22. Willy

A couple of stories from the unit. In bed 3 there was a homeless pt “Willy” who, thanks to modern medicine, was kept alive for I believe around 3 months (no family to stop care). Willy eventually died but PTs who are in bed 3 will talk about their friend Willy who brought them a blanket or stopped by to talk. Bed 3 is at the end of the unit and has an ante room before you go in. You can’t see directly in Bed 3 unless you’re in the ante room or looking at the room on the monitor. One night with no pt in Bed 3 the monitor flips to the room and a body was seen laying over the side of the bed (over the side rails)…kind of floating…the room was checked and no one was there.

Another night a nurse who has worked in the unit a few years saw someone sitting in a chair behind the door in Bed 3 with their legs crossed. She wondered since we have limited visiting hours how a family member got in the room. She went in the room and no one was there. Needless to say she was freaked out.

There was also another pt who was a young woman in her 20s who contracted necrotizing facilitis (flesh eating disease) from one of her kids who had strep. She was in the unit a while and eventually died. One of the nurses coming on to the next shift wanted to know why the PT was standing on the backside of the unit with her twin daughters holding their hands (wondering how she made such a miraculous recovery) she was informed the PT had died earlier that day.