Halloween Edition: Hospital Horror Stories

Halloween is just around the corner! To celebrate, we reached out to you guys for your top hospital horror stories.

You sent us some scary and horrifying tales that reminded us why we appreciate you all so much!

We picked out a few of our top submissions, and the best one receives a $20 Starbucks gift card. Readers beware: these stories are NOT for the faint of heart!

1. Bedside Manner

This first story comes from @nikaelayvette on Instagram; she says:

“We had a patient one time with colon cancer, who suddenly went into V-Fib. So when we went to go check on him, he had thrown up feces and other bodily fluids all over himself, and it covered almost his entire chest. We went to resuscitate him right away, but as we were reviving him, more fluids kept bubbling over from inside his mouth.

Eventually, we did get his heart rate back to normal, and his vitals were promising. We had to clean him up right away, but the smell was unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. To this day, it’s still the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen working in Oncology.”

You faced poop vomit like a champ. Thanks for this story and best of luck to you! Keep on being the hero you are!

SEE ALSO: “9 Gadgets to Make Your Healthcare Lifestyle Easier”

2. Weekend Activities

This next one comes from @merissabea! on Instagram.

“I was working nights on a weekend during a full moon (for real) in our critical access hospital. We had 4 nurses working. 1 for ER, me down OB, and two on Med Surg. We had two people come in, one by ambulance and one by private car. Turns out, they had stabbed each other, and one almost took the other’s scalp off. Thank God our ER doc was already upstairs. The Med Surg nurses went back to help in the ER. Of course, I was oblivious to that because we had a delivery walk in, but the doctor made it in time (at least one thing went right). A psych patient was brought in who had attempted suicide, and the jail brought in a chest pain. The psych patient escaped. Then a nurse on duty, her brother came in having a heart attack and had to be sent by ambulance because our scalped patient took the helicopter. When that nurse had to leave, we only had 3 nurses. We called people to come in, and nobody would answer the phone. I contemplated quitting after that night. The psych patient showed up at work the next day.”

A true healthcare scary story: being understaffed! Thanks for being a champ during this stressful time and not quitting. It’s heroes like you that keep us inspired to keep doing what we do.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: “Everything You Need to Know When Switching From Day to Night Shift”

3. TV On or Off?

This last one and the winner of our $20 Starbucks gift card Halloween giveaway, and it comes from Instagram user @nursedaizy!

“Now I don’t know if you’ve ever worked in a chronic dialysis clinic, so I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen the setup, you know, but for us, there are a plethora of chairs with small TVs attached to them for patients to be entertained during their treatments.

That’s important…. so I’m finishing my work in the back office brushing off anything that I had felt before, and it’s time for me to leave and even though it’s daytime this clinic has dark shaded out windows it’s extremely dark no matter where you go so you have to turn the light on.

I remember feeling like a child-like something was going to grab me out of the dark if I didn’t run from one room to the next and hurry up and turn the light on that’s how strong this feeling was getting now that I was heading back to the darkened hall area.

Finally, I made it onto the main floor, which is by the front door and I’m feeling relieved, and I’m feeling really childish, but as soon as I come from the back onto the treatment floor I look to my left, and one of the TVs had turned on by itself. It spooked me at first, but I try to not think about it like maybe there was a circuit or something. Maybe it was testing the TVs I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to just let myself believe the first thing that came to my mind.

Well, then it happened six more times after that with each visit and each time a different TV I would go turn it off and try to leave as fast as I could, and it only happened when I was about to leave!

One of the last times it happened, I had somebody there with me, and two televisions turned on simultaneously while we were looking at them. I turned it off. Still, it popped right back on in my face, and the creepiest part about this without the patient who used to sit in that chair had just passed away the day prior…. but it doesn’t end there.

One night I had to meet a deadline, so I wound up working at the clinic on an off day in the night time. I didn’t go by myself. I brought somebody with me, and we were heading to the back and were in the break room at this point we were chitchatting for maybe 2 min. All of a sudden coming from the back…. loud jazz music from the radio started playing from by my office….an abrupt, in-your-face, turn-on of the radio…. even though it happened in their face, the person with me didn’t believe that it had really just happened.

That was the last day I went into the clinics without having multiple people there.”

Well, it sounds like the only logical and scientific explanation is that this clinic is HAUNTED. Contact us for travel opportunities to different, less spooky hospitals across the nation. Thanks for this scary story, you hero of healthcare! Have your next Starbucks drink with us!

We want to give thanks to everyone who participated, and a special thanks to the three featured here today for their unbelievable stories! As always, keep it locked for more healthcare tips, news, and career advice, and stay tuned to our social media for more giveaways and promotions in the future!

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