All Hospitals Have Ghosts

All hospitals have ghost stories and our hospital is no exception. Some have more than others. It is rumored; although I’ve never seen it myself, that there is a pale white apparition that would walk from one side of a patient room to the other in our coronary care unit. The appearances would occur silently without any type of regularity. It only occurred when the room was empty, either late on the evening shift or early in the night shift. No lights would be on and the gauzy white form would slowly glide across the floor. At first the nurses would investigate, thinking that someone was there, but after several times, no one went in and would say, “Did you see that?” or “I just saw our friend.”

The next story occurred on one of our medical/surgical areas and I was witness to this frequent phenomenon. We would hear footsteps at the back end of the unit’s hallway. There was no way to gain access to that area without walking past the nursing station or entering through a thick metal fire door that made so much noise when it was opened or closed, we nurses would have heard it if it had moved.

The footsteps always started on the right side of the hallway and walked to the opposite side. The sound we would hear was steps of thick soled shoes or boots and not the shuffling sound made by patient in slippers.

We would check both hallways and patient rooms at that end of the unit when we would hear the footsteps, but never found someone who was up walking or even awake.

Another story occurred on the same med/surg. floor. It involved the bathroom of a patient room. The call light would go on. When we would check, everyone in the room would be asleep or the room would be empty. We had maintenance check the switch for a short. They even changed the switch and the light would still come on randomly.

Several years later, the administration changed the floor to a pediatric area. When the kids came, the “ghost” left and the call light didn’t come on unless it was actually pulled. I guess the ghost didn’t like kids.