Room 827 - Nursing Ghost Story Article

Strange, we have a hospital in our city that has a story like that. When the hosp was just open there was a massive car accident. The parents were killed but the two children survived long enough to make it to the new ER where they later passed away. Many times patients see them playing in their room or sitting on the window before things go south. Sometimes they say" Do you see the children, where are their parents, why are they in my room." When you heard or saw this you knew the end was near. Many pts stated they heard children laughing. At times the staff might heard something late at night, and this believe me was a busy hosp day or night. It did not matter what floor ER. ICU Med/surg, it was always the same.I know because my father helped build the hospital I am speaking of, and I worked there for a while, and there are any stories to tell. We had one of the few free standing hospce houses in the country, and the stories I could tell while working there, day and night. Thank you for the read, interesting.

Excellent story! Well written!

Most hospitals are haunted, but that story is a bit scary. We as busy nurses usually make jokes about the a cold spot in a room or a call light that comes on in an empty room and keep on working.

For the record, folks, this story is actually true and I experienced is with almost this exact detail, with a Tad bit of creative license, too. I had never seen the story 421 posted on the forums, and I PROFUSELY apologize for any similarities. With that, carry on.

I work in an outpatient clinic that has established an office in an old "cancer building". Evidently, this building was used for radiation oncology and cancer treatment for outpatients. So now, it is an office used for just physician office visits. When we first moved to this building in 2007, we had a new physician that also established a private practice in the back of the building. Since she initially had no staff assigned to her, I helped her set up her office. She was the best in her field and had loads of certificates and awards to hang on the wall. We decorated and hung the documents on the wall and everything looked quite nice for her to start her practice. We then established the hospital portion of the office on the front side of the building and had everything in place for both practices.I frequently helped her out in her office until she could get her own staff. One day she asked me if I had moved any of the things on the wall? I told her I hadn't and saw that all the documents were moved to different places and her decorations were reversed. I thought that maybe the housekeeper had moved things while dusting and forgot about it.Over the next few months, this happened more often. Additionally, things were rearranged on her desk. I finally talked to the housekeeper and asked about it. The housekeeper was horrified and said that she didn't touch anything. She had been informed from her "boss" that she should only vacuum and clean the exam rooms. I explained this to the physician and she laughingly replied "maybe we have a ghost". Over the next few months, I really didn't think much more about it. I didn't need to help the physician out as much because she had hired an assistant. The physician went on an extended vacation and her private practice was locked up for a few weeks. The other part of the building, where I worked the most, was busy with other physicians. My days were hectic and many times I worked straight through the day without lunch or any break, but I always had my coffee cup full. And many days I left it half-full, locked my office door and left in a hurry to finally get home. One morning, I came in and my coffee cup was scrubbed clean and sitting on a paper towel. When I went to my desk, all my pens were removed from my pen holder and the pens were scattered on the desk and there were pencils in the holder. When the housekeeper came to the office to clean, I asked her if she had been in my office and she said that she couldn't get into because it was locked. I became very curious about all this activity and other things that occurred throughout the building, like magazines moved and chairs re-arranged. I decided to try to find the nursing staff that had worked in this building prior to us and ask them a few questions. I was able to locate one nurse that had worked in the "cancer center" and asked her if anyone had ever died in the center. Being that it was an outpatient center, I didn't think so, but thought I'd ask. Sure enough, there was a poor dear lady named Mary, that passed away in that building while getting her cancer treatment. I inquired about that patient and was informed that she had been a cleaning lady for physician practices. Really! Now things were starting to come together.Two years went by, with an occasional visit from our "friendly cleaning ghost". We got use to it and would fake like we were talking to her. The physician placed a sign on her desk that said something to the effect that "friendly ghosts are welcome".One day the physician and I had a chance to have some smalltalk and I told her about what I found out about the ghost. She told me that she welcomes ghosts when they are good ghosts! Imagine that!! I jokingly told her that if she ever leaves our hospital, that she should take the ghost with her. She did....I haven't had my coffee cup cleaned that well since last year when that physician left. The pictures, magazines, chairs and decorations never change. I miss the physician and Mary.*Mary is a fictitious name to protect anonymity.

I got the chills while reading this!! excellent writing and story telling!!!

Quote from BSNCarolineI got the chills while reading this!! excellent writing and story telling!!!

Oh I love these kinds of stories!! Always fun to read! On a personal note, I think my dad guards and protects us and our house. He passed away at home while on hospice, and every now and then I swear I can feel him there with me... It's the best feeling ever! Miss you daddy <3

I loved this story and so spooky cause I'm a chicago nurse, makes me wonder. Thanks for sharing

When I was still in nursing school, we would sometimes be assigned to district hospitals located an hour away from the city. There we heard stories from the staff meant to scare us. I figured, it's just their way of 'welcoming' us that I never even gave it much thought.One night, during our evening break at about 11pm... since we were not that familiar with the nooks & crannies of the wing yet, we asked a nurse on duty the way to the canteen. She said she's also on a break herself, we cud go with her to the canteen. We followed her, chatting silently behind her. She told us that we'll be going to a short cut, that we never doubted why she'd lead us near the newly-constructed building. Then she said, she'll just hurry out ahead of us 'coz she'll be meeting someone...then out she went through the door.We were stunned. Just stunned. Later, we were told that she was really a nurse then in the hospital. It's just that she still thinks she is.

I'm a Chicago nurse and keep trying to figure out what hospital! Rush, U of C, UIC, Loyola??? Can't be NMH or IL Masonic. Hmmm???

None of those. Christ, in Oak Lawn.