Nurses of Reddit, what is the spookiest thing that a patient did late at night?

1. I used to work on a mental health unit and every hour we had to go into the patients rooms to check on them (make sure they’re breathing, not self harming, etc). At night, we would use flashlights so we don’t have to turn on the lights and wake them up. One day, a colleague was doing the round, and I heard a loud scream. I ran to her aid, and saw a small female schizophrenic patient on top of her. Apparently the nurse went in and couldn’t see the patient on the bed - the patient was against the wall, and as soon as she shined the flashlight at her, she charged at my colleague. We did rounds in groups of 2 after that
   — Yallah_Habibi


2. I worked at a nursing home for six years, and we had a lot of creepy stuff happen. I think the worst one for me was this little lady with dementia. She was seriously "gone" minute to minute. And she would just moan and cry, these long drawn out, "Helllllp. Help me. HELLLP MEEEE. Helllllp...." over and over. It wasn't screaming, but it was this loud, sad calling. It didn't matter what you did, you could go and sit with her for an hour playing Uno or talking about her kids, as soon as you left she'd think she'd been alone for that entire time and the calls for help would start again. To combat it, we'd try to keep her out in a common area or next to the nurses desk, but at night when we're trying to get her to sleep it's important to keep her in her room. So one night (11ish) it's me and one other person and we're just generally waiting for call lights to go off. Everyone is asleep or hanging out quietly in their rooms. The cries for "help me" start up and I head to her room. She's sitting straight up in bed and calling for help, because she's been alone so long. "You have to help me, you just have to." Honestly at this point it was pretty routine, although creepy to hear sometimes, so I calm her down and promise that I'm just outside her door, and that she should try to sleep. She lays down and closes her eyes, so I head back to the nurses' station. (At this point I just want to interject that someone needs to be at the station at all times in case call light goes on. I didn't want to leave my partner alone too long, in case someone called and she needed to tag-team) Sure enough, I'm back at the station for maybe ten minutes when the calls start happening again. "Someone, anyone help me, help me PLEEEEASE help me." I head back to her room and repeat the process of calming her down and telling her she should try to get some sleep, and head back to the nurse's station once she's settled into bed with her eyes closed. Another short time goes by, and the calls go up again. I head back to her room and am ready to soothe her with the usual routine, when she grabs my arm and pulls me close. "Every time you leave the room, he comes back." Now, this woman usually forgets who I am even if she's seen me in the past five minutes. The creepy dialogue, plus the fact she knew I'd been there before absolutely sent a chill down my spine. I asked her who comes when I leave, and she kept pointing towards a mirror above her little dresser. "He comes back and smiles at me, but it's not the nice kind of smile." Needless to say I packed her up and we had a little pajama party at the nurse's station that night.
   — fuqmook


3. I was rounding on an elderly patient on the overnight shift. She was maybe 80-85 years old. She had some issues from a stroke but was generally pretty coherent and “with it”. She is laying down but opens her eyes wide and looks right at me when I enter. She says “The devil is in this room.” I’m not religious but I promptly walked out after I checked on her. Nope, nope, not today satan.
   — tiny_pandacakes






4. The nurse that was looking after my grandmother before she died would always tell me how she would talk about a baby living in her stomach. She would always tell me and my mom/dad when we visited too. "I keep feeling this baby inside of me." Needless to say, it was really scary seeing a formerly sharp, extremely intelligent family member go through dementia.
   — Greatanser


5. I had a patient who would speak in three different voices. Her normal voice, her dads voice, and a baby's voice. Normally it was just inane chatter but one night she started talking in her dads voice to give the baby to him so he could kill it. The baby kept saying please don't kill me and her voice was crying. It didn't help it happened around Halloween.
   — riverhill12


6. I work overnight in a nursing home. We use small nightights over the beds at night, so we don't disturb them any more than necessary. It makes the room very dark and shadowy. This normally is fine, I'm not superstitious so I don't get freaked out easily. Anyway. I had this patient who was 75-85 years old, 80-90lbs soaking wet. Tiny little non-verbal woman. She was fairly contracted, in a fetal position. I came in to give her meds, and since she was facing the wall I leaned over her slightly to wake her. As I leaned over her, my body blocked part of the nightlight, leaving her face in shadow, except her eyes. I'll never forget looking at her face and reaching out to touch her shoulder to wake her. Before I could touch her, her eyes snapped over to me, and she whispered "diiieee". I froze in shock, and I felt my stomach roll up into my chest. Before I could react, she whispered "murder" in a long whoosh. Freaked me the fuck out. I immediately left the room. She didn't get her meds in until she was up and in the brightly lit dining room. I never had an issue like that with her again. It was so scary. Other nurses said they had creepy encouters with her as well.
   — TuesDazeGone






7. Here's one from my dad. He used to work at a nursing home when I was little. He had a patient (resident?) that was a diiiiiiick. He was blind and wheelchair bound and mean as shit. Every single day he'd fight the nursing staff while they dressed him, fed him, gave him meds. Dad usually saved him for last because he was always such a hassle. So he walks in the room with another nurse one morning and the guy is docile as a lamb. He's cooperative, he's nice, but he keeps his face turned to one particular corner of the room. This dude is 100% blind but no matter which way they turned his chair he kept his eyes on that corner. He keeps repeating 'make sure you put me in a clean shirt, is this shirt clean? It has to be a clean shirt!' Dad is like 'yep sure ok' while trying to hurry, expecting the dude to start being aggressive any second. He's still calm and nice, stays chill all day, but keeps asking if his shirt is really good and clean. Dad asks him that afternoon 'Why do you need to be in a clean shirt?' and the guy says 'mama says I have to be wearing a clean shirt or she won't let me go with her'. The nurse he was with that morning comes hauling ass down the hall later that night to tell him the guy died. I guess that shirt was clean enough for his mama to take him. Spooky. ETA I guess the spooky thing he did actually at night was just die, but still.
   — deathro_tull


8. Not a nurse, but i worked as a janitor in a hospital. I was cleaning out the patient restroom in an ICU/Palliative care unit, when the patient asked me if she could just talk to me. Being a nice guy and having been told to listen to requests of patients as long as it wasnt a medical request, or in some way illegal or dangerous, i sat and waited. Lady started speaking, and it went from good English, if a little slurred because of the stroke that had her in the unit, then she started speaking in tongues, her voice getting louder, eyes wide with panic, the machines started going nuts, and the nurses and other staff were in the room ASAP. they asked me what she was doing right before the machines went haywire and i told them. Turned she had had another stroke, and it involved her Speech Center. Still freaked me right the fuck out,
   — WeirdWolfGuy


9. This didn’t happen super late at night, but I was floated to another unit between 7pm to 11pm. I had a patient who we all swear was possessed. She was in her early 70s and was a psych patient put on a medical floor for I think it was dehydration. She never closed her eyes. They were constantly wide open, and she’d track you while you were in the room. She would cackle this deep, raspy, maniacal laugh. The only words you could understand were “get out!” She would be staring at you, cackling, mumbling nonsense (or speaking in tongues, not sure lol) and then she’d scream “get out!!!!” then go back to cackling. She’d also twist her body, especially her neck, in these very odd, unnatural looking positions. When my unit called me back at 11, I happily got the fuck out of there.
   — neondarkly






10. I worked as a nurse's aide for a summer. At night, it was common for older people to talk with their deceased spouse or family member. Kind of sad, but I could tell that they still loved them.
    — MNCPA


11. The nurse tending to my granddad had a grand story to tell. His mind went when he was in his 80s, but he still kept his body in shape. They said until he reached stage 5 Alzheimer's he would regularly work out and stay in great shape. In fact they had to change their fence from a tall chain link fence to a tell wooden fence because he kept escaping.
    — TheLightningCount1