Though a couple of them aren't actual nursing stories, they were written by nurses & I liked them so much, I just had to include them! I hope you enjoy them (and all the stories) as much as I did! :)
By Jandlo506:
"I really believe this, I think that people's spirits do not always leave right away, sometimes they linger. My grandfather died when I was 4, and after he died, my grandmother left the house to stay with her daughter, my mom, for a little while. One day, my mom and one of my other aunts went to the house to pick up some clothes for my grandmom. They walked into the house and were standing in the kitchen when they heard sounds from upstairs, in my grandfather's sick room. They clearly heard feet hit the floor, as if someone was getting out of bed, and footsteps go across the floor. Both of them heard it, and my mom was so scared she wet her pants!
Later, after my grandmother went back home, she told my mom that my grandfather was still in the house, that she heard him calling her, moving around, opening drawers, etc. And I can say for sure, is that my grandmother was a practical and unemotional person, not superstitious or imaginative or anything like that. Very straight up and serious. If she said she heard my grandfather in that house, then she heard him! Whenever I went over, I refused to go upstairs alone, yet, when we were there earlier, before my grandfather died, which was all the time, I had no fear of going anywhere in the house, including upstairs to his room where he spent all his time once he got too sick. I was only 4, so my understanding of death was limited, but I had fear that I didn't have before he died.
Eventually, my grandmom moved to a smaller place...and my grandfather, who was a very good person, probably went his way...though my grandmom did say that years later, she woke up in the early dawn hours because she heard her front door open. She went to the living room and there was Grandpop, in the suit he was buried in, standing by the door. She said "What the hell are you doing here?!" and he said "I've come to take you with me, Marie." She told him she wasn't going anywhere, and went back to her bedroom....when she checked the living room again, he was gone."
From INurseUK:
"Now I cannot verify the truth of this story, but a very senior staff nurse told me this recently.
Our Oncology ward had students on as we almost always do. This was the Early shift and a patient had died in the night. The night staff had done Last Offices and the body had been taken to the morgue, but the night staff had not had chance to clear the room yet.
Well, Sister assigned the student nurse to clear up the deceased patient's belongings, clean and remake the bed and so on, and the student was happy to do this.
About 15 minutes into the task, the student nurse came flying out of the side room white as a sheet and ended up in Sister's office. There, she told Sister that she had been clearing items from the bathroom vanity unit, had glanced up, and had seen the recently-deceased patient looking over her shoulder in the mirror above the unit!
The student nurse was so badly shaken by this, that she was sent home for the rest of the day.
Imagination? Who knows?"
By Colzanurse:
"Right after my beloved grandfather passed away, I had a very vivid dream that he telephoned me. He said he wasn't sure what was going on, and he asked me what had happened to him. I said "Grandpa, you just died two days ago!" He replied with perfect voice and intonation, "Oh my heavens!" I immediately had the sense of mind to ask him where he was, and he said he wasn't sure. I asked him what he could see, and he wasn't sure. I asked him what he could hear, and again he wasn't sure. Then he asked me in a scared tone if he could come over to my house, and I said, "Sure grandpa, I'm going to the front door right now to see if I can find you!" I opened the door, and could clearly see the neighborhood as if I was actually looking around at it. I called out for grandpa and then I woke up, and began sobbing inconsolably. It was absolutely the most vivid dream I'd ever had, and his voice and inflections were exactly as they were in real life. I felt like I had actually had a conversation with him. I've tried to tell a few people I trust and they just said that it must be because I feel so sad about losing him. I firmly believe he and I had a real conversation in our own way. He died in 2003 and I still miss him terribly. I wish I could have another one of those dreams where he and I can talk again so I can try to find out how he is doing, and if he is with my grandma who died about 5 years before that."
From Vhern246:
"I was on the ACE (Acute Care for the Elderly) floor and I was sitting, looking down, flipping through my index cards and I heard a man say, "How do I get out of here?"
Without looking up, I said, "Follow the hallway all the way down, past the other nurses station and through the double doors that have an exit sign at the top of them. That'll lead you to the elevators, or as I like to call it freedom."
"Hmmm." is what I heard, still looking down, I chuckled and quickly added, "Don't forget to push the silver panel on the right side of the-" I looked up and no one was there.
I got up and looked over the counter down the hall and didn't see anyone on either side. My fellow student nurse came out of the room a little ways down the hall and I stopped her.
"Did you see anyone come down the hall?"
"No, why? did you lose somebody?"
"No, I gave directions to this guy, but I didn't seem him leave."
"Is that who you were talking to?"
"Yeah! Did you see him?"
"Uh, no. And I didn't hear anyone else either."
We both looked at each other and froze in our spots. Then the our instructor comes around the corner and says "What are y'all doing?"
"Uh, we finished assessing the patients, What else is next?"
"Do me a favor, make sure they cleaned the room there" She pointed to the room across from where I was sitting.
"I thought there was a patient in there.", My fellow student says.
"He died early this morning", the instructor explains, "Poor guy was so anxious, all he kept asking was how to get out of here."
From StacyMae:
"I was just doing an internet search to help rationalize my very recent "experience". I have always heard stories from other nurses, but with the exception of a few unexplainable call lights, and monitors turning themself on and off, I never had much to contribute. I have have worked in trauma and burn critical care for the past decade and needless to say, I am around death a lot. Many patients will describe having loved ones present at time of death; but being a creature of science, I put it in the category of "hallucinating patient" and never thought much else of it. That all changed 2 days ago. I was working in the trauma/surgical ICU and was caring for a patient with end stage renal disease and sepsis due to an old infected dialysis cath. She was a DNR/DNI. She was blind from cataracts and diabetes (the blindness is important later in the story) I was in the process of starting her on CVVHD when she started conversing with her "spiritual guides" as she called them. I immediately did a neuro exam, and found she was completely intact. I then checked her blood sugar and her vitals, all were WNL. So I decided to let her talk about what she was seeing. She explained to me that there were multiple people around her bed, and became very discriptive with what they looked like and what they were telling her. They were giving her future predictions to tell me. Some were family members who had passed, and others she did not know. They were all different ages, the youngest being a 3 year old girl. (In all reality I was the only person in her room besides her) I talked with her awhile as I started up her dialysis. She explained that her time was almost up, that she wasn't scared. The spirits told her her body is too sick to go on, but her own spirit was not quite ready to leave this world yet. The spirits were going to be with her and wait for her spirit to be ready to leave. After letting her talk about how she felt about dying, I turned the lights down and closed the blinds so she could rest for awhile. I stepped outside of her room to chart. I was sitting down facing the room charting on the computer when I saw a very dark shadow move through the room. I jumped up and went in the room (I thought housekeeping or someone went into the room, and I was going to kick them out so she could rest) I walked into the room, and no one was there except for my patient. All of a sudden, at the head of her bed, on the opposite side of the room from me, was a very large dark moving shadow. My blind patient looked me straight in the eyes and then at the shadow(with her completly clouded over eyes) and said "You see it too!". She stopped breathing minutes later."
Below, is the photo of a nurse that is rumored to have died in a hospital. This photo was found on photobucket, so I can't guarantee the authenticity of it, but I just thought it was cool. :)
Thanks for visiting the playhouse!
Stay tuned for more trippy tales...
