23. The First Patient To Die
The very small step down unit I worked in was having night time staffing issues, I agreed to rotate to nights to help them out.
It was a 4 bed, newly renovated unit. It was around 3am, and I was watching the monitors, listening to the patient’s snore. The pencil drawer slid open, I didn’t think much of it since the hospital was on a very busy avenue and I thought it was caused by the vibrations from the traffic on the busy road below. After sliding the drawer back several times, I decided if the drawer felt it needed to be open so be it
Several minutes later I heard a noise in the room, the patient’s bathroom door opening and the sound of someone pushing an IV pole. Since I did not have clear view of the bathroom, I just thought one of the staff members from the main floor had dashed in to wash their hands. I looked up from my monitor viewing to see a patient we recently had in the unit. It was Mrs. G, an older woman who came in with atypical chest pain, became septic due to a gallbladder issue.
She evidently had expired in the unit. Although the hospital itself had been on this site for years, the unit was newly renovated, right down to tearing down walls and putting up new ones. I heard the patient’s bathroom door open and again I heard the rattling of the IV pole and shuffling feet. I looked up and saw Mrs. G. standing there in the middle of the floor, one hand pushing the IV pole, the other hand on top of the pump on the pole. She stopped walking, turned and waved, nodded her head, said everything was going to be okay, took a few steps, and disappeared.
It was quite a site to see. Shortly after that “vision” one of the nurses from the floor came in to see if I needed anything. I told her no I was ok. And asked her if she had ever seen a ghost in the hospital. She looked at me, gasped and asked “no, why” and I explained to her what had just happened. She said she would never step foot in that room again.
Mrs. G was the first patient to die in that unit. She was well liked by all the staff and my feeling was that she was watching over us. The day shift came in, and I told them my story. They weren’t surprised.
Through the years working at various hospitals, worked as a Nurse Extern my senior year in nursing school and heard older nurses telling their stories about ghosts, I thought they were just burnt out. HA!! Yes there are ghosts in care facilities. If they are not seen their presence is felt. They leave an energy behind.
