The Happiness Function

When you work in healthcare and other institutions that experience death, you witness some of the most intense and emotional moments in people’s lives.

In these work environments, employees sometimes encounter something else entirely – unexplainable events that leave them feeling shaken and confused. Recently, someone asked these workers to share ghost stories in an online forum. You’ll be shocked at what they delivered.

1. Guard’s Haunting Experience at a Hospital

A former security guard at a hospital explained that one night, they encountered a doctor in the surgery wing who didn’t respond to their greeting.

When the guard later described the encounter to a veteran staff member, they were told that the surgery ward had been closed for hours. The veteran staffer divulged to the guard that the doctor they had seen was likely the ghost of a surgeon who had sadly ended his life on the hospital’s helipad years earlier. However, the surgeon never stopped working.

2. The Terrifying Night Shift

Another worker shared that while on a night shift as a junior doctor, they were verifying a death when the patient suddenly lurched forward while checking for signs of life. The event caused everyone to leave the room screaming.

Their hearts leaped straight out of their chests!

3. Student’s Haunting Experience with Embalming

A student shared a bizarre dream about embalming her still-alive father, which unnerved her classmates. The next day, while working on an elderly lady with severe arthritis, the student experienced a chilling moment when the lady’s body clenched her hand as she was breaking the rigor.

4. A Spooky Tale of Flickering Lights and a Friendly Ghost

A funeral home employee shared that the building they worked at was said to be haunted by the old funeral director’s assistant. The previous director’s assistant had a heart attack and passed away years prior.

According to the apprentice, the assistant would mess with the chapel lights. Then, if called out by name, the lights would return to normal.

Although the apprentice was unsure if they truly believed in the haunting, they continued to call out the assistant’s name as it always seemed to fix the issue.

5. A Haunting Reflection in an Oncology Ward

A former employee working in an Oncology ward experienced a strange occurrence with a student nurse. After a patient had passed away, the room was cleared of belongings and tidied up by the student.

Later, the student came out of the room sobbing and told her mentor that she saw the deceased patient reflected in the mirror, looking at her over her shoulder while clearing the sink area in the bathroom.

The student refused to go near the room for the remainder of her placement.

6. A Spine-Chilling Encounter in a Hospital Unit

Someone shared a spooky experience they had while working in a medical unit at a hospital. One night, they saw a man in a hospital gown standing in the doorway of a patient’s room. As they got closer, the man turned and went inside the room.

When they followed, they couldn’t find the man anywhere, despite searching the entire room.

Later that night, their coworker reported feeling like someone was touching her feet while she tried to nap in the break room next to the patient’s room.

7. A Glimpse of the Afterlife

Another volunteered their experience of a patient who regained consciousness after being unresponsive for days and said she had seen the other side.

The patient told the nurse that they would meet again and that the nurse should go home and rest because she would be gone by morning. The nurse received a call at 3:00 am that the patient had passed away.

The experience changed the nurse’s outlook on life.

8. Firefighting Trauma

One individual described a colleague’s experience finding a deceased person in a burned-out building during the “mop-up” after firefighting operations.

The colleague accidentally stepped on a badly burned corpse’s sternum, which caused the remains to crunch. The remains also came up at the firefighter with its burned-up arms flailing. The experience was highly traumatic and required the colleague to seek counseling.

Tough job. We thank them for their service.

9. The Man in the Hat and the Patient

One recalled their mom’s experiences as an RN in an old Virginia hospital ER in the mid-1980s. There were two famous paranormal stories among the nurses: the “Man in the Hat” and “Patient 1.”

The Man in the Hat was believed to be an omen of death, while the woman in the old hospital gown, Patient 1, was a sign that a patient might code soon.

10. The Haunting Ringtone

Lastly, a person said they turned off the ringer on their phone while their dad was in the hospital. They fell asleep and woke up to the sound of the doorbell ringing around 1:00 am but found no one at the door.

When they turned on their phone, the hospital called to inform them that their dad had passed away and asked permission to harvest some of his organs for transplant.

A Reddit thread inspired this post about workers’ supernatural experiences. We thank all healthcare workers, first responders, and workers who help people during difficult times, death, and tragedies for their service. We acknowledge how important this work is for every community.

Have a story to share? We want to hear.

This article was produced and syndicated by The Happiness Function.

Featured Image Credit: Shutterstock.