There are a few places we are as vulnerable and aware of it as a Hospital. For most of us it bookends our existence. And for some, apparently, even more than we might realize. there is nary a hospital on the earth that does not have some story of an unusual event or encounter attached to it. Here was have 4-5 short but poignant and true tales of spirits who left the mortal coil, but still walk the the sterile corridors of the hospitals they worked in or died in...or perhaps they come back to help those who are about to cross over?
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/media/detail.php?source=hospital_news/2012/20121025_hn
https://www.liveabout.com/what-we-know-about-deathbed-visions-2594507
https://the-line-up.com/trenton-psychiatric-hospital
There are a few places we are as vulnerable and aware of it as a Hospital. For most of us it bookends our existence. And for some, apparently, even more than we might realize. there is nary a hospital on the earth that does not have some story of an unusual event or encounter attached to it. Here was have 4-5 short but poignant and true tales of spirits who left the mortal coil, but still walk the the sterile corridors of the hospitals they worked in or died in...or perhaps they come back to help those who are about to cross over?
http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/media/detail.php?source=hospital_news/2012/20121025_hn
https://www.liveabout.com/what-we-know-about-deathbed-visions-2594507
https://the-line-up.com/trenton-psychiatric-hospital
Kathy: 0:05
Hello, paranormalist fringe dwellers, My fellow travelers on the road to and from strange and unusual. Welcome to Paranormal Tower. Sit down. Relax. Get comfortable. I have something to tell you. Hello, everyone. This is Kathy Kelly and I'm coming to you from Paranormal Tower and as re Park's historic downtown district. This week we're going to talk to you a little bit about special haunted places, places that across the globe people have universally had experiences them. When we decided this week that we would choose hospitals, hospitals are frightening places because unlike most other places, they truly are the unknown. We enter them at our weakest and most vulnerable and their places of death fear, pain, joy, hope, life, all human emotions. They're antiseptic, one hopes and yet profoundly human. They're cold and indifferent and warm and compassionate. Hospitals are terrifying because in many cases they are the place. That witness is our beginning and our end. And no matter when you are in there, they teach you that you are not the only person experiencing your experience. Hospitals remind us that while our lives are precious, our experiences are far from unique stories of spirits lost in the corridors of hospitals are rampant. Speak to any nurse who has worked an overnight, and she or he will tell you that the dead doing the walk, even if only for a little while. Souls who left sooner than expected gunshot victim's car accident fatalities Mothers who only heard one cry of their Children. Fathers who waited just a little too long to have that heart checked out. People are rarely ready to go, and rarely do they recognize the end of their story when it comes some of the stories of famous Some hospitals, mainly those now defunct, like Waverly Hills or Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, carry on in the public consciousness because of their ghosts. Others keep their spirits quiet while they continue to do the work of mercy and healing. Now my first hospital is actually anonymous because it's still operational. This first story comes from a reddit thread about ghostly experiences and hospitals, and was just too creepy not to share. It takes place at a hospital in California. I had my first weird, creepy hospital ghost instance that I have no reasonable explanation for I don't even necessarily believe in an afterlife were given it much thought. I'm pretty sure what we die. It's just like being out for surgery anyways. I work on a busy surgical floor and do 2 12 hour days than two nights off for four. During my day shift, I had a patient who was only in his early fifties but had terminal cancer and was an extreme pain, as it was all throughout his bones. He decided to undergo physician assisted suicide and asked that I be in attendance. The doctor came and performed the procedure. Sorry, not sure of a respectful way to label it on my second day shifts. The next night I came in for my shift and I had a new patient. That was a 45 year old man who had just had a small bowel resection staying in that room. And he got back from surgery that morning was totally clear walking around okay, it was only taking trauma set for pain. He was completely oriented and not confused whatsoever. Anyways, around 3 a.m. It comes around and he starts ringing his bell and I go to his room, and he asked me why this other patient keeps coming into his room and telling him to leave. He seems genuinely freaked out and a little bit annoyed, So I asked him to describe the patient, and he did. And I couldn't really think of any patients on our floor that fit the profile this entire time are Care-Aid was sitting outside his room, charting on her mobile workstation. She just happened to be parking in his room. I asked if she saw anyone, and she said no. So I started looking into all the rooms, but everyone was asleep. I told the guy, I'm not sure who it was, but if you bother him again to ring right away and let one of us know 45 minutes later, Buddy rings again. Same thing I look all around, couldn't see anyone, and the carried was still there, and she said no one had been in and out. But she saw. I asked for a description again, and this time I wrote it down as I was gonna tell security. And as he's describing this guy, he mentions his fish tattoo on the forearm and, I think, neared. The guy in here before who died, had a tattoo like that on his forearm. And then I told it to the Care-Aid. Sorry, I'm oblivious. Clearly, they haven't been even entertained. The fact that this could be the guy who passed, she was the one who mentioned that it would sound like the guy who died and I have freaked out, and then we were both really creeped out After that. I just told the guy to go back to bed and that we were dealing with it in the hallway.
Kathy: 5:32
That is kind of creepy. Another story, submitted to a nursing website had what is a common and kind of sweet story on the unit I was working on, a lady coated after running the code. For a while, we were able to get her heart beating again. She sat up in bed and scanned the room of people and then asked, Where's my husband? He was just here. A minute ago, her heart stopped again, and she could not be revived. Her husband, it turns out, had been dead for years. But not every story is scarier, creepy. Some are compassionate and a continuation of the work that they did in life. Take ST Michael's in Toronto, for instance, not only do they have dozens of sightings of their resident ghost they actually included on the website. This is because she was a beloved member of the community and is considered a health meet in the afterlife. Her day was Sister Vinny, and she was a pioneer in childbirth and care in their lifetime. She assisted in the birth and care of 60,000 Children during her tenure as head of maternity and was known for being a tyrant when it came to care quality. But she was also known as a tireless champion for her patients and was known to love a good laugh now and then. In life, she ran a tight ship, but her spirit, her spirit has seen in more of a comforting roll. Now, still, the way she appears must be somewhat terrifying is first. She's known to appear in a patient's room, wearing a traditional white habit, but having no face, she carries an extra blanket or pillow. No, I'm not sure that I can think of anything more terrifying than a faceless none carrying a pillow when I am helpless in bed. But her presence is seen as protective. Sister Vinnie is far from the only spirit in that hospital, though the only one they know for sure. The identity of several people have reported strange phenomena, including disembodied laughter and apparitions that they associate with Joe a maintenance worker who died on the job on the job he did in the morgue. And he has seen wandering in the back of the more and from time to time is no toe laugh and turn computers on it off. Another strange thing that happens is that the elevators across from the nurse's station on the fourth floor open and close by themselves as if called and then used. The nurses are so used to it now that it doesn't bother them. But it should be noted that most of them take the stairs when time permits. This week Sean and I were not able to actually connect, however, both of us produced our podcast separately or our stories separately, and I'm stitching them together here. So you've listened to my stories. Now, ladies and gentlemen, here's Sean with his haunted hospital store.
Sean: 8:36
Hi, everyone, this is Sean, and I wanted to share two of the haunted hospitals, and I'd like to talk about the 1st 1 is actually local to me right now where I sit in San Antonio, Texas, and that is the San Antonio State Hospital on the other. Being out in Trenton, New Jersey, back home at And that was the that is the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey So the 1st 1 like to talk about being the San Antonio State Hospital. This is actually originally called the Southwestern and Same Asylum, and the State hospital right now is located on the southeast portion of the city. And this place is this. There's a lot of history. There's hardships, there's corruption. There's even scandals on, of course, death that happens in these, I think, a common theme with a lot of figure. Anybody has any research on asylums or psychiatric hospitals? There is a big, big number of deaths that are associated with the hospitals. And with this one, uh, the hospital is still in operation today at the same location but is in some newer buildings in the original structures. And if you were to do a search for some images of what this place looked like, um, and if you ever see any of the abandoned parts is air actually part of the Bear County Juvenile home for boys. So, Justo, just so everyone knows, knows that now this the San Italian State Hospital are also known as Sash s A s H. Um, this is a place that patients voluntarily what were admitted to. And I think we can also agree. And if we dig a little bit deeper, we can find out that may be a lot of people did not have that choice to make on their own, And, uh, we're there without without wanting to. So this is actually one of San Antonio. San Antonio's first centers for the mentally ill on dates back to 18 92 to say you have a reference on that. And when it 1st 1st started, I was on a big, big plot of land just about 640 acres, and it could hold up to 500 patients. But through the years, those numbers climbed. So even jumping to 1912 they could doubt they accomodate up to 1100 patients. And then from there in 1926 we find out that the hospital's capacity actually averaged over 2000 people, so the numbers just keep growing and growing and growing. And by 1934 um, overcrowding, five new buildings they're put on the property and get by the close of 1939. Uh, there's we're looking at over 2300 patients, and there's not enough beds to accommodate them. So something that was done on it's not just a San Antonio thing. They took a lot of the patients from there, and they spread them out over jails for this one. They took over 700 people and put them in jails across the state. So it's, uh it's quite an alarming amount through time from when they started to where they were just even in going into 1940. But there are some reported deaths that have, uh, little to no explanation as to why they really happened. And this ranges from teenagers on this even ranges to the elderly and, uh, two young men in particular. One of them was known as Chino Garcia. I was only 19 years old when he was admitted into the San Antonio State Hospital, and he's he was known for being a big guy. He, uh he weighed in just under £200. Everyone was saying he's a smart kid. He's actually attending the University of Texas, um, right beforehand. But when he went in, he wasn't physically ill. And somehow within three days he later died. And there's no cause of death given in his report or is obituary toe What happened? So no one really knows. But then somebody else named Raul Chopper. He entered the hospital after having a nervous breakdown, and within 11 days he was found dead after being admitted to the institution. So these it's it's some alarming, some alarming things that they brought up with these that you know what exactly was going on in this place and even to the elderly. There was, Ah, 75 year old man, and he was beaten, starved and dehydrated so severely he had actually lost 30 pounds in only 15 days. Just think of those numbers £30 and only 15 days. So the mistreatment that was happening to patients time and time again shows in just these these these examples and a lot of times, too. There was really no investigation or charges or anything done to help these people after they you were being held a TTE the hospital. But for the ghosts, there's a lot. It's a lot of things that people I have just Phil were seen or, um, picked up on just just working there on DDE. Some of the the kind of they're more of a broad range of what people, um, people experience. But there are. There's no specific personalities that they equate these two. Maybe it could be these. Ah, these three that I've brought up. Maybe there, maybe they're their energy is still there. But people have reported unexplained voices that they here when they're around, you know, on their shifter when they're in there. There's also been footsteps that they've heard in the halls, doors slamming on even screams that they've heard. There's been cold spots. People get this intense feeling that they're being watched even when they're alone on DDE. There's also rumors that claim that the grounds were littered with unmarked graves, so I don't think that's too out of the ordinary for ah, for a psychiatric hospital to have certain things like that. But there are essentially current former employees, everything of the nine on even residents of the hospital that They claimed that it just felt the place felt wrong and creepy. They were glad to be rid of it. But others they claim that there's a distinct feeling of death in the air and things that they've seen and heard. They just can't explain them on dhe just to give a couple a couple quick quotes. There's there's people that are current employees actually said, uh, work there. I've been there for eight years. It's a scary place, so kind of a very, very narrowed. Want getting to the point, huh? Quote from them. And somebody actually. Also said Mother, current Empoli, that deaths there's death around. We hear and see things. So again, could these could these things that they're seeing be past people? Could it be, uh, Chino or Raoul walking around, even though they were there for such a short time? Um, you know there's a list goes on and on, but there is an overall feeling to this place that that gives everybody there, you know, the the hair on the back of their neck to stand up and goose bumps all over their arms. So the next place I'd like to talk about is the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital, and this is a place that I've actually driven past. If you ever, ever gone to the Trenton Mercer airport for taking a quick, um, spirit air or, um, flight out of the very small airport, you probably have gone past the hospital on your right. And it is it's one of those places. It looks like it was out of the movies. Beautiful stonework, lush green grounds on DDE. Um, just one of these places that really strikes your eye. And this is actually this Trenton Psychiatric Hospital was originally named the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum. Um, and it has a long history of helping mentally ill patients and harming them. The hospital actually opened in 18 48 and it had 86 patients at that point. But one way within just over 50 years in the turn of the century, the true person that enacted all the harm was a person named Dr Henry Cotton. So 1907 is when he started on Cotton was pretty intense with his practices and definitely took advantage of his power. So Dr Cotton actually thought infections cause mental illness, so he would test his theories. So he was known for removing patients, teeth, their limbs or any body part with the slightest sign of infection instead of treating it in other ways. Um, now, antibiotics were not in use, and hundreds of patients actually died from these post surgical infections that Dr Cotton had caused. So Cotton actually continued this practice until 1924. He was brought up. Uh, bye. Review by pure board. And, uh, by 1925 the New Jersey State Senate held in investigation on they thought that the doctor provided some cutting edge treatment and actually approved of his work. So he continued to kill his patients just under 30 years until 1930 when he finally retired. But it didn't just stop with doctor. Come because the hospital staffed actually continued. His practice is by removing teeth, limbs and organs through the 19 fifties. Now, uh, to give you a number of just how the success rate of ah, off what Cotton was trying to prevent against When he died in 1933 there was actually a review. Found his medical procedures that killed 45% of his patients. So pretty alarming uh, heavy. Ah, heavy thing that Ah, when we look at the numbers like that that people, even over 50 over 50 years, there were patients that were patient after patient after patient, having to go through from Dr Cotton and staff. So ghost hunting. We'll call it the paranormal. Investigating of seeing what was active in the Trenton Psychiatric Hospital has had a few people go in and there's been people that have I have seen a few things and a lot of people actually feel that Dr Cotton's apparition has been seen and that it is Dr. Cotton, Uh, there's we have ghosts of patients that people see with missing limbs. There's disembodied voices on even the sight of orbs. So a lot of a lot of people they have seen these things, They not they have not been photographed. They have not had tangible evidence. S o. This is more eyewitness and then also with the disembodied voices. There's no really clear EVP examples that way, but they are experienced that people have had and then orbs that people have caught before with cameras and photographed and everything. Orbs could be a little bit of a tricky thing. You know, a lot of times these these places that are abandoned or, you know, decommissioned. Ah, these are places that they actually, um can stir up a lot of dust, so orbs can be mistaken for that. But if you if you're trying to tell the difference between dust and you know an actual orb, usually the ghost ghost orbs, they have a solid white or gray, even light blue, green or pink colors or some kind of Hugh that way, a lot of times, if you could just see right through it. Andi has some kind of texture. A lot of times it could be just, you know, pollen dust, or even even a bug. But yeah, the, uh the orbs and the disembodied voices or something that people, uh, happen to see a lot of times. Now the as for the ghosts of the patients, people will see patients with their legs and arms missing, and they've seen them go from room to room, you know, entering leaving on, they fade away very quickly, just within a few seconds. But there's also been with Dr Cotton. Some a lot of people have said that, Doctor, come himself eyes still there because they've seen a man in a white doctor's coat walking down the corridor in the area outside his office. So there's also people, uh, that have felt cold spots they felt, you know, paranoid. They've had uneasy feelings, any of the phantom touches, but more so, what we see a lot with this is this eyewitness account of Dr Cotton still being around and the patient's still wandering the halls.
Kathy: 26:39
And finally, ladies and gentlemen, while these stories may be very poignant and very touching, they're not very personal. And in this particular case, I actually do have a personal, haunted hospital story, and this is mine. I think a lot of us have streamed experiences, and particularly when it comes to times when we're either deeply hurt or I feel like we're in danger or Philly or alone. I myself have a haunted hospital experience, and I don't really share this that often, but I'm gonna share it with you. When I was seven years old, my appendix burst and I was sent to the hospital for emergency surgery. I was one of seven Children at the time. Ultimately, I had a sister that was born after that. But when I say that I was one of seven Children is kind of just drive home the idea that, you know, my mom and my dad had their hands full. And the idea of someone being up in the hospital was, you know, threw a wrench into the day to day of everybody's life. But especially when the surgery was an emergency and it was kind of touch and go for a little while. I was in the hospital for about three weeks, and the surgery at the time was pretty extensive. My scar is still pretty big. Um, but I remember that I was in a hospital when I was in the pediatric wing, and they had, ah, large ward kind of hospital beds. So there was a room, and it had, you know, maybe maybe 16 beds in it. Um, but I was the only one in in the room, and there was another one. So this was for girls. And then there was another one for boys, and there was a little boy who was in the boys board, and they used to bring us together during the daytime. And I remember because he was hey had broke his leg and he was in a hip cast. So he's laying kind of on his belly. And he had this long cast that went, um he had been there for a while and he was a little bit more chipper than I was. And I was a lot of pain while I was there in the beginning, certainly. But I was also scared, and I I missed my mom and I missed my family and I was only, like, four miles away. And I'm not probably, honestly, probably not even two miles away from my house. But I might have might as well have been, you know, on the moon. And when he came in to visit me, they had come to change my i, v and I. My ivy was in my left on warm, and I was on this. This was on this, like, plaque and they had wrapped, uh, you know, wrapped the plaque to keep my arm steady, but I was bleeding a lot, and there was blood coming out, so they're gonna change it. And that's terrifying. Um, but this young man this this, uh, this boy who was probably right around my age. I don't think he could have been more than 10 years old, Was there while they were changing it. And he just kept saying to me over and over, Oh, boy, that's gonna hurt. That's gonna hurt you Bleed a lot. Oh, my goodness, That's gonna bleed. Hope it's bleeding this week, and everything that he did just made the whole situation worse. Um, and I think back now on that, and I think it's very funny to me, but at the time, you know, they brought him in thinking he would be a comfort. He just was, you know, he just could He could not say things that weren't upsetting to me. Um, I actually only remember meeting him two or three times, so I don't think I don't think he was still there for as long as I was, but I was there because my penance had burst. And so there was some question as to whether or not, um, you know, whether or not But the poison got into my system or different things, and I had, you know, I got a lot of blood, and, um, I was there for a while, and it took me a while to get back on my feet to walk. And I remember because my mother and my father would rotate who was coming up. And my mom was so exhausted that most of the times that she was there, I was asleep. But I would wake up and she would be asleep. And my dad would come because he you know, he would always work very late. But my dad would come, and I don't remember him saying five words, but he just, you know, coming would sit with me. And I remember my brothers would come and visit, and they were probably in their teens, but their friends would sneak in and say they were my brothers, too. And there was just so many of us that they just would like if you said you were Kelly, you got in. Um, I remember the first night that I think I was conscious where I wasn't on any kind of pain medication and they weren't, You know that weren't sedating me. I was in this ward over myself, and there was I may be overstating it. Maybe there were 10 beds, but I remember, it was just this big, empty, huge ward and I was in the bed that was closest to the door and, you know, a long way down to my right. There was this whole wall of windows, and I remember looking out, and it was just this deep, deep, deep navy blue sky with these pin prick stars that were in it and the sun. I mean, the moon must have been above the building because it was almost like it was glowing over the windows. And it was they must have been fairly cold or chili. Um, because I remember there being this soft kind of glow on the on the windows cells themselves. And I think it was frost or condensation. And I just remember crying. And I wasn't I wasn't crying loudly. I wasn't balling. I wasn't. It was just this kind of soft, sad cry because I miss my mom and I was feeling sorry for myself, and I was homesick, and I was scared. I mean, I was seven years old and I was a week in a big, empty room that scared me, and this woman walked in and she was young at the time. You know, I thought she was so grown up and she was growing up. But when I think back now, she wasn't I don't think she was more than 25 or 26 years old, and she was tall, and she came through the door, and she had that same kind of glow that I was seeing in the window, like the moon was above her or behind her, and it was reflected off of her. And I knew even then I felt there was something unusual about her, and she came over, and I've never seen her before. And, you know, I'm a kid in a pediatric ward. You get to know the nurses. You get to know them because they want especially since , one of two kids. You get to know them, they spend time with you. And I've never seen her before. And I remember she was pretty. And she was She had a, um like a Dorothy Hamill cut. For those of you who don't know what that is, Google it. Everybody had one. Um, and she actually wore one of those hats. One of those nursing hats and nobody else did. And she came in and everything about her was a soft glow. And she walked right over to me and she said, Oh, sweetie, it's okay. Go to sleep. Your mom will be here in the morning, and it was very comforting. And I was very grateful because it was almost like permission to be sad and permission to be scared, but that I was gonna be okay. And then she leaned forward and she put her hand on my and her hand was ice cold, like I like it like an ice cube. It was frozen and she just she rubbed my face and honestly, I think I wet the bed. I mean, I think I got so startled by it that I got panicked. But I don't remember anything until the next day. And when I woke up and I still remember this, my mom was sitting on the side of the bed and it was very early, and it was an unusual time for her to be there, and she was leaning back with She'll hate me for saying this, but with her mouth open and sleeping, probably because she hadn't you know, she'd been running herself ragged between me and my six brothers and sisters. She had a really, really red lipstick and a blue sweater, and when she saw me, she put her hand on my hand and it was the hand that had the I V in it. So she was very gentle, and my mom always does this thing. She's not the most affectionate person on the planet, but she does this thing where she squeezes your hand twice very fast. And she did that to me and she said, All my mother's Irish. So she has a thick broke asses and she would call me Koch because Gallic, my name was called clean and she said, Oh, Koch, I couldn't sleep thinking about last night. And then she came in to see me early. And I have to tell you, I was I was in that board for another 10 days, and I never saw that nurse again. And even though she frightened me, she also comforted me. But I gotta tell you, there's still a part of me that absolutely believes that she was not of this world and that she came in just at that moment, and she comforted me the best way that she could. And I wonder how often those experiences get mistaken for contemporary experiences. You're half asleep, you're half a week and someone comes in and a part of you just knows that they're not of this time. Those experiences get mistaken for contemporary experiences. You're half asleep, half awake, and someone comes in and a part of you just knows that they're not of this time.
Kathy: 37:58
Thank you for listening to Paranormal Tower. Please follow us on instagram at Paranormal Tower on Facebook, at Paranormal Tower and on Twitter at Paranormal NJ. You can also support by going over do Patrick on which is patreon.com/paranormal and for supporting. As for as little as $2 a month. If you can not afford $2 a month, that's perfectly OK. Please feel free to share us on your social media. And if you can go give us a five star review on iTunes or any of the other places that you may listen to your podcast downloads, listen, subscribe. All of that is a huge way of helping us. You can also share your stories at www dot paranormal tower dot com or by setting an email to my story at paranormal tower dot com. You can also give us a call at 732 737 9212 to which is our my story hotline.
Kathy: 0:00
Thank you for listening to Paranormal Tower. Please follow us on instagram at Paranormal Tower on Facebook, at Paranormal Tower and on Twitter at Paranormal NJ. You can also support by going over do Patrick on which is patron forward slash paranormal and for supporting. As for as little as $2 a month. If you can not afford $2 a month, that's perfectly OK. Please feel free to share us on your social media. And if you can go give us a five star review on iTunes or any of the other places that you may listen to your podcast downloads, listen, subscribe. All of that is a huge way of helping us. You can also share your stories at www dot paranormal tower dot com or by setting an email to my story at paranormal tower dot com. You can also give us a call at 7327379 to 1 to which is our my story hotline.
Kathy: 38:58
Did you know that there is a really paranormal tower and that it's located at 6 21 Cookman Avenue in as Re Park, New Jersey's historic downtown district? Not only is there a real paranormal tower, there is a real paranormal archive and occult library, and when you send in your stories where you call and tell us your stories, they become part of the archive and library. And that means that your story becomes part of the continuing story of paranormal. And that means if you come to visit us, you'll be able to see your story and others, and also that other people will be able to hear your words and learn more about their world