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...

[Ayrman]

When I'm not zonked after a night shift I'll have to pass along a true story from Gettysburg, PA with a medical bent. That town is truly haunted, and has more than it's share of medical apparitions. I can promise you a hair-raising story. Alas, I am not long for the wakeful world as I go back again tonight.

Ayrman

[tvccrn, ASN, RN]

Just so long as you promise to come back. I love this thread and can't wait until there are more stories on here.

:monkeydance:

tvccrn

[nursein08]

Hey ayrman, I live right near Gettysburg and actually attend nursing school there. The town just has a strange feeling to it. I love it there though, it's beautiful. One evening about 8 my husband and I were at Devil's Den. It was a fairly chilly October evening. As we were walking down to our vehicle, there was the distinct sound of canon fire from in the tree line. We both stopped and looked at each other. I asked him if he heard it and he said he did. It happened 3 times, and the weird part is, there were other people near us that never heard it. When we went back into town, we asked if anyone was doing any reenactments and we were told no. They said that they get reports of "ghostly" canon fire a lot. It definitely put the hair up on the back of my neck.

[izzymo]

bump

[Giggles]

I work nights in a LTC facility and we are always telling ghost stories. One night we were working short staffed, so there was a PSW and myself. We had a death happen on days that was unexpected and another lady who was palliative. It was the beginning of the shift and I decided to check on the lady who was not well, sure enough she had just passed away. I left her there until both the PSW and myself could deal with her. The PSW and I were doing our rounds and we were walking near the activity room that was empty. All of sudden we heard what sounded like a chair move accross the floor. Both of us looked at each and asked if we both heard that. We walked in the activity room thinking that maybe one of the residents were up and wandering around. But the room was empty.

Later on that same night the PSW came to where I was and asked if I was her home area. I said no why, she said that she was had taken her cart to one of the residents room and left it outside of the door. When she came back out the cart was moved up the hall and up against the opposite wall. We were pretty freaked out that night but had a good laugh thinking our minds were playing tricks on us.

Another night I was in the basement (which I hate going to) to pick up supplies. I had funny feeling that I was not alone that night but shrugged it off that it was my mind playing tricks on my. As I was leaving the hallway to go the elevators I felt as if someone or something was behind me the I heard my name being called in whisper. I quickly went to the elevator and got on as I was standing that the door would not close, it kept opening as if someone were blocking the door or trying to get on. I don't think I went the basement for about a month after that.

[grace90, LPN, LVN]

When I'm not zonked after a night shift I'll have to pass along a true story from Gettysburg, PA with a medical bent. That town is truly haunted, and has more than it's share of medical apparitions. I can promise you a hair-raising story. Alas, I am not long for the wakeful world as I go back again tonight.

Ayrman

C'mon don't hold out on us! Pleease!

[BabyRN2Be]

Not to steal anyone's thunder, but is this the one about the two medical workers who went down to medical records (?) in the basement, and when they got off the elevator they came across a field hospital from Civil War times? A doctor was motioning for them to come over to help, but they just kept repeatedly hitting the elevator to go up.

I saw that one on a television show that does paranormal investigations. I have to agree that Gettysburg is a hot spot for paranormal activity.

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

a local MD traumatically. He had a nurse relative who worked on the unit adjoining mine. One night I thought I saw the MD walking down our hall and go into the stairwell. Later I found out that on the same night the nurse-relative had also "felt" his presence and another MD had seen him come OUT the stairwell on the bottom floor. All in the same time period. He was a sweetie and I miss him.

[Ayrman]

Here then is the story of the ghostly apparition at Gettysburg as it was related to me during a tour there some years ago.

During the Civil War Gettysburg College was known as Pennsylvania College. On the campus then as today sits what was then known as Pennsylvania Hall, and now serves as the college administration building.

In the late 80's a pair of ladies were working late one evening on the top floor. Wrapping things up for the night they entered the elevator to go down to the ground floor and from there out to their vehicles. There were only two problems: 1. The elevator did not stop on the ground floor but instead continued down to the basement level, and 2. The elevator did not serve the basement level.

The doors opened onto a nightmarish scene straight out of antiquity. Before them was a Civil War hospital, complete with scurrying orderlies, sweating surgeons and scores of wounded laid upon plank tables for surgery.

You need to know in order to understand the scene what the Mini' Ball was and did. They were actually conical bullets as opposed to the previously standard round lead balls. Propelled by black powder they were slow, heavy and frangible, and struck with tremendous force. When they struck bone they expanded, as lead is wont to, shattering bone. Mortality from what were open, comminuted fractures was significant. Medical science at the time was unable to effectively treat such wounds. The best hope for recovery lay with amputation, which there was a better than even chance of surviving vs., mortality of 80-90% otherwise.

The scene that presented itself before the two women was complete with sight, sound and smell. There were the groans of the wounded, the smell of blood and gore, the flicker of candle and kerosene lanterns. Surgeons cleaved and sawed at limbs, working quickly to reduce shock. The area was wide open, with only supporting columns intervening in the space. Rude cots held patients either awaiting surgery or recovering. The clothing worn by the wraiths seemingly made flesh and blood once again was authentic in every detail, the crude instruments and leather tourniquets strictly period. Flesh was cauterized with a hot flat iron; there was no time to make nice flaps or even rows of sutures. If the patient survived the procedure by more than a few hours the chances were good for recovery.

As the women stood there, horrified as you might imagine, staring at the scene made possible by an apparent rift in time, an orderly, the strain plainly showing on his face, turned towards the open elevator and witnessed the two women standing there in shock. He beckoned to them and began to approach them.

Their reaction as you may imagine was to frantically hit the buttons for the door to close, the elevator to go anywhere else, away from the scene before them. After what was reported to be an interminable period of time but in actually probably lasted a mere handful of seconds the doors closed and the elevator traveled upwards to the ground floor.

The women exited as quickly as humanly possible, gaining their cars and fleeing the area. A security guard was reported to have been encountered as they departed and they stopped long enough to explain in garbled fashion what they had witnessed.

Of the two women one never returned to the building, ever. The other, older woman continued to work there for several more years at least, but reportedly never again used the elevator.

The basement at that time, and presumably since, is divided into storage rooms. It is seldom if ever visited as the heat is supplied via underground steam pipes issuing from a central plant serving several buildings on the campus. It represents nothing like the wide-open area witnessed by the two women.

The history of the building shows, however, that the dividing up of the basement area came decades after the Civil War. It also shows that there was indeed a hospital sheltered in the basement during the battle for Gettysburg. Such a location would have been considered as safe from shelling.

The employee who remained there at the college after the apparition has been interviewed repeatedly and the story published in the "official" annals of Gettysburg hauntings.

Ayrman

[sanctuary, BSN, MSN, RN]

:sofahider :w00t: Love this thread.........

[BabyRN2Be]

Aryman,

Thank you for explaining it in more detail! That's the same one that I was thinking about. I saw it explained on something iike the Discovery Channel and found the whole story to be incredibly spooky. You did an excellent job relaying the story.

Wow, if something like that happened to me, I would have had an MI and died right there - with only Civil War medicine to save me!

[StatBlues]

I wonder what would have happened if the two women stepped off the elevator.............

wow.............