With Halloween just around the corner, you will probably see an increasing number of media about ghosts and other kinds of creepy stuff. If you’re a fan of this occasion, then it’s the time of the year when you thrive. If you’re not…well, you probably cannot wait for it to pass, or when the media will become non-spooky again.
Yet, today’s not that day – this article features even more spooky stuff. To be more specific, this time, it’s about ghosts and hospitals only, but it’s creepy nonetheless. So, if you decide to go on (which we urge you to do) – beware – everything just screams Halloween here.
#1
This isn’t scary, but it haunts me more than anything. I had a young mother come into labor and delivery for a scheduled c/s for triplets at 33 weeks. As a PGY2, I was doing her H&P and ultrasound for fetal position. She was super squirley and nervous, so I asked her if there was anything I could do to help allay her concerns. She told me they had warned her of all these terrible things that would happen to her with a multiple pregnancy and none had. Heck, she’d been “mall walking” yesterday, and the babies were all projected to be over 4 pounds(hence the c/s now). Then she said, “I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.” I tried to reassure her that everything looked great. Her c/s did go well, and all 3 babies were BIG. I rounded on her that next morning and went off service. I even told her that “see she hadn’t anything to worry about.” She died the next day from acute cardiac decomposition in a helicopter on the way to another hospital trying to get a heart transplant. She, apparently, had been developing dilated cardiomyopathy, and the uterus pressing on her SVC was keeping her compensated. The delivery killed her. She knew. Somehow, she just knew. That bothers me more than any ghosts.
Image source: genredenoument, DC Studio
#2
On one of my old floors I worked on we always had weird occurrences happen at night (It was a Neuro step down unit). This unit had glass walls so you could chart and monitor your patient. We had a patient who had a severe stroke and was non verbal. Feeding tube, restrained, total care,etc. They rarely had family visit too. In the middle of the night, their call light went off. When I answered it, a women said “he is really hurting. He needs his pain medicine.” So I walk into the room to check on him. The room is dark, nobody is in there, and the patient is sleeping. I tell his nurse what happened and I go and sit back down at the CN desk. The call light goes off again. It is his room. Same voice, “please he is really hurting.” I get up and walk back to the room. Same story. I tell his nurse and she gives him pain medicine through his peg and we reposition him in bed. The call light does not go off again. It was really eerie. Strange things happened on that floor.
Image source: theflamingpeacock, EyeEm
#3
At my old hospital we had “Susie”. We never were a unit working with children, but everyone who encountered her claimed her to be about 8years old. We usually only saw a shadowy figure or heard her running over the units floor at night. Sometimes she messed with the lights, call lights, computers or our old paper charts. She didn’t seem malevolent and a stern “not now Susie, I’m busy!” Usually kept her in line.
She did not like swearing though. One of our newer doctors once made the mistake to tell her to f**k off. After that bad luck seemed to follow him whenever he stepped on the unit. Misplacing his coffee mug – just to show up later exactly where he had put it down before, but now ice cold. Charts disappearing. Lights turning off in the middle of him placing an IV (which prompted me to call her out and her turning the light back on). His chair going down to the lowest setting every time he sat down – even if we switched chairs. The chair would work perfectly fine for anyone but him.
We had him apologise to her and it all stopped, or at least he wasn’t that specifically targeted anymore. I kinda miss her.
Image source: salinedrip-iV, rawpixel.com
#4
I’ve worked in Healthcare for over 20 years now and I have a a couple from working in nursing homes of seeing the “figure in black” shooting across the hall and then in the next 24 hours a resident will die and then in less than a week another one will pass as well. But my favorite story is this….
I worked at a very small hospital (maybe 30 beds) it has been around for MANY years. In the basement is of course the old mourge and there is one elevator that goes from the basement to the main floor outside the nurses station. This elevator would come up in the middle of the night randomly and the doors would open and all the staff would get up to go find the patient who just passed away. One night my coworkers and I were sitting at the nurses station and down the short hall to our right we hear this TV come on and the volume is up as loud as it can go. One of my CWs and I walk down said hall to find the TV to turn it down. There is one room down that hall that maintenance has the door closed and Do Not Enter signs on the door. After looking in all the open rooms there is no other room but the closed one to look in, we open the door, there is NOTHING in this room except the TV. I walked in turned the TV and said “Stop that, there is a sick baby next door who needs to sleep, so please be quiet” I walked out and closed the door with no further incidents with the TV.
Image source: carebearshare41, Reagan Freeman
#5
I hate when you ask the patient what they need and they say “can you tell the boy/man/ little girl/ old lady to stop crying behind you.
Image source: iamthehoard, megafilm
#6
During residency, doing a rotation at a local pediatric hospital and had a 4 week old patient with a terminal congenital condition the parents could not accept and would not make DNR/CC. It was only because they kept insisting she be resuscitated that she was even alive. We had finally convinced mom and dad to go to the Ronald McDonald house for some Z’s and had gone to check her CXR because of her bilateral chest tubes from the last resuscitation when the entire team loaded into the elevator. The doors closed, and our beepers all went off at once, announcing a code to her room. Just then, that elevator stopped dead, and we just all looked at each other like we KNEW. Now, this was before nurses ever did codes. Back then, the nurses didn’t even start the IV’s except in the NICU! It seemed like hours, but it was only minutes before the elevator went back down doors opened, and we piled out and ran out and up the steps. The nurses had started her code, and no other docs had made to the room yet, but she was gone. To this day, I still don’t quite know what happened, but we all thought the same thing at the same time is all I can say.
Image source: genredenoument, refuse-childproofing-new-house-nephew-fb
#7
I started my nursing career at a small and very old urban hospital. So small that they were closing it all up. I worked in labour & delivery and we were the only unit left (there were a bunch of clinics and offices but they weren’t open nights/weekends)
One night, we had to do a reasonably emergent C/S on a patient who was from out of town. Meaning she didn’t have a support person with her. As far as I remember, the C/S was going well (I was scrubbed in). We were in the middle of it when the patient stopped responding to the anaesthetist. Her vitals were all normal but she just stopped talking to her, stopped responding to questions. I could hear the anaesthetist ask her, “Hey, are you ok?” a few times. After a few minutes, the patient started responding again and all was well.
I had her in recovery room (just me and her, the babies were in the NICU) and things were pretty straightforward. But I did mention to her about the strange episode during the C/S. She said, “I saw my grandmother in the OR. I was so scared and I asked her to hold my hand but she told me that she couldn’t touch me.” That sure was something for a 23 yo to hear at 0300 in a room far away from any of my coworkers in a very, very old and empty hospital.
Image source: mugenhauser, jorfer
#8
I worked in an old building psych hospital – parts of it were over 100 years old and had multiple building a on bye property. Some were in use some were in use some not. Then there was unit 12B. 12B was abandoned and parts were flooded.
On night shift between 0200-0300 you would get calls from 12B. You were told on your first night to NEVER answer that extension (think it was 2307 can’t remember).
One night a new nurse answered and that triggered a cascade of calls to the unit until shift change.
Image source: quickpeek81, Drazen Zigic
#9
It was my second night with this pt in his late 80s. He was terminally Ill and was leaving for home hospice. In the middle of the night, I go to do vitals and he’s talking out loud in his sleep and fidgeting. Hadn’t done it the night before. I wake him up and ask what he was dreaming. Tells me he was dreaming about being with his friends when he was younger such as going to the bar and partying. Said it was some of his favorite times in his life. I thought that must of have a a great dream and left when I finished care.
A couple hours later, I had left with a coworker to pick up a pt. When I returned, all of my coworkers are freaking out even our senior nurses. My pt was on portable video because he could be forgetful at times. On the camera, they had witnessed multiple orbs shooting through the room that had looked similar to shooting stars. We get that from time to time, but they said that there were a crazy amount to where the room looked like it was glowing. Some coworkers even went in to check. When they did, the video person said they’d disappear then return when staff left.
By the time I returned, the orbs had just stopped. About 15-30 minutes later, my pt wakes up and decides to get up from the bed. I go in there and thought it was weird for him because he didn’t really do that the night prior. I ask him where he’s going. He points to an area behind me and says that his friends are here and want to play cards with him. My coworker who was with me paled. I just said that they should play cards when it was a little later and tucked him into bed. I thought that this whole situation was pretty wholesome. My coworkers thought I was nuts haha. I was like his friends just wanted to stop by and say hi!
Image source: bubblypessimist, Getty Images
#10
I used to work on a floor back in the day. Had a patient who was being discharged the next morning, only on PRN pain meds and hadn’t had anything mind altering all day.
I go in his room at 3 am and ask him why he can’t sleep. He says “I’m not hurting or anything. And don’t get me wrong, I love kids, but why are y’all letting children run around the unit so late?” I asked what he was talking about. He said “the kids in the dinosaur and cowboy costumes.” I said I hadn’t seen them but I’ll let the other staff know to send these kids back to their parents, thinking to myself “who the hell let them in here this late in the first place?”
I head back to the nurses station and tell the charge (who has worked there for years). I tell him “hey the dude in room XY said he can’t sleep cause some kids keep coming in his room.” He looks at me and says, less alarmed than you’d expect, “oh the kids in the dinosaur and cowboy costumes?”
I asked a couple other more veteran staff and they all had stories of patients telling them the same thing. If they were all messing with me, then half the unit and my patient were phenomenal liars.
Image source: jumbotron_deluxe, freepik
#11
It’s so awesome I read your post just this moment. Im currently at the end of a NOC shift (I’m the charge nurse and have 3-4 CNA’s each night) and this is a very old, kind of remote 50 bed LTC. A few moments ago one of my girls opened the front door & said “Yep- the ghosts are choosing the music again tonight!” Because there is a speaker out front, not connected to anything while we’re here, that on certain nights randomly plays quite the selection of music; from rock, salsa, opera, even once the ‘Haunted Mansion’ music from the ride at Disneyland. Other things happen regularly on our shift, shadow figures, lights and tvs that go on & off as they please, even had a door close me in an empty room once (no a/c or open windows to reason it away either!). The day & pm staff refuse to pick up shifts with us because of the ‘ghosts’ but we always reassure them that they aren’t harmful ones, just playful. Thank you for your post!
Image source: emmapotpie7, tempgoldlimited
#12
I have three. The first is our unit was moved to the old pediatric floor for a renovation. It was like three am and the call bell goes off. This pt is furious because the pt next door has been banging on the walls. We could hear the banging, we apologize tell them we will go talk to them. Walk into the room next door, the banging stops and that pt is sound asleep.
Second story, had a patient for a couple months. I do inpt oncology so our patients get sick very fast. He was on comfort care and passed alone. Take him to the morgue they clean the room new patient gets in there. Poor lady calls in the middle of the night that there is a strange man sitting in her room. We go in she is like i swear he was just here. She describes him, yep exactly like the former patient.
Last one, again another pt that we took care of for a few months, a very sad situation. The room is right next to the nurses station. He had been a very confused active pt in a low bed so constantly setting off alarms. He passes, the room gets cleaned and placed on hold for a new admit. His call bell went off all night long. Finally one of the nurses went in and yelled at “him” that it was time to quiet down and let us get work done. The call bell didn’t go off again.
Image source: SquiwardsTenticleHo, EyeEm
#13
My first nursing job was night shift on a unit that was (slowly) reopening after a renovation. It was on the top floor of the hospital (will be important later). None of us liked going to the supply closet alone because it was so dark and quiet down that hall.
One night, I went to answer a call light. The patient, who was completely A&O, asked me to “tell those kids to quit playing in my bathroom.” I immediately asked one of the senior nurses what was up. She explained the many lives that unit had led: peds, AIDS hospice, then to post-acute LTC.
The elevator would come up to our floor at least once a night with nobody in it. The doors would then open and close rapidly until the elevator was spoken to. We had taken a vote and named our residence ghost “Georgie.” As soon as somebody said, “Hi, Georgie,” the elevator shenanigans stopped.
Patients sometimes reported seeing strange men in their rooms (we had no male staff on the unit). Call lights occasionally went off in empty rooms, even ones that were unplugged. It was eerie but I never got the sense that Georgie and friends meant us harm.
Image source: wanderingpossumqueen, science-clothes484
#14
One night in an old psychiatric hospital (as in built in the 1800’s), a tech and I were the only ones up. Every patient seemed to be asleep (we checked every 15 min). Anyway I was sitting outside the office door and she was sitting at the back of the very small office eating her soup. The other office door to our side suddenly opened and closed and then the small restroom door in our office closed. Neither one of us said anything for about a full minute. Then I asked her if that had just happened. She sighed with relief and said yes it had and that she was glad she wasn’t losing her mind. I guess the ghost needed to use the restroom in a hurry. Maybe it was a former nurse or tech that had worked there.
Image source: Michren1298, DC Studio
#15
Back when I worked in domiciliary care, I was visiting a patient with full on dementia, AxO0, couldn’t communicate at all, just lay in bed. I’ll call him Andrew.
Obviously, Andrew required 2 people to help turn him, change him etc. I walked into Andrew’s room one morning and out of the corner of my eye saw a man, at least 6 foot tall and dressed in a black trench coat, black boots and a black hat, standing over Andrew and just staring down at him. The moment I looked properly, the apparition had gone. I didn’t get a sense of malice or anything, it was just observing him. My colleague, who came through 30 seconds later said I looked white as a sheet.
I don’t believe in ghosts, but I can’t explain that one besides maybe a bird flying past the window and casting a shadow that my brain misinterpreted or something.
Image source: Mmh1105, Getty Images
#16
I had a resident in LTC who was forever speaking to herself. She preferred to stay in her room with her curtain around her bed most of the time. She was extremely hard of hearing and had sight issues. She was very sweet to all of us and we just loved her.
One night, one of my CNAs was doing a round and stopped outside of the door. The resident had her curtain completely around her bed, and the lights were off. She was whispering frantically. The CNA heard her say “yes, she has pink on.” The CNA who the resident still could not see or hear was outside in the hall had a pink top on. This was her first round at 2200.
When the Aide walked in and announced herself, the resident quickly shushed her. When she asked the resident what was wrong, the resident stared intently at her and pointed to the bathroom. “Be quiet. The man in the bathroom will hear you.”
The CNA swears she heard something move in there. I believe it. That area of the facility is called “the hole” for a reason.
We’ve also had several residents throughout the years complain about children running up the halls in the middle of the night laughing. It’s always in the same unit near the same room.
Image source: LadyKandyKorn, freepik
#17
I work in a psych ward and we have a seclusion room that isn’t used often. I was walking by the tv screen that shows all the cameras and I saw a white figure in the room… It was there one moment and gone the next. There was no way anyone could have been in there.
Image source: valeriemaycry, freepik
#18
When I was working night shift at a previous job, one of the day shift nurses came in after she went into cardiac arrest and got into an MVC while en route to work. Her name was Ofie. She survived a few days, but eventually passed away in ICU.
Months later, I was taking care of an elderly woman who was clearly sundowning. I did my best to calm her, but with little luck. Out of nowhere, she yells, “OFIE! OOOOOFIE!”
Nobody in her family was named Ofie. We weren’t talking about Ofie that night, either.
Image source: spoonskittymeow, freepik
#19
Rehab Nurse here. Took care of a patient who was coughing late on night. I went in the room to check on her and face got her some PRN Tessalon for the cough. A week later or 2 she coded and went to icu where she ended up passing.
A few weeks goes by & One night it was me and my PCAs at the nurses station. And the call light goes off. It’s the room that the patient I took care of was in. Once I picked the phone up I just heard a cheerful voice that said “thank you!” And hung up. I head to the room to cancel the call light &. Everybody was spooked bc there was no one in that room.
Image source: SamLJacksonNarrator, DC Studio
#20
I was with a hospice patient; she was very elderly and could barely speak or move at this point. She suddenly reaches for the sky and starts crying “grandma, grandpa” over and over. My back suddenly became very cold and she died later that day.
Image source: woolfonmynoggin, wavebreakmedia_micro
#21
My first job out of lpn school was nights in a hospital based snf. After my first rounds, I’d park the med cart about half way down the hall so I could just start 0600 synthroids & fingersticks on my last rounds. One night the cart moved itself to to the end of the hall. My aides saw this and declared someone was going to die tonight because the ghosts know! They were discussing likely candidates. I was assessing extra hard but everyone was fine (at their baseline is what I mean) and I just thought my aides were giving me a leg-pull. Sure enough, last rounds came and they found the body. When I talked to the day nurse, who had been there for, like, 30 years, she said it only happened on nights and she was totally nonchalant about it. I worked there for 2 years and every g*****n time someone died unexpectedly, the cart had moved down the hall. Interestingly, it didn’t move when we were aware of and “treating” someone circling the drain, just the unexpected ones. I was creeped out and grateful for the heads up at the same time.
Image source: shirleyismydog, Tima Miroshnichenko
#22
Used to work in a rehab hospital that’s been around since the u.s outbreak of polio (1910s??). The building my unit was on was one of the original buildings. Our unit was CONSTANTLY experiencing maintenance problems: pipes bursting within the walls, electrical wiring shortages, air conditioning breaking, etc. We all contributed it to the hospital just repeatedly using bandaid solutions to cut costs. But then we had this room on the floor. While the rest of the unit would be uncomfortably hot (from the broken a.c), this room would be chilly. Randomly the toilet in the room would flush (it wasn’t sensor-activated, just a handle), as well as the automatic paper towel dispenser. The scariest of all though, was when a patient (ao x 4 with only anticoagulant and hypertensive meds) complained about a woman coming into his room at night while he was sleeping, and just standing there at the foot of his bed before leaving. He legitimately asked to speak to a manager the next day to complain about this unknown “staff member” interrupting his sleep. He said he couldn’t describe what she looked like because it was too dark, only that she had long hair that she wore down. Still creeps me out to this day and I don’t even work there anymore.
Image source: Ornery_Lead_6333, freepik
#23
I’m a retired OB/GYN. One day I was prepping an anesthetized patient for a minor procedure when the circulator realized she had pulled the wrong tubing. She walked behind me into the inner core, leaving just me, the scrub, the anesthesiologist, and the patient.
I finished the prepping and draping and stood facing my patient, my back to the inner core.
After a moment I felt a firm push toward the patient in the small of my back. I stepped forward (as one does) assuming the circulator had returned from the inner core and needed more room to pass. I looked over my shoulder to thank her for getting what we needed….and there was no one there.
Image source: attitude_devant, Drazen Zigic
#24
I’m a night shift nurse so I got to stay in the hospital during the day because of a pretty bad ice roads and snow.
I was awoken to someone slapping me in the face. I even heard the slap sound. I just packed my s**t up and left that room.
Image source: SeniorBaker4, EyeEm
#25
Closed, old “locked/psych unit” on the 11th floor is occasionally used for overflow patients and staffed by float pool when needed. Working night shift, had a patient ask during night med pass if I could ask housekeeping to not empty her trash in the middle of the night as it woke her up the night before. I thought, weird, but okay. I called housekeeping, and they said they don’t have anyone cleaning on nights on the overflow unit. This patient was fully oriented, walkie talkie, not weird at all. Not a sundowner in any way whatsoever. 3am rolls around, and the patient rings her callbell, and as I’m walking down the hall to her room, the double doors (locked-requires a badge swipe) close. I answered her bell, and she is mad that she asked for housekeeping not to come in, and they did. She said they emptied her trash, and she heard the can open and the trash bag russle. I profusely apologize, and insist it won’t happen again. I call housekeeping who again stated they don’t have someone covering our floor at night because it’s just an overflow unit. So I call security since the doors are badge access only. They pulled the badge swipe logs for the doors and no one had accessed doors after the kitchen staff picked up the dirty trays at 9pm. They pulled footage of the hall corridor and can clearly see the doors open halfway, close, and not a single person in sight!
We still have no explanation to this day and it’s just well known that the 11th floor is haunted! Apparently it was making the psych patients go crazier, and they moved the unit to a new wing of the hospital and only use this floor now for short term overflow!
Image source: mlkdragon, Drazen Zigic
#26
I had a 25yr old pt with liver failure go into DIC in the icu (her Hgb was 2.5). She was a frequent flyer who would get esophageal and rectal bands, go home on a bender and come back for more bands…etc
We managed to control the bleeding that day. The next morning she was my pt again and coded a few hrs into the shift. Everyone ran into her room, and the acls protocol began. I was spiking bag after bag of blood products. As I spiked a bag of platelets, I looked straight ahead because I saw movement in the 5th floor windows in front of me. A solid black mass, darker than any earthly black color, like a void was floating there. It had no distinct shape, and the edges where whispy and undulating. I would estimate it was about 4ft, no face, nothing. But when I looked right at it, I felt it knew I saw it. At a very fast speed it zoomed down, at a left angle and out of sight. There were about 12 other people in the room, but nobody else saw it. She did die. I felt it was waiting to take her and it was not a good feeling when I saw it.
Image source: Skyeyez9, user17007025
#27
Not my personal experience but one of the old-timer MRI techs at a hospital I used to work for told me some wild stories. Apparently the old location of the MRI was very haunted. A woman would look out of a changing area as if to say “are you going to take me back now?” and then just vanish. Everyone in that section of the hospital knew of her. Doors opened on their own, lights went out all the time etc.
Image source: Pookiebubblez, National Cancer Institute
#28
Work in a trauma/burn ICU. When I was on nights had a patient go ballistic -screaming about the dark men, we were trying to get her, etc. Weird as she was previously oriented and but maybe she was having a bad dream. Dropped dead during the day shift.
Used to work ED in small rural hospital, and when transporting a patient up to the floor the room right across from the elevator and a little old man trying to figure out his tv button while up to the chair. Make a note to ask the nurses up there to help, and when I bring it up they say the patient in the room is female, and on comfort care. She’s a ward of the state and doesn’t have any visitors. Charge takes a walk with me down the hall and sure as s**t there’s no visitors in the room.
Last one. When a curtain rt, attending, and I work we are the deathly trio. At least one person codes, usually in room 27 or 43. So we’re working, patient starts to circle in 27 when from the middle of the unit another nurse is yelling for help. She walked into her patients room to find her with her subclavian line out, painting on the walls in blood to protect everyone from the shadow men. When my cw tried talking her down the patient saw one of the shadow people in the halls and lost her mind. Few minutes later we start coding the patient in 27 and were unable to get them back.
Image source: fuqaduck, armmypicca
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