Ghostly Memories

All hospitals have ghost stories and our hospital was no exception. It was rumored, although didn’t actually see it myself, that there was a pale, white apparition that would walk from one side of a patient’s room to the other in our coronary care unit. The appearances would occur without any type of regularity and it only happened when the room was empty, either late on the evening shift or early into 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 wanted to go into the room saying, “Did you see that?” or “I just saw our friend.”

The next story occurred on one of our medical/surgical areas and this time I was a 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 a loud noise when it was opened or closed, we would have heard it if someone came or left through the door.

The footsteps always started on the right side of the hallway and walked to the opposite side. The sound that we heard was the 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 each time we heard the steps, but we never found anyone who was up walking or even awake.

Another ghost story occurred on the same med/surg. floor. It involved the bathroom of one patient room. The call light would go on, but when we checked, everyone in the room would be asleep or the room would be empty. We had maintenance check the call switch for a short. Nothing. They even changed the switch and the light still came 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 to summon a nurse. I guess the ghost didn’t like kids.