39. The Dog

CNA here, have been working night shift at hospitals for 7 years now and I have quite a few stories. Came into work one night and Jen, one of the nurses, told me and my other coworker Jay the creepiest thing happened a few hours earlier. A patient had passed in one of the rooms abruptly. The room was cleaned and was quickly occupied by another patient who had coded, was pronounced dead, but was resuscitated.

Soon after being admitted in his room he complained to the nurse, “I can’t be in here. This man won’t stop looking at me. He’s really worried about his dog. His dog doesn’t know that he’s dead.” She had assumed he was just seeing things and said, “Oh yeah? What does he look like?” He described the deceased patient perfectly. I could see the chills running down her spine as she was telling us her story. Turns out the man did have a dog as well. The new admit was moved to another room.

Jay said, “I don’t believe in ghosts. Those aren’t real. I wanna see it. Tonight I’m gonna provoke it so it can show itself.” 3 AM rolls around and all 3 of us are at the nursing station. Jay starts playing YouTube videos of various puppy sounds. Soon after two lift team guys come up, we forget what we’re doing and start another conversation. Suddenly, we all hear it, except for Jay. A dog bark. In the same room. Loudly, clear as ever. The lift team guys say, “Does someone have a dog in here?” Jen and I simultaneously shit ourselves.