How come I don't often hear about hospitals being haunted? People die in them all the time so there are sure to be ghosts there. Does anyone have any hospital stories?

I will copy/paste my account from another forum here...

Posted on Sunday, March 27, 2005 - 12:41 pm:
Greetings good people,

I have been reading your forums for almost a year now and have seen your tours walking the city, Good Job!!
I just wanted to add to your collection of fantastic stories here with one of my own, or more a compilation of happenstances which have occurred over the past 15 years that I have worked at Chedoke Hospital. For a historical account of the Chedoke go here
http://www-fhs.mcm...chives/achedx.html .

As I have said I have worked at Chedoke for 15 years now and have seen a number of strange things in my tenure there; as have others I work with. I work in the Central Building which houses the Hospital’s kitchens. For the first few years that I worked there I saw and heard nothing but rumours of the goings on at the hospital, but in the last few it seems that we were/are hearing and seeing things (mostly hearing) all the time. I suspect that these incidents have increased because of all the renovations and changes that are taking place at Chedoke changing it from a Patient care facility to the administration hub of Hamilton Health Sciences.
The first time I recognised anything happening was about 6 years ago when I was sitting in the Cafeteria (before they converted it into office space) doing my homework. I was home on reading break and decided to catch some work-shifts whilst at home. I was reading about the Family Compact and was compelled to look up and into a disused portion of the old servery for the cafeteria, which had been used for storage for several years, (it is now used to make special nutrient drinks for patients). When I looked into the area the sun was shinning in the windows and everything seemed normal except that I saw an odd shadow. At first I though perhaps someone was standing outside the windows and looking in. I quickly discounted that theory because the windows were about a metre off the ground and behind a thorn bush outside AND not realising before the shadow was standing upright and not lying on the floor as normal. I hadn’t noticed it before. I felt a bit creeped out and decided I had been reading too long and went to Timmy’s to buy a tea. I didn’t really think much of it until about 4 or 5 months later after I came home for the summer from university a co-worker and I were speaking about the all the changes that had happened at the hospital since I started working there till then. He mentioned in an off sentence what he had seen one day and I got the shivers because it was the shadow that I had seen, in the same spot. Seeing it and shrugging it off and then someone else confirming what you see, are two different things. It was unsettling. This incident was the only time I ever ‘saw’ anything.
After that time and regularly since then several of us who work late evenings in the Dishroom which sits in the basement at the main intersection where the underground tunnels all meet have heard and seen very strange things indeed; mostly hearing things.
The most frightening or disturbing thing that has happened to me, even more so than seeing the ‘thing’ in the café was on the weekend that we had the big bike race in Hamilton. The race course went around Chedoke Hospital on both sides so we weren’t able to send out our usual allotment of hot food to the Henderson and to McMaster, (because they wouldn’t allow trucks to cross the race track). We don’t have enough space in Central to store all the wagons we usually use to send out the meals so I had emptied the old root cellar and was lining up the wagons against the wall in it. This cellar has been used for several things over the years, at that time it was being used as miscellaneous storage. It is called the M.E.R. (Medical Equipment Room). Its also a common thoroughfare for the Portering staff. As I was putting these wagons in this room I distinctly heard some standing what would have been approx two metres behind me ask me, “What are you doing?” I stopped working and started to turn and said “Nothing” as I turned. No One was there. The room was empty. I smiled and thought that the Porters were jesting me so I bent down and checked all the empty beds lining the walls thinking someone was lying in one playing tricks on me. They were empty as well. I went up to the Portering dispatch area and told the guys that it was funny and I was a bit freaked. They didn’t know what I was talking about, (they had been emptying a delivery truck for over ½ hour by then).
I work in the Dishroom. That’s where we hear most of the things we hear. It is a common occurrence in the Dishroom and I have experienced it myself where you will be working alone after everyone has left and you distinctly hear someone call your name. I have had it several times. The first few times I would look up and actually walk around the room looking for whoever called my name, there was never anyone there. Several people have experienced this. Also one night while I loaded dirty dishes into the dish machine I watched a small 4 inch half pan spin in a circle for over 45 minutes. Without a word of a lie, I watched it spin in a circle for that long. I couldn’t believe it so I called a co-worker over and showed her. She watched it for about half a minute and just said ‘Humm’ as if it was just expected.
Several times people have been in the room just before the end of shift or just after and all of a sudden one machine or another would just ‘come on’ after we had turned them off. It happened to a supervisor as she was writing a report on an item that was returned and she even put in a maintenance request for a repair and they said there was nothing wrong with it, yet it still, every now and then will just start-up and go.
That same supervisor and I were talking over by the pot-wash sink and I had turned it on to fill the sink to soak some pots over night. By the time our conversation was finished we had noticed that the tap was then turned off. I asked her if she had turned it off and she said she hadn’t, nor had I. The taps turned themselves off.
The group of us who work there (in the Dishroom) have talked about the goings on and we deduced that they got a lot worse and more frequent during the same period that the hospital had demolished the Hospital’s traditional Chapel and turned it into a library. I know this sounds really cliché but that’s the only thing we could come up with which would explain the increase in the odd and weird things happening. It peaked about 4 months ago but has lessoned since then, back to normal levels now. I know these all sound like little things but their freqency and the amount of people who experience them seems extraordinary.

There are several other things that have happened AND THIS JUST IN THE CENTRAL BUILDING but I have written a long enough post already. There are about ten other buildings that I don’t even know about. I have heard of a ghost nurse in the Wilcox building and sounds of men shouting at the Brow building (Continuing Care centre) but haven’t heard them myself so can’t acknowledge them here; until I experience them myself. Well make of this what you will. I recommend that you go see the hospital for yourself before some of these buildings start to vanish (as is the plan). Its too bad, for it having been the largest TB Sanitorium in the British Empire, you'd think it would have had some recognition by now eh? How many people even know its there?

Sorry for such a long post I wish I could explain everything to you guys.

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Posted on Sunday, March 27, 2005 - 9:33 pm:
Its interesting,

I went to work this evening and we had a new girl on. I was reading my book and she sat down next to me on our lunch. When I looked up she looked a bit fret so I asked he was was wrong. She looked at me and she said she was freaked out. I asked her why. She told me she was never going to use Elevator #9 again, (she refered to it as 'the blue elevator). Again I asked her why. She said that she had used it and that on the basement level she was closing the door and and turned to see a lady dressed in white with a white hair-net on duck under the door. She said that she apologised to the lady for not having seen her and almost hitting her with the elevator door. She turned to close the door again and when she turned around after having done so that the woman was gone and that she was standing in the closed elevator all alone. The poor girl looked like she wanted to cry. I told her to just relax and get used to it. She said she was scared of stuff like that. I told her that nothing could happen, it was a place of healing and there wasn't likely any hostile anything in the place. I told her to be more afraid of supervisors than anything we perceive to be supernatural.

I find it a bit interesting that this happened the day I wrote this post. A nice little surprise. I forget how frightening it could be, I guess with everything that has gone on I have become a bit desensitised to it all. The poor girl looked like she wanted to run away.

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Posted by Vanessa Hurst

Posted on Friday, June 03, 2005 - 11:44 am:
Hey Thadius,

My ex-husband use to work there as a night Janitor. He got to clean the CP centre. After that night he never went in again!!He refused to clean that building!

Him and another guy was to clean the centre. My ex-husband said that the wooden cupboards on the walls were shaking, the taps in the bathroom that was supposed to be locked - all taps full blast! And as the two men met, one at one end of the hallway and the other at the other end of the hallway, the nurse walked through the wall looked at my husband and smiled and continued through the next wall!

They say that the CP center was a place where they brought the Inuits when there was a TB outbreak. So none of the Inuits knew the language and were very home sick. The hospital would bring in soap stone for them to carve (which apparently there is still some on the basement) I had never seen that man so white and shaking before in my life.

As for the elevator my ex (and his Mom worked there as a medical secretary there for years) told me a story about this as well (if it is the same elevator) In the 50's apparently an orderly was taking a body of a young woman to morgue, but stopped the elevator halfway and violated her. This elevator was said to open in the basement at times and gurnies would fly from the elevator into the hallway, with no one pushing them!

Alot of the tunnels had to be closed as well because the employess were getting stuck/ locked for long periods of time in them and the adjacent rooms.

I believe the story that my ex had brought home that night because he always said that he didn't believe in any ghost stories and you see that is why he is my ex and I am still a psychic lolo.

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Posted By jlobooty

Posted on Friday, June 17, 2005 - 1:39 pm:
Vanessa - interesting post about your ex-husband - I would love to know more about this story - I WORK AT THE CP CENTRE!!!

There is a friendly lady ghost that my friend sees every morning as she's the first one in here in the mornings, she walks through a wall, has long hair, and I would be interested to find out where exactly in the hallway your ex saw that ghost.

There are stories about our building from the 50's - people hearing a singing lady in the hallways ... and apparently she hasn't been "heard" since the early 70s when the CP centre moved in here... BUT we still see her...

We have had recent renovations, and the hallway here that is new - I often walk into a horrid pungent odour - and wonder if it's a spirit - as the odour "moves" up and down the hallway - I smell it so strong in certain spots and the spot always chagnes.

Anyway - I wait to hear from you!!!!!!

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I know Haunted Hamilton is a bunch of people who see Ghosts everywhere but some of their stories are unique and interesting.

original post here http://www.haunted...09.html?1195313328

Posted by monster How come I don't often hear about hospitals being haunted? People die in them all the time so there are sure to be ghosts there. Does anyone have any hospital stories?

Just check out the story I posted in the Whitby Psych location in the LDB. There was an incident that happened to me there while I was working there and there were other incidents in Buildings 30 and 19 that happened to the guards. Also, there was another incident that happened to the nursing supervisor in another cottage when he was a nurse.

What he told me was this:

I was working a midnight shift with another nurse and except for the small light over our desk, all the lights were turned out. Suddenly, all lights went on in the cottage (as if someone had turned all switches on at the same time). Before we could say much more, the patients were waking up and we had to get them all back in bed and turn off the lights. All the switches were found in the 'on' position. An electrician was not able to find out why this happened but we were told that a nurse was strangled with his own tie by a patient years before in that building.

These places can be just as active. I am curious to see if this can continue when new houses are built on the site.

my photo, the nice light corridor before the creepy bit





These were taken from a an expo we did a week or so ago to a former TB hospital...sprawling single storey wings, morgue, washrooms....all the usual hospital rooms and associated infrastructure set on beautiful grounds in a pictueresque area of bushland...

the morgue





one of the rooms



So there was ample light filtering into the rooms and wings, the sun was shining and it was by all accounts a beautiful day outside.
So six of us are wandering through slowly, cameras snapping away at history, soaking the atmosphere and enjoying the day. Note the light and easy corridor shots as opposed to this...



Im moving ahead of the rest as they have expensive sexy camera gear and taking their time making great shots, me just wandering off with my point and shoot camera enjoying the adventure and discovery. The photo shows what was behind it the double doors but what you can't tell is this corridor was a good 40m or more long, this is just the end section. And the mood changed accordingly when i went through it.
I can drain in total darkness and hang out alone comfortabley, i have explored countless buildings and abandonments of varying kinds with no problem. But at this point i was a good 30m or so ahead of the rest and now standing in this old warn section alone. And i froze. I can't put my finger on it but simply put every sense told me to go back, to not take another step forward. I could'nt see anything of note, but i felt horrible, and i didn't feel alone per say. At the end of the corridor a door was banging, the only sound in the whole building, and there was barely a breeze anywhere.
I turned back and waited for one of the others to join me and we both walked slowly and carefully up the corridor, though they didn't mention anything about the mood. When we reached the banging door it was opening a foot or so then slamming against the frame, and we felt no wind or saw no source of what propelled its movement. We took a photo and it also revealed nothing. But it was very weird and i was instantly glad to get out of there.
Since that trip i've been told that place is knowingly haunted, and i bet at night it would be bone chillingly creepy to visit, even the areas that were well lit had a certain feel to them that i recognised as being haunted. And no way would i explore this place alone ever. At night only with a big crew, lots of torches and never wander off by myself to look around.

On another note, when i was about twelve yrs old something weird happened i've never been able to get straight in my mind.

My parents were quite religious and they used to go to a catholic boarding school during holdidays with others as part of an annual picnic...and i would wander off and explore the buildings as the boarders would be home with family. One time i had been exploring all the buildings and wandered into the large old building the brothers lived in, massive three or four storey abbey type place with stained glass windows and sandstone walls carved in the way many churches are.
So i wander in, down some corridors, up a large winding staircase and along another corridor and past several rooms where brothers sat reading or going about their business but i went unnoticed. At the end of the corridor was a large wooden door which i opened and it took me into a fairly small sitting room type area with a fireplace and not much else in it. In the corner of this room was a very steep, narrow and tight wooden staircase leading up so natural curiosity caught me and i headed up.

At the top of the stairs i came to a very long room, the ceiling slanted steepily to each side as if i was in a converted room under the roof, like an attic space. Lining the walls were military hospital style beds, maybe 20 down each side, the closest ones were empty but at the end i saw fairly young men, say in their 30's. Moving about were two or three nurses but they were wearing 1950's style outfits with those hats they used to wear.
It was wrong on so many levels i froze and just stared silently.
One of the nurses walked to one of the beds and leaned over a man with something in her hand. At this point she stopped, turned and looked at me and i couldn't distinguish all the features on her face.
The men all had short cropped hair, the nurses all moved slowly and it was completely silent, not s single sound.
I was there maybe two or three minutes at the most until the nurse turned to look at me and i bolted out of there like there was no tomorrow.

I never learned the history of the place but i can play the moment back in my mind as if it was yesterday. And i have no doubt what i saw was not real in the sense it was happening then but was almost like a replay of something from the past.

........
Visited another hospital a few weeks ago and quite enjoyed it, same type of place it was a one stop shop for tb and the plague and although i was fine and felt nothing there, i would hesitate to ever consider going there alone and especially not at night, even there i got a sense of something else.

.......

and this photo by Jevil taken at part of a previously unseen part of another old hospital...would'nt explore this alone, particularly at night, even for money



*edited a few times to place better photos

Great story and pics! Freaky-deaky!

Posted by hatsumi and this photo by Jevil taken at part of a previously unseen part of another old hospital...would'nt explore this alone, particularly at night, even for money

I would! That would be incredible!

Me too.

Here is a goldmine for you.

http://allnurses.c...-story-108202.html

Some very interesting stories.

Edit: the first few posts have nothing to do with it.

Nice link. I have a friend who works as a nurse at a local hospital. I emailed her the link. She's discussed potential ghosts at her hospital, but there's no story good enough to share. Yet.

Posted by Ares Here is a goldmine for you. http://allnurses.c...-story-108202.html Some very interesting stories. Edit: the first few posts have nothing to do with it.

Thanks for sharing this link. These stories are very interesting.

I was in an old retirement home last night and I was going up the stairs of one wing of the building and the door at the top was almost closed...as soon as I reached for the door knob, the door slammed.

When that happens I open the door carefully a few inches, and poke a broom handle in. If it gets snapped off I slam the door and run. Seriously though, sounds creepy; what happened next?

Posted by A. Lien When that happens I open the door carefully a few inches, and poke a broom handle in. If it gets snapped off I slam the door and run. Seriously though, sounds creepy; what happened next?

Ahah yeah it was very creepy, we continued on through the place, but eventually we returned to that door to leave and I had a feeling like someone was watching (it also smelled a lot like recently burnt matches down that same hall). The other weird part about this hallway is that a friend and I explored this place about a year ago and he got a photo of what looked to be a little girl crouching in the corner of one of the rooms which was down that same hallway.

Sounds like you had a cool adventure, definetly some creepy stuff going on. Would be awesome to see your friends photo of the little girl.

Yeah I'll get him to look for it, I'm sure he's still got it

There are some good stories on that nursing site thanks for the link! Did anyone else notice the large number of shadow people stories?

Im surprised more people don't have stories! Well, you guys have some good ones so far.

I have one of my own.........

I decided to hear 2 hours north one day last summer to North Grafton Mass. to spend some time alone with the lovely hospital they got up there. After about 3 hours on the main campus, something spooked me to the point where I had to leave. It was my first time there and I was alone so that automatically makes things intensified but.....
I was on the second floor, silent, when I heard a door creek open then shut about 5 feet from me around the corner. This was odd considering most windows are intact and there was no breeze inside. I looked around the corner and saw no door at all. Then, i began to hear repeated banging coming from down stairs. About 10 REALLY loud bangs. After slowly creeping down the stairs, I walked the entire first floor looking in all the rooms. To my shock, all of the boards that where previously on the windows where now lying in the middle of each room. I never heard any voices or footsteps and it was not wind.
I left and have not been back although I plan to soon.