63 True Hospital Horror Stories Shared By Nurses And Doctors Who’ll Never Forget Them

a light story - i worked in a memory care unit as an activity aide and my favorite patient was a 90 year old women - the sweetest lady but completely out of it. one night at dinner she sat down without a fight - unusual for her- and began telling me about her dad, said he was coming to visit her and all these stories about her childhood for like an hour- she never stayed on a topic like that. when i was leaving she stopped me and told me i was a good girl and she’d miss me but she really missed her dad and he was picking her up that night - she did pass that night. I hope when i pass it just feels like my parents picking me up.

i had a lady sit with me while I watched twilight in the lobby of a memory care unit i worked at.

she asked me what i was watching and i sat there and explained the plot of twilight to her and she told me i reminded her of her daughter then started telling me about her family.

she felt like such a light just very sweet and I had just assumed she was out of her room confused at 3 am like most memory care residents were. I had only worked at this nursing home a few times so I didn’t know all the residents super well.

Well anyways eventually i tried to help her back to her room but i couldn’t find her name on my room assignments and when i got back from looking for the other cna she was gone. I eventually asked the cna in assisted living section and he told me the lady by that name passed away 2 weeks ago…. i’ve never felt so weird in my life. i fully explained twilight to a ghost… everyone thinks Im lying but it felt so real. she was right there.

I had a d***g patient seeing a bunch of people in her room. No big deal, most of us see people around us as we d*e. Well I’m in her room to give her 3am morphine and she is kind of irritated by all the “people” in her room. She’s looking all around her and doesn’t even acknowledge I’m there. She calls out “Who are all of these people?” I go along with it and tell her “I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve met them before”. She then SNAPS her head around to stare me d**d in the eyes and says “Well they all know you”. Fantastic news. Great. Thanks for sharing.

I had a patient who repeatedly told us he was going to hell, and he was hardly able to speak due to his cancer.

Once he actually declined to where he wasn't conscious anymore, all kinds of weird things started happening. Even bugs coming in from under the door right outside his room.

I went in to check on him and reposition him and when I rolled him towards me He grabbed me and his eyes popped open and he started calling me horrible names (mind you this man was always the sweetest) I don't think I've ever ran so quickly.

When he passed a couple days later the smell was horrible and there was a horrible storm, the lights cut off completely in only his room and he let out the nastiest scream before he actually passed. We all collectively agreed none of us would ever step foot in that room again until someone came out and blessed the room to rid off the evil he left behind.

I always thought he was joking but as he declined the weirder things got, and I KNOW that thing that grabbed me and was screaming profanities at me was NOT him, it didn't even look like him.

I had a dementia patient hit the call light, I go in alone, she says "Who are you??" "I'm your nurse, Sarah." "Not you, I know who you are. Who's the little girl next to you?" Ma'am don't do this to me at 3am, ok?

I worked as a janitor. early morning. there was a patient i got used to seeing, since they didnt really sleep. sometimes, they would be in the smoke area when I went to do trash. one morning, it was around 3am, I made my way to the smoke shelter trash. the patient was there smoking like usual. we talked for maybe 10 mins and I walked away. roughly an hour later, im on their floor. I eventually make it to their room, but its already empty. excited, I assume they finally got better and was discharged! sadly, no. i went to the nurses station to ask about the good news and was told that patient passed away earlier in the day, WAY BEFORE MY SHIFT. WHO TF WAS I TALKING TO!?

I had a patient who was diagnosed with s****ophrenia before coming to our inpatient psych unit.

She was 9 years old and had an entire journal filled with pictures of the shadow man she would see in the corners of rooms. The pictures she drew included his life story, which basically was that he had k****d his wife and children. This young girl told this story so matter of fact, she was so sure of herself.

She wouldn’t go to bed in her room at night, so I let her sleep by my nurses station with her mattress on the floor. The girl said the man wanted to stay in the room, and that he was waiting in the closet. I didn’t think much of it until I had a new pair of 8 year old girls take her room after she discharged the following week.

It was late at night and I started to hear them both crying. I rushed to the room and saw them on the floor, telling me there was a man in the closet. I tried to console them but they were hysterical, and these girls had only been diagnosed with anxiety according to their history…

I sat on the floor with them until they had calmed down. They said he was scratching on the closet door. I decided to entertain the idea and sat and waited to hear something. I started to hear scratching, coming from the closet door. The girls sat up and stared at me. I couldn’t show them any fear so I straightened up. I felt my heart pounding but I calmly said, “okay, well, how about we change rooms shall we?” And I don’t think I slept at all when I got home that night.

My aunt used to work at an old folks home for almost 40 years (she’s the eldest of all my aunts and uncles.) She said that she was working with this WWII vet who did not like to talk about his time in the military, she didn’t even know what branch or unit he fought in. She was on night shift one night and knew he more than likely not make it till morning. When she came into check on him, she found him in the corner of his room hidden behind his bed, absolutely petrified, and according to her, this was so unlike him. This man was as stoic as they came. When she asked him what was going on he told her “they’re all here” when she asked who he said “all the people I’ve k****d, even the boy.” He passed not even two hours later.

Don’t work in healthcare but my pepaw was an amazing man. He was apart of a charity that helped bring sterilized needles and medical equipment to impoverished countries, he did charity work for women who had HIV (most of those women have HIV due to lack of sterile needles in their countries or they were SAed). He also brought food, blankets, books, etc to communities that were currently ens***ed in other countries. He also donated to local businesses and made it a point to eat & shop at locally owned places (many of these places being owned by immigrants). For up to two weeks before he d**d, he kept talking with a man who sat at the foot of his bed. He was just chatting away. The man had told him he was here to take him home. The way he described the man fit the definition of an angel. He felt extremely at peace and crazily…everybody in my family that was with him the hours leading up to him passing, and even the healthcare workers, said the atmosphere in the room was so peaceful. It was easy to accept his d***h because of how peaceful everything was.

When my grandma was in hospice they allowed us to visit at abnormal hours or stay past visiting.

I needed a break and was just roaming the halls and I could hear a man saying “please please please!” I poked my head in and there was a skinny bald man hooked up to at least a hundred different wires and machines in my head. He was like 10 percent skin and bones and 90 percent medical machines.

He was breathing really shallow and he was sitting up right. I came in and asked if he needed a nurse. He just kept saying “please” I told him to show me what he needed. And he just kept moving his eyes at the wall next to him. I kept telling him there was nothing there but he gave me some sort of pleading and frustrated squeal but he didn’t wanna alert anyone.

He was panicking in a body that couldn’t move and I felt so bad. I drew an arrow on a napkin and pointed it until he gave me some sort of validation and again it was at the wall. I couldn’t figure out what he wanted. He was eyeing the plugs. He wanted me to unplug everything.

i remember when i was a CNA i answered a residents call light and she asked “can you ask the people next to me to keep it down” so i went to the next room (i knew no one was in that room or id be their cna aswell) and when i went in all the drawers and cabinets and closets were open so i went through the room and shut everything then left and right when i shut the door i heard what sounded like a g*n s**t and i opened the door again and it was all open and everything was thrown around again. i just shut the door and put in a request to have the residents room changed to a different hall

Nothing too crazy, but a few years ago my great grandmother got sick with pneumonia. She ended up on the hospital for a month, and then to a rehabilitation center. They had her on these meds that had her very confused and almost child like. We went to see her one day and she had a few balloons other family members had dropped off.

She insisted that these balloons would follow her anywhere she went around her room, and it was a pretty large room, no windows open or air flowing. I took it as her just being confused by her meds. A few days later she comes home, and brings those balloons. They were clipped to her couch in her living room. I was staying with her for a few days just to keep an eye on her, my sister also lived there with her so we were both around.

One day she goes into the kitchen and then goes back to her room after, I’m sitting in the living room and I look up and the balloons that were clipped to the couch had somehow unclipped and were floating around the corner and down the hallway and stop right in front of my grandmas room. Mind you, there’s no fans or ac going in the house right now and all doors are closed. I blew it off, but I went back home maybe a day later ( I live a few hours out of town). I get a call from my sister and we’re FaceTiming just having a normal conversation and she goes into the kitchen to get a snack in the middle of the night, doesn’t turn the light on.

Then she goes to leave the kitchen and freezes, turns the camera, there’s a balloon sitting right at the entry way to the kitchen facing her. She pushes it away and goes back to her room, the balloon turns a corner and floats right behind her all the way to her bedroom door and just floats right in front of it. She popped all of the balloons that same night. There’s another weird story with a balloon that my grandma has told from when I was a child. Idk what it is about the balloons and my grandma’s house

I was a sitter with a man who had early onset dementia- so he was younger than most of my dementia patients. Finally got him settled and asleep, he was laying on his back. Sat STRAIGHT UP in bed from a deep sleep, looked me directly in the eyes, said "I'm going to d*e." And coded.

I had a patient that would pay his bed and meow to an invisible cat. turns out he's lost his cat a month before he was admitted. he had dementia, but I'll choose to believe his baby was there with him

I don't work at a surgery center, but I did clean one a few times as a professional cleaner.

We cleaned around midnight or 1am there. Coworkers who had been there before me said it was haunted. I believe in ghosts and was kind of excited.

First time I cleaned there, nothing odd happened. Second time, I was vacuuming the post-surgery area with the gurnies. A gurney randomly rolled out of place (they all had the brake lock on). No biggie. Weird, but fine.

Then I moved into the surgery room to scrub it down with my 2 other coworkers. We could hear the automatic door down the hall opening and closing (it led to the room with the gurnies). It was just us 3 working, and we were all in the same room. So we laughed it off and finished the job. I was the last one to leave the room.

I stepped into the hallway, the temp suddenly dropped, I instantly had goosebumps, and an unsettling feeling. Then that automatic door in the hall swung open, a light above me flickered, and I got the hell outta that hallway. Once I was in the locker room to change out of my hospital-cleaning attire, the bad feeling went away.

I opened the door to that hallway one more time, cuz I was still kinda curious, and the automatic doors opened again, the cold returned, and I felt physically ill. I have never been there since because whatever the hell is in the hallway is bad.

I was a new grad working in hospice preparing a body for the morgue. I had an overwhelming sense of someone behind me, but I wanted to stay professional. I felt a deep puff of air behind my neck and distinctly heard my name in my ear. when I turned around I was only in the room and the patients eyes I had closed were open and looking directly at me. it was my first and certainly not my last chilling experience as an RN.

The automatic doors opened at 3 am during my night shift the other night for absolutely no reason and the other aides and nurses said that always happens right before someone dies because it’s the grim reaper coming in

When I was a CNA I had a comfort care patient and it was one of the rare times I was working the 3-11pm shift. It was about 10, I was walking past him room to grab something at the end of the hall. He was up walking by the end of his bed grabbing something out of his bag and smiled at me. I was in his room 5 mins before this and he was passed out sleeping with his mouth open and the d***h rattle so I was extremely confused. When this happened I was walking fast past the room when I saw him standing and because of how I left him 5 mins prior, the second after I passed his room my brain went “wait a minute he can’t get up?” And stopped me in my tracks. I backed up and walked into his dark room with one nightlight on and he was in bed, tucked in the same way I left him, and gone. He had literally just d**d between those 5 minutes and he was never actually walking in his room.

Had a patient pass very very suddenly and abruptly one night. Sweet lady actually, her whole family was already there and she wasn’t near the stage of passing at all it was just her time I guess. After she was taken away to the morgue her call light kept ringing and getting pulled out of the wall, and when you’d go in the room everyone could hear a really low whisper. The entire night the call light just kept going off, and there was the heavy feeling in the room. My theory is since it happened so fast she was lost and wasn’t ready to go yet.

Ours is the staff elevator, everytime a pt d**s and I get in to go back to my unit I smell the same perfume and a breeze of super cold air. I get a sense of calmness from it though, I wonder if that spirit likes to comfort people after seeing hard stuff.