What's Your Best Nursing Ghost Story?

Nurses General Nursing Nursing Q/A

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...

I have a Few ----I work on an Oncology Floor.

Seems like 653 and 675 get all the attention --

In 653 there have been four deaths in four months. One in which I called the Code - Lady was aspirating. Her family came for a visit previous to this and I proceeded to tell them how "well" she was doing. We talked about her and I asked the family where she might go after she left the hospital. They said they were looking into having her return to the NH. So I am cleaning out her mouth, she has pneumonia, and she takes a big gasp and then starts to choke. I run out looking for assistance and we proceeded to suction her but we couldn't get the mass out. She looked at me, closed her eyes and then passed out. She was level 2, After we pronounced her, I went out in the hall and found the family and we discussed what happened. I told them I couldn't believe that I had just told them how well she was doing and then 3 min later she passes!!! I thought back and figured she did not want to go back to NH and this was her way of saying, "NO WAY AM I GOING BACK THERE!!"

This past week, Lady #2 with pneumonia in same 653 starts choking on a pill, heimlich given and pill expelled and patient OK so far. Same Age.

675- Code called - young 70 watched TV every night and liked to fall asleep while it was on. Day he coded at 630am, night before was pleasant to staff(had not been entire time he was there) and asked if we could turn off his TV and shut the door (prev. had door open all the time) Sure enough he passed that am.

675- This patient was in 660 with liver/colon CA for a month and the family had asked for a bigger room because he had so many visitors. Well 675 was the only large room we have and he was transferred. I knew this was not a good idea because 675 had been bad luck. Not many leave 675.

He went there on Monday, I took care of him on Tues and he was in and out of conciousness. I knew I would not be back until Friday but I sensed he would not still be there. I prayed about it and the first thing I did when I got back on Friday was to check the board. I really wanted to take care of him once more. He indeed was still there but coma was apparent with Cheyne-Stokes. He had a high fever and about 10pm he passed right on my shift just like I prayed. I was so grateful I was part of his passing, to be there with his family. Later after the funeral he came to me in a dream and showed me a picture about a puppy and how I should tell his wife. I did have his wife's email so I forwarded the message on as strange as it sounds. She told me that they had been thinking of getting a pup before he got sick. I told her she really should get one...............

I have to pass the cemetary on my way to work and this patient always seems to thank me for taking care of him..............

After my best friend shot himself after being very depressed, I was sitting in the second pew in front of his casket and I heard him say to me "I want you to meet my doctor". Well there were hundreds of people there- How would I possibly know who this guy was? I felt this presence behind me and I turned around and this burly, tall man with a navy blue overcoat was looking to sit behind me. Instinct told me or my friend that this was the doctor. I turned, looked at him and said are you Paul's doctor? He said "Yes, How did you know?" We had a short conversation about him - he was devasted and then told me a story about the last time he saw him, something about coffee and asking where the sugar was even though he knew where it was for 12 years in the same cabinet. The doctor thought this was odd. I still don't know what it meant...

After the funeral Paul's brother took me to the site where he had shot himself, there was still blood in the fresh snow and I tried not to look at it but I felt peace there. A strange peace. His brother and I sat in the car where they found the typed written suicide note and he played the tape that Paul had in the deck and we listened to the last song that was playing....

Later, the next week I went to a retreat with my church in the woods and we were all cramped in this small auditorium and I was sitting in the second row with about a hundred people behind me, we were all squooshed in there on the floor ready to hear worship songs. What song did they play first? The song that was playing on my friend Paul's tapedeck in the car he drove to the park to shoot himself!! I freaked out and had to get out of there --

I leapfrogged over everyone and went outside in the cold air - As I was standing there- (I could still hear the song) A falling star gleamed across the sky..........................WoW!!!!!!:Melody: Put my heart back in my chest.

Heather

After the funeral Paul's brother took me to the site where he had shot himself, there was still blood in the fresh snow and I tried not to look at it but I felt peace there. A strange peace. His brother and I sat in the car where they found the typed written suicide note and he played the tape that Paul had in the deck and we listened to the last song that was playing....

Later, the next week I went to a retreat with my church in the woods and we were all cramped in this small auditorium and I was sitting in the second row with about a hundred people behind me, we were all squooshed in there on the floor ready to hear worship songs. What song did they play first? The song that was playing on my friend Paul's tapedeck in the car he drove to the park to shoot himself!! I freaked out and had to get out of there --

I leapfrogged over everyone and went outside in the cold air - As I was standing there- (I could still hear the song) A falling star gleamed across the sky..........................WoW!!!!!!:Melody: Put my heart back in my chest.

Heather

I am so very sorry about your friend.. I am not trying to be nosy, but what song was it? If you don't want to post it, can you PM me? (I do have a reason to ask..)

Lori,

It was a song about longing for Heaven. The name of the song eludes me - If it comes back I will tell you - This was over four years ago...The next time I hear it in church, I am sure I'll remember...........HB

Lori,

It was a song about longing for Heaven. The name of the song eludes me - If it comes back I will tell you - This was over four years ago...The next time I hear it in church, I am sure I'll remember...........HB

Thank you for responding... I had an ex-fiancee who killed himself, and he was listening to "Dust in the Wind..." since then I have found four other cases where that song was used to die to... just an odd coincidence, I suppose.

Specializes in critical care: trauma/oncology/burns.

Okay I have a few stories and events that I myself witnessed:

My first job out of nursing school, working 8 hour nights. One night I get a call from a nurse who asked me, if I wasn't too busy, to come right up to 3C (a men's ward - this is way back in the day, smile). I saw the unit clock and the hands of the clock were running counterclockwise, i.e., backward, and at a rapid rate. The hospital had the main clock somewhere in the basement, and the other clocks in the house were running correctly, clockwise, so this was the only clock that was running so oddly. Well, the older RN tells me "...to wait and see what happens". Sure enough, within about 15 minutes there is a code 99 called on another floor. It seemed that, only during the night shift, if and when that particular clock ran backwards, someone would arrest and die! Gulp!

Fast forward 10 years later. I am working at a large Cancer hospital in NYC. Every so often one of us regular 12 hour night shift nurses would see a figure come toward us out of the corner of our eyes, only to have it "disappear" when we looked up; or maybe I would be writing my nursing progress notes and felt someone tap me on the shoulder only to turn around and find no one there; or how bed or room # 12 was always cold, winter, spring, summer no matter what the temp was like in side or out, that room would be 5-10 C colder than the rest of the unit.

Because of situations and strange happenings mentioned above, twice a year we would request that the hospital have different members of organized and/or recognized religious leaders come to pray in and around the unit. We have had Shaman, Rabbis, Priests (Hindu, Catholic) Ministers and Reverends come in to pray for those who have died and those who will. I am not sure if it helped anyone who had previously expired or died, but it did help us. So many of our patients died such horrible, tragic deaths I guess it was to help us feel better....?

Boy, did this thread bring back memories!

Specializes in Home Health Care.

I'm just a newbie starting out, so I'll share my first odd experience in the hosp. A couple weeks ago at clinicals, my fellow nursing students and myself were sitting at the end of the hall in one of the visitors waiting rooms doing our charting. There were no occupants in the 3-4 pt rooms next to this waiting room.

All of a sudden three of us heard knocking on the wall comming from the pt room next to us. Two of my class mates got up, (I didn't react as quickly) and looked into the pt room and no one was in there. It was weird... but what is more strange is that the other three students that were charting with us didn't hear it at all and it was loud knocking :confused:

Specializes in Cardiac/Telemetry.
I used to work in a state inst for developmentally disabled. We were temp relocated to another building for remodeling of our bldg. Anyways...I was working one nite, 2nd shift. We had a locked pica unit. I saw one of the residents walking down the hall. Very distinct gait and very distinct yellow t-shirt w/ a happy face on it. I went into the ward to let staff know that they had an escapee. This was a serious situation because this particular resident, Larry, would ingest absolutely anything (from clothing to pens to belts to *ugh* a bird's head)...literally anything. He was also very reluctant to go back to his home ward (hence why I didn't bring him back myself...he needed two escorts). When we got back into the hall, less than 15 secs later, Larry was gone!! We searched the entire building! Outside, downstairs, all wards...he was NO WHERE to be found!!! This whole search lasted last than 10 mins because I had all extra staff looking for him. I was just about to call the house supervisor to let her know that we "lost" someone when out from the bathroom walks Larry w/ one of the staff. He had been getting his bath in the bathroom for the last 30 mins or so. Kind of freaky! I absolutely, without a doubt, saw Larry in the hallway. I never would've short-staffed the wards like I did if I hadn't seen him! Like I said, very distinctive gait, look, clothing. I took a lot of razzing that nite! They all thought that I was crazy. Anyways, come to find out the next day, after the story goes around that I am crazy (haha, gigglegiggle, funnyfunny)..............Larry had an identical twin brother who died in that building 10 yrs previously.

aw, man!! this is CREEPY!!!!:chair:

Specializes in NA, Stepdown, L&D, Trauma ICU, ER.

bump

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. ;)

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!

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