up in this place, and she just wanted to go "Back to Carmel", where she had lived 15 years ago, but she thought it was just yesterday.

She was ambulatory with a walker, and she was able to go to the bathroom with assistance, but one day she had an accident and wet her clothes. I was kneeling in front of her, changing her clothes, while she looked into space and talked about going to Carmel. Then all of a sudden, she touched me on the shoulder, looked me in the eyes and told me "Thank You. You girls are so wonderful. You do such an important job." That was the only time I had ever seen her that lucid, and it never happened again. This was 13 or 14 years ago, and remembering it brings tears to my eyes. Back then, I was an overworked, underpaid aide, but when Verna told me that, I felt like I had the most important job in the world.

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