Statistically, hundreds of thousands of people die in hospitals across the United States every year. So, the idea of ghosts walking around the halls of many hospitals is not so farfetched. With Halloween right around the corner, many nurses have come out of the woodwork to recall spooky stories that happened to them.
The Vanishing Ghost Girl
One surefire way to make memories as you start a job at a new hospital is when you run into a ghost in the hallways. I just started my job at a new hospital a few months ago. I took a patient to surgery shortly before receiving a request to fetch a family member, as she barely spoke English and they needed someone to translate consent for the procedure.
So, I dropped the family member off and headed back to the waiting room. I walked through an area of the hospital that used to be the pediatric wing. It closed years ago and housed all the broken hospital equipment.
I reached what was once a nursing station and noticed a small girl standing a little further down the hall. Wearing a brown dress, white shoes, and pigtails, she stood there with a teddy bear in her arms. I called out to the young girl because I worried she would wander into one of the rooms and get injured. As I moved toward her to take her hand something strange happened – she DISAPPEARED.
My body filled with goosebumps as every hair on my body stood on end. Naturally, I ran down the hall like a bat out of hell. When I arrived at the ER, a few of the older nurses looked at me with concern and asked what happened. After babbling like an idiot for a moment they laughed and noted I saw the “little ghost girl.” Apparently, the ghost girl has wandered the halls of the hospital for years.
I sure wish someone would have told me.
Nun Nurse Ghost
As with most older hospitals, nuns used to run our hospital. One area of the hospital was where we conducted sleep study labs. One night, as I watched the monitor, I saw five different patients removing their monitoring equipment at the same time. Naturally, I made my way to the rooms to find out what was going on. The first patient told me an old nurse wearing a nun cap told her she could leave, as the study was concluded. The other four patients told me the same thing. The biggest issue with the story is the other nurse working with me that night was on break and not wearing a nun cap.
Don’t Open the Door
Any time you entered the morgue at my hospital, you could hear knocking on the inside of the freezer. It was creepy. To make things work, the pathologist grabbed my arm one night, looked me in the eyes, and said, “Do you hear the knocking? Don’t open the door while they are knocking.”
Sure enough, I never opened the door. Come to find out the knocking was just loose bits, but that did not make it any less creepy at the time.
The Legend of the Death Child
While I worked for an LTC facility, I heard of a legend of the death child. Rumor had it residents who spotted the ghost child rarely survived. Sure enough, several residents asked me from time to time who the little girl was. They pointed at her, but I never saw who they pointed at. Within 72 hours of seeing the ghost child, the patients passed away. Did a little research and learned the victim of a fatal car accident outside of the LTC facility about 10 years ago was none other than a 10-year-old girl. Coincidence?
Inspector and Ghost Children
The facility I worked at was home to more than one ghost. For starters, there was the inspector. From time to time, people spotted a gentleman carrying a clipboard as he walked up and down the halls. Typically, he appeared a few days before someone died. It was very common for people to ring us and ask us to get the man outside of their rooms to leave. The problem? We did not have men on the night shift. In most cases, patients died shortly after a visit from the inspector.
In addition to the inspector, we also had lucid patients report children running up and down the halls playing. The problem? Our facility did not house children. There was, however, a children’s home behind us where reports of child abuse emerged.
With so many nurses seeing ghosts or hearing strange noises, it is hard not to believe them. Stay tuned for more Halloween fun at Scrubs Mag.
