Haunted Hospitals

Now you mention it Escargot I have seen similar "thick breath" (it's a catchy phrase isn't it?) come from my dogs when they yawn - even in summer. I suppose it's just a sign of how moist the breath is.
 
Nope. They are all possessed. It's the evil spirits popping out for a look around.

Later, when you're enjoying a cup of cocoa in front of a roaring fire, they pop out of the other end.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Many of these reports come from the late 19th Century when sick rooms and death chambers were often indoor swamps.

"For Heaven's sake, don't let the noxious nighttime air in here - it'll KILL the patient!"
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OT, most hospitals in the UK from the first part of the 20th C had open air wards for infectious diseases. The fresh air being seen as therapeutic. I have relatives who spent time in sanitariums during the 30s and 40s who can still recall having afternoon naps outside while recovering from diseases like Scarlet fever or TB.
 
TheQuixote said:
OT, most hospitals in the UK from the first part of the 20th C had open air wards for infectious diseases. The fresh air being seen as therapeutic. I have relatives who spent time in sanitariums during the 30s and 40s who can still recall having afternoon naps outside while recovering from diseases like Scarlet fever or TB.
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I think what happened is that with the coming of modern germ theory the "miasmic mist" theory, with its images of infectious diseases as vampire-like clouds prowling the night, finally bit the dust.

As late as the 1850s the standard method of combatting yellow fever in New Orleans was building huge bonfires in the streets to somehow scare away those noxious vapors. (There's a great scene illustrating this in the film JEZEBEL, starring Bette Davis.)

But I really should have written "mid-19th Century" rather than "late." Even so there remain strong elements of "keep the night air out" as late as Bram Stoker's DRACULA.
 
There was a great thread on spooky hospital happenings ages ago, but I can't find it. Coincidentally enough, the story I remember most from that thread is one about a hospital morgue that no-one could ever seem to remember how to get to.
 
I've told this story before on other threads, but it certainly deserves to be included here:

When my late Dad lay dying in a hospital hospice unit in Covington, Kentucky, in July, 1995, I got into a discussion with the floor physician concerning life-after-death.

He turned out to be a convinced Survivalist.

"I'm both surprised and elated to hear you talk this way, Doctor," I said. "I'd thought that being around all this death and dying might have turned you into something of a Materialist."

"Oh, not at all," he answered. "It's entirely the other way around. You have to understand....that....we....SEE....things....here."

The chief ward nurse, seated at her desk about four feet away, silently nodded her head up and down in agreement.
 
The Royal National Hospital was opened in 1867 to deal with tuberculosis and other chest diseases. Again, the climate of the area was an important factor in its choice of location. The Hospital continued its vital work rehabilitating patients for over a century, until advances in medicine and the decline in these diseases resulted in its closure in 1969.

When the builders in 1969 were told that they were going to be knocking it down, strange things began to happen. The machinary they used broke in unusual ways. So, the builders had to use their hands and other tools. Halfway through, one of the men claimed to have seen a little girl in a night dress, standing with a teddybear in her arms. Then she slowly faded away.

It's now a garden place where you can walk around and that, and there have been more reports of sightings and strange goings on. I myself have been there, and I'm still sure to this day that I saw an outline of a ghost coming towards me.
 
Not a haunted hospital, but a care home. I've recently gone back to care work and was today sent to a home in a town some miles away. The staff were delighted to describe the various sightings and other available phenomena. :D

The top floor is supposed to be heavily haunted, with workers often having hair pulled, clothing twitched etc. Successive residents in one particular room there have had sweets stolen when nobody's around: some have seen children in the act. When there were no children there.
Adult figures have been seen sitting on beds and chairs.
Guess who volunteered to work up there alone! ;)

An old geezer with a room on the ground floor used to complain about the sounds of horses at night - neighing, snorting, hooves etc. Turns out that his room was originally part of the stables.

I'm back there tomorrow and probably again in the future so let's hope I'm thoroughly haunted. Fingers crossed. 8)
 
Hospital calls in exorcist after ghost spotted
A hospital has called in an exorcist after staff claimed they were being haunted by a ghost.

By Chris Irvine
Last Updated: 7:52AM GMT 30 Jan 2009

Staff at Derby's new City General, soon to be renamed the Royal Hospital, which is built on the original City General site, claim a black-clad figure wearing a cloak is stalking the corridors and wards.

Senior manager Debbie Butler has now reportedly briefed the terrified employees via email, explaining that they have hired an exorcist to come and rid the £334 million hospital of their unwanted visitor.

She explained: "I'm not sure how many of you are aware that some members of staff have reported seeing a ghost.

"I'm taking it seriously as the last thing I want is staff feeling uneasy."

She added: "I don't want to scare anyone any more than necessary, but felt it was best I made you all aware of the situation and what we are doing about it.

"I've spoken to the Trust's chaplain and she is going to arrange for someone from the cathedral to exorcise the department."

One source told The Sun: "There have been dozens of sightings over recent weeks and people are scared witless.

"Several have seen a male figure cloaked from had to toe in black darting between rooms and through walls - especially in departments near the morgue.

"It's affected morale so much that bosses decided they had to act."

The Catholic Church only uses exorcism as a last resort and the ritual must be pre-approved by a bishop.

A spokesman for the Bishop of Derby said: "Any case such as this is put to the Bishop.

"He would seek proper advice before taking action."

One theory is the figure could be the ghost of a Roman soldier killed on the spot where the original hospital was built in the 1920s.

Developers ignored protests covering over part of one of Ancient Britain's main Roman Roads.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... otted.html
 
I know of two haunted tales regarding hospitals/nursing homes.

The first happened in my home town. There is a large private nursing home which at one time was used for patients of a less than stable nature. (One sad memory I have is of a patient killing himslef by headbutting a pointy metal railing.) The building is a massive, gothic style mansion.

Not that many years ago (around 15 years ago if I recall correctly), an elderly man disapperaed from his room one night and a massive search was launched the next day including the grounds and surrounding town. He couldn't be found and the nursing home was in disgrace.

Approximately one week later, a nurse in the grounds spotted him looking out of an attic window. She ran up the stairs but found to her surprise that the attic door was blocked with piles of old dusty junk, boxes etc. She called for help and everything was cleared away. The door was locked so the lock was smashed and they entered the room. There he was, looking bright and cheery, none the worse for wear.

When they asked him what had happened, he replied that a nurse he had never seen before came and woke him up and led him into this room. He reported that she wore a different uniform to the other nurses. She had been visiting him every day bringing food and drink and singing too him, songs he remembered from childhood. The room was a typical attic room, dusty, cold and bare but for some reason it did have an old single bed in it.

He had somehow survived a week in the attic. How did he get into a locked room with a blocked door? Was a ghostly nurse looking after him? Or was she a real person with a sinister hidden agenda?

.............

The other story is this. In the town I live in now, an old, sprawling hospital has recently been converted into office spaces. One floor used to be the Maternity Ward and the people who work there have reported seeing a nurse's body hanging from a noose in the stairwell.

The interesting fact is that a nurse did indeed kill herslef there, back in the early 1900's. She was in charge of the night shift and one night a young girl was brought in about to have a baby. For one reason or another, the girl died during childbirth and the baby was stillborn. Blaming herself for the loss of both mother and child, the nurse hung herself from the railing in the stairwell.
 
if you want a haunting experience, go to the Alexian Brothers hospital outside Chicago. it's an old hospital with very small rooms. i spent a very grueling night there sitting up bedside.
i kept going to the doorway to check the hall, things were moving in the hallway (nothing visible) kept hearing whispering, cold drafts blowing thru otherwise stuffy room, curtains moving, small random things falling off counters, and just that deadly feeling i was not alone. :shock:
for added freak out, i looked across a small courtyard into
another hospital building and there looking out the window was a nun in an old style habit. a nun "staring back at me" at
3 am!...at that point i just gave up, pulled my chair into the corner and waited for daylight.
 
That's a whole threadful of haunting in one night. :D
I hope whoever you were sitting with recovered, and appreciated your effort.
 
I've posted this before under another name.


When I worked in a Nursing home the residents on the 1st and 2nd floor, particularly in room 7, (around 3 of them whilst I was there and mostly dementia patients), would complain about the children that would keep them awake all night. One resident used to talk about the "2 children who used to stare at her from the end of the bed".

One guy I woke up in the morning, shouted at me "Why can't you shut those bloody kids up!?" I asked him what he meant he said, (this was in one of his moments of lucidity), "they kept running up and down the stairs all night and kept me awake!".


The nursing home had been a school many years before.
 
*nods*

Yup, I posted a year or two ago about an elderly gent in a care home I worked in who complained of being disturbed by the sounds of horses in his room at night.
His room was in an extension built over the old stables... :shock:
 
Huge vault of personal nursing ghost stories here:

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-di ... 08202.html

Some interesting patterns in the reports (and some bloomin' scary ones too!) What's with the 'seeing young children running about signalling imminent deaths' that crops up quite a lot? That doesn't fit anything religious I know of - speaks more of mischevious elves or the like.
 
Stories from hospitals

http://allnurses.com/general-nursing-discussion/whats-your-best-108202.html

I know several. I'll share more later if there is any interest:

We had a black girl, about 10 in ICU that was severely injured in a car accident. Lots of brain damage. She didn't die there but was moved to another facility after weeks and weeks.

After that, I know of 3 older black males, in their 50's, that, if they were even mildly sedated, would ask about the little black girl with the ribbon in her hair who was sitting at the foot of their beds.

One guy said, "she asked me how I was doing, and then got up and walked that way" while he was pointing towards the 2nd floor window. He paused, a wide-eyed look came over his face, and then he said, 'But I guess she really couldn't have left the room that way, huh?"

Personally, I think she was taking care of grandfatherly figures.

I worked in an ICU where a prisoner convicted of murder died in ICU 1 - and nobody would put a patient in that room after that cause the air was too heavy and the room was too spooky and 'dark'. It was so bad (nurses would refuse to put patients in the room even if it was the last available bed; they'd triage out a patient before they'd trust putting a patient in that bed 1), that the hospital eventually closed down the room and knocked out a wall to make it a separate entrance into the unit.

I used to collect ghost stories: I know several.

~faith
Timothy.
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A large bunch of stories at the link.
 
This must surely be one of the FTMB's legendary threads. 8)
 
I wasn't aware of this thread. I only checked the Ghost forum.
 
Spudrick68 said:
I love reading stuff like that. It will make me boggeldy eyed though! Will peruse it later.
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I am just settling down to do this now.
 
Yup, it's not in the forum you'd expect so peopler're bound to miss it.

Hospital ghosts! Bring'em on! :D
 
Ohh, nice! That's how I plan to spend my work afternoon ;)
 
One of my life's delights is to re-read a long old spooky thread. A bit like exploring a haunted house. 8)

I'm easily pleased. ;)

Some years ago, another poster, I'm thinking Johnnyboy, remarked that a long ghostly thread was JUST the thing to read late at night. On your own. With the Devil.

I still laugh about that. :lol:
 
Although it adds very little to the discussion, I work in a school which used to be a TB hospital. I am always amazed that there are no ghosts, stories of ghosts or even a bad feeling.
 
Many friends of friends...

In the pub Saturday, I mentioned to my mate Don that an ex-gf who has moved recently into a flat briefly saw a ghost. We then swapped a few stories and he told me this one.

Thirty odd years back Don's mate was on holiday abroad, and managed to fall off a hotel balcony a couple of stories up. He was medivaced back to UK, and ended up in the LGI.

The ward was filled with both young blokes, most of whom had had motorbike accidents, and old men with various fractures from falls.

Don's mate was in a bit of pain and couldn't sleep - and one night clearly saw a 'nurse' in an outfit similar to a nuns walk onto the ward and then sit by the bed of an old man opposite. After half an hour or so she stood and went into a small side room. And although he watched for some time, she did not come out of the room.

The morning after this chap wakes up and - you guessed it - there are screens round the bed opposite and turns out the old man has passed away

Weeks later, Dons mate is discharged and goes for a pint with his wife, Don and Dons girlfriend, who is a nurse at LGI. She promptly asks him if he had seen anything odd on the ward, as it has a 'reputation', and he describes what he saw. The nurse tells him the ward used to be staffed by nuns.

Don added an extra twist. A few years ago he was browsing the Yorkshire Evening Post website and chanced on a link to 'Haunted Leeds'. First page he comes to has an account of that meeting in the pub, written by his mates wife.

When I spotted this thread had 'risen up' :roll: I decided to add the story, and I wanted to include the 'Haunted Leeds' page. I had to get mildly inventive with Google (ended up using 'leeds hospital ghost husband' !!!).

Just look for the LGI story:

http://www.hauntedleeds.co.uk/yourcomments.htm

And you can see Dons and Kathryn's recollections are different in one very key aspect. I'm going to ask Don if he is in touch with his old mate, and if he recalls what happened.
 
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