7: Hospital Hauntings feat. Hospice Nurse Julie
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When the energy in the room shifts, when the air gets sucked out of a moment and everything starts to feel wrong. It's the instinct between fight or flight. When your brain is trying to make sense of what it's seeing, it's when your heart starts pounding. Welcome to Heart Starts Pounding, a podcast of terrifying tales. I'm your host, Kaylin Moore.

I think it's safe to say that most of us were taught that the difference between life and death is pretty black and white. In theory, when you're alive, you're not interacting with people who have passed away. And when you're dead, you're also not interacting with people who are still alive. But imagine for a moment that instead of a concrete wall that separates the two states, there was more of a veil.

And the closer you were to that veil, either the closer you were to death or the closer you were to having just died, the thinner that veil was. Today's episode is going to be a touch macabre.

We're talking about dying. Or at least we're talking about the unexplainable things that happen leading up to someone's death and then at the moment of someone's death. I'm going to read you some stories from people that experienced supernatural things the moment someone died.

And then, we're going to hear from two people who have worked in hospice on a particularly strange phenomenon that happens leading up to someone's death. And to help me tell these stories, I've brought back my sibling and lover of the macabre, Leo. Leo, welcome to the pod. Welcome for having me back.

Okay, so are you ready to hear some scary stories about the moments between life and death? I guess. You don't seem so sure. I mean, they're scary, so you always gotta mentally prepare yourself, but it is the middle of the day and the lights are on, so I think I'll be okay. That's true. Have you heard any scary stories about, like, the moment that someone dies before? I mean...

There's always, you know, those stories of like, oh, when someone passes and you like see the lights flicker or, you know, you're you like hear the death rattle when they inevitably pass. But I don't know if I've heard of any like things specific. Yeah. OK, well, I have some stories today of like specific things that happened around that moment. And.

I'm going to read you some stories and then I'm going to share with you some interviews that I did. So let's get into it. The other day I was browsing Reddit when I came across a post from someone who worked overnight in a nursing home and had experienced some supernatural things. This was a post from user Spiny Fevers.

Hey y'all. I have worked overnight at a nursing home for about three years now. During my time here, we've probably had 60+ people pass. I've noticed that sometimes when certain "strong-willed" people pass, there is some sort of electrical disturbance that happens. I used to think it was just a coincidence, but it's happened like 8+ times since I've been working overnight.

It can last up to two weeks after someone passes. Some examples: One lady passed at around 9pm. There is a door that leads outside two doors down from her room. That door is always locked and requires a number combo to unlock. The door's silent alarm tipped at 11:30pm. The door alarms only go off if someone opens it. After 10, it's just overnight crew and we stick together. We checked it out and there was no one there.

It happened two more times a few days apart. A man passed near the front of the building. The silent alarm from the front door went off every night at around 2:00 AM. It happened for about a week and then it stopped. One lady passed at 12. We were watching TV and all of a sudden it felt like a shockwave passed through the building. The lights in the TV area flickered off and on for a quick second. The TV turned off and then turned back on.

I joked that maybe that lady had passed. We checked on her and she had just passed. Her body was still warm. Her neighbor's TV had also turned on and was just a static channel. Each room has a button on the wall that sends an alarm to the caregivers. We have those go off multiple times in rooms where people have recently passed. Always freaks us out when it happens.

So what does your gut say that something like that is? Ghosts, obviously. Yeah. Because like, you know, when people go ghost hunting, they bring spirit boxes and all this electrical equipment because a

Apparently, when there's a ghost present, the electromagnetic field is disturbed or is altered somehow. So the fact that there's the silent alarm tripping, I'm not surprised. Someone's trying to leave. They're probably like...

okay well i'm i'm done here i gotta go i gotta get out so they're still trying to like use the exits in the appropriate way at least they're being nice about it and not like breaking through a window that's a very good point and having the lights flicker on and off that's like a telltale sign that there's something extra there with you you know definitely so the comment section under this post were also full of stories of other people experiencing weird stuff

One user wrote, I can believe this. When my dad died, my nan was sat with him and about 30 minutes after his death, she said, off you go, Mick. Go be with your dad. Parentheses, my granddad, which is his dad, had died a year prior. Suddenly, all the lights went off.

They then lit brighter than they had ever done and then went off and came back on normally. It was the eeriest feeling I've ever had and I'm sure I felt him leave his body. So that ties back into the thing that we were just talking about before with the lights flickering and like the moment of death. So another comment said, My dad's father was super into his Cadillac. So when he passed, my dad took the emblem off it as a keepsake.

Well, it was in the garage in a box and all night long, the lights in the garage flickered on and off. My mom got creeped out so my dad put the emblem out on the back deck and all that second night the motion lights went on and off. My dad decided it was too creepy so he gave it to my sister to throw in the river. She worked near it.

All the way to work, my sister said that her radio kept coming on static and her engine lights went on and off. She told her coworkers about it and they wanted to see it so she brought it in and then the weird flickering lights started happening in the office. They all thought, "Nope." And then her and most of the office went down to the river and threw in the emblem. You have to understand that my dad's father was not a nice guy.

He was extremely abusive to his children. You could almost say there was an evilness to him, which is why they threw it into running water.

I was going to say, why would you take a keepsake to remember your parent and then be like, just kidding, going to throw this in the river. You're going to chuck it in the river. Also, what happened to the rest of the car? Like, if you have the emblem. That's a good point. If just the emblem is doing this, then what is the rest of the car? Like, who's the 16-year-old who, like, their dad was like, hey, I bought you a car at an estate sale. What's the story of, like, the car that becomes possessed? Maybe that might be. Oh, yeah, Herbie Fully Loaded. No. No.

The fact that it's like the radio is acting weird and like... Yeah. I'm not so... Like, I think that happened in Supernatural, to be honest. Yeah, well, that's the thing with, you know, the readers were like tuned... You know, the ghost readers where it's like tuning through the radio stations and whatever like... Oh, yeah, where it's like the spirit box. The spirit boxes. Yeah, where it's tuning and then you can hear words that pop out during like certain stations. It's that electromagnetic field again. Yeah.

Yeah. They use it to try and contact us. Absolutely. So yeah, I guess I can see where that would be like happening in the car. So then the original user followed up with this story. Something weird happened to me recently. At around 3 a.m., we had a lady on the second floor call and say that a black haired woman had come into her room and tried to wake her up. I was a bit creeped out, but thought nothing of it because we have residents who sometimes hallucinate.

Then, about an hour later, another lady calls, this time from the first floor. She says the same thing about a black-haired lady coming into her room and waking her up. The second lady had never shown signs of hallucinations before, so this time I got really creeped out. I went to check all the exits and make sure they were shut, and everything was fine.

Thankfully, we had no more calls that night. So the hallucinations bit I actually have heard about before. And another user had another story about patients who see things. I used to work overnight at three different homes. And yes, all types of happenings. From little children running around above us to elevators going up and down all night by themselves.

Hell no. Yeah, no. Immediately, no. I'm quitting my job. I'm going back to school to learn a new profession. I'm going to start a new trade. Absolutely not. Going to take up computer science. I could never work an overnight job. There was a room called the tea room by an elevator, and that's where you would make out little apparitions of small humans, and they would just giggle.

I was in the dementia ward one night alone and my patient who had aphasia was trying to communicate something to me. Finally, she started to shake and just pointed behind me. She had tears in her eyes and was visibly shaken to her core. I didn't go back after that experience. That was the last encounter at that job that I could mentally handle.

We had to clock in and out in the basement alone. Our lunch break was at 3 a.m. and I had to walk by a kitchen. That night, before the incident in the dementia ward, I heard a clang and bang and when I walked to the other side of the hall from where the kitchen was located, I turned around and there was a silver butter knife just laying in the middle of the main walkway. I was done after those two encounters happening in the same night.

Being terrified to simply go to work on a daily basis was taking an absolute mental toll on myself. I did work at another place where we had a resident cat who was not very social. He would get attracted to certain residents out of nowhere and within three days that person would pass away. It happened a few times and it was always the case. They always passed. I've since gotten into ophthalmology and only day shifts after all those years of doing overnight resident care. I loved the job and my residents.

but not so much the extra nightly visitors that came along with the job. I wonder if the people who were building the nursing home where that person worked sat down and said, hmm, okay, so this is going to be a nursing home where lots of people are going to pass away and we're going to need overnight shifts. Where is the absolute worst place we can put...

the machine to clock in and out. Yeah. Oh, basement in the basement next to the knives. Yeah. Yeah. They're like, this is class. Absolutely. Perfect place. Absolutely. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing will go wrong. I wonder,

That would be an interesting episode to do too is like people who have to leave jobs because of hauntings because you can't take sick time and claim hauntings. You can't take like family medical leave because your place of work is haunted and you can't work there. So there's not really benefits to protect you. In that two-week resignation letter, just like too many ghosts, got to go. At my first job working at a grocery store, like one time we had to use the –

like basement clocking in system. Oh, at the, yeah. In the grocery store, the grocery store, that hell no. Basements should not exist.

Because they are terrifying. Yeah. Basements of grocery stores that have been around since the 50s should not exist because that... There was something living down there and I was not going to find out why. Yeah. Someone has to go down and feed like the leftover meat at night to like the monster below the grocery store. I hate that. So this got me thinking because part of me was like, you know...

Every time you see posts like this, you kind of have to take them with a grain of salt because people that have these extraordinary experiences, like they're the ones going to the internet to write them down. So I didn't know if this was like a really rare thing that happened where a bunch of people just found each other and we're all sharing their experiences or if this was a common occurrence. So I wanted to check in with someone I knew who worked with dying patients to see if it was also something that happened to them. So I reached out to Katrina and

Hell yeah. Who is our, one of my childhood best friends, also our neighbor from the time that Leo was born. And she's a nurse. And Katrina had kind of a crazy story. More after the break. ♪

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So after reading these stories, I reached out to my friend Katrina, who works in pediatric oncology, and she's dealt with many patients dying.

I wanted to see if she had ever experienced anything strange. Her answer was an emphatic yes. Not only has she dealt with the unexplainable, but she said it's basically par for the course amongst the nurses she knows. She did say that there was one experience she had that really stuck out to her. For the first time,

three years that I was a pediatric chemo nurse, I was on an inpatient side. And we would have people that are actively getting chemo, actively sick, and then kids that were on palliative care or hospice, where their treatment was more to provide comfort, provide good days, and help them through the dying process.

A lot of times they would have primary nurses so that, you know, you didn't have to explain everything that was going on. You knew the family, you had a rapport with the family. And so I've been primary nurse for a few children that are going through this process and the nurse to the family. I was primary to a little boy who died.

loved Spider-Man after he got his Halloween costume and it was Spider-Man with all of his muscles and he wore it all the time after Halloween. Always wanted to be dressed in it. Would go around the hallways in Spider-Man. He was between the ages of like four and five. I think that he was an active treatment for about a year, I want to say. Undergoing cancer treatments? Yes, so curative cancer treatments.

probably for the first six to eight months. And there was never a point where he was unfortunately able to transition to hospice or palliative. It happened pretty suddenly. We weren't able to really prepare him or prepare his family, prepare ourselves. We were all hoping for a pull through and a come through. And unfortunately, it just wasn't able to happen. It still feels really, really hard that...

that was the outcome. I think that he was like, like people talk, I hate when people say the terms like losing and winning and all of that. But like, he was just such a fighter. A few months had passed. And that death really affected everyone on the floor. We all loved the family. We all loved this patient. And another patient was actively dying and,

across the ways that was just recently diagnosed. And there was absolutely no crossover between the times that they were being treated. It was probably like six months after. So it was more of a teenager, probably between 17 and 18.

like 19, 20 maybe. This patient had been on the floor for a long time, actively dying, and he kept talking about a little boy who loves Spider-Man and was just talking, having a full conversation with a little boy who loves Spider-Man and was talking about Marvel and all the superheroes. Oh my God. And another nurse heard him talking about this and was like, who are you talking to? What are you talking about? And he's like, oh,

I mean, what a little dude to love Spider-Man and was like, you know, talking like it. He was right there in the room. And that was when we all were like, there was absolutely no crossover between the two. Who was the one that kind of pieced it together? So it was another nurse who was primary to that patient and really didn't take care of

my primary that passed like six, eight months before this patient. Well, she pulled me aside and told me about it because she knew how close I was with the family and how much it affected me. Yeah. And it happened on that night and I got really emotional when she told me and I like started like laughing and crying. And I mean, we, we all,

we're just kind of amazed and we're like flabbergasted that that came out because again, I mean, we've been there for deaths, but those kinds of things, when it happens, it's like, oh my gosh, like they are still with us. They are still here. Yeah. Yeah. And the fact that,

this little Spider-Man kid is coming in to, to like comfort someone who is going through something like that. Like that was also kind of like, of course he's in, like he's talking to them. Like, and of course this patient that's now in our care and actively dying is, you know, like having these funny conversations with him. Like it was just very like their personalities. Yeah. We had met.

They would have connected so much. It would have been like an older brother, big brother kind of a thing. Yeah. And so that's what it's wild to like not on this plane or these two planes almost kind of connecting because they just were meant to. So that just blew my mind when she told me that.

The fact that I reached out to her and I was like, hey, this has been happening to some nurses. Is this a rare thing? And she's like, oh, no, me and all my friends have these stories was crazy to me. My heart is breaking right now. So I'm like trying to process. I know. Oh, my God. I know. That's one thing. I don't know if I've said this before on this podcast, but like when I started making this podcast, I didn't.

thought i would always i would feel really scared like people would tell me stories and i would feel afraid and i would get the chills down my spine i didn't know how much i would cry just the sadness yeah of like oh this little boy passed away and now he's like assisting other like teenagers and young people who are also passing away i know you're making me cry now it's just like

Especially because... It's just really upsetting. Is it upsetting or is it kind of comforting? I mean, to me it's upsetting because I'm not in the situation, but I feel like if I were, you know, that young boy who was having conversations with him, I'd probably feel some sense of comfort. Just because it's like, you know, you're not alone and like, yeah, you have this amazing team of nurses helping you, but no one...

They don't know how you feel. They don't... They're not experiencing everything. Like... Yeah. Knowing that you're going to pass and, like, preparing to do so is such, like, a scary thing. Yeah. Like, that is a different kind of scariness. And I think that you don't know how to, like, prepare someone for it until it happens. And so to have, like...

The spirit of someone who has gone through it be there for you. There has to be some sort of comfort that like your care team just can't give you. Yeah. And they had never crossed paths. There was no way for that 17-year-old boy to know that that little boy existed. But knowing... I also love that the little boy...

Still just wanted to talk about Spider-Man. Kids are kids. Yeah. Here's the thing. Nothing is going to change. He was still just like... What kids are. Have you seen this movie? Have you seen this Marvel movie? Like, I love that. I love Spider-Man. Yeah. It's like... That stuck with him. Yeah. That gave him comfort and he's going to use that to give others comfort. So...

What Katrina described the child doing is in the hospice world is known as visioning. So it's when people who are about to die see other people. Usually, typically it's people who they know, but for children, they might not know a lot of people who have died. So in this case, it was someone that they didn't know. But these people are people who have already passed away. And it's

so common in hospice that nurses have to explain to family members that they shouldn't be afraid when their dying loved one says that they saw their deceased mother or someone coming to have a conversation with them and the reason that i know what any of this is is because i follow hospice nurse julie on tiktok um and she's a hospice nurse on tiktok who's dedicated to teaching people about the dying process so i called her and i wanted to hear in her words what visioning was

My name is Julie. I am a nurse. I've been a nurse for about 15 years. Most of those years were in the ICU, which is critical care, which is what led me to hospice because it was sort of, I just...

started getting a passion about being able to talk honestly about death and dying and what was really happening. That led me to hospice. And then I've been in hospice probably for the past six years. One part of the process that I wanted to ask you about is visioning. In general, visioning, which we actually use as healthcare workers as kind of like a timeline, because it's usually about a month to a few weeks before someone dies. So when someone starts talking to us about seeing their dead relatives or loved ones or a cousin or their pets, whatever,

It's usually about a month to a few weeks out. Visioning is always comforting. And usually they know who they're talking to. They know who's there. It makes them feel better. They're laughing, talking, having a good time. Sometimes almost ignoring you. Like I've seen a lot of videos and a lot of patients where they're like daughters trying to be like, mom, hello. Like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And they will not talk to the person who's actually there, but they're really fixated on talking to the person who we can't see.

And laughing and talking and having a good old time. So that's good to know that it's always like comforting too. It's always something reassuring. Yeah. Yeah. I have not seen negative, but it's mostly, I mean, it's mostly family members or friends, but sometimes it's angels and things like that.

I don't know what it is. I personally do think, I do personally think that there's an afterlife and they really are seeing loved ones and pets. And there's just, there's just so much we don't understand about life and about death. I, what I can tell you, I can tell you all the things that's not, you know, people always think they're low on oxygen. So their brain's not getting enough oxygen. So they're seeing things that not true. That,

That's not, that's, that's like for sure. Not true. These people are not at that process yet. They still have normal oxygen levels. They're not short of breath. They're still alert and oriented. It's not oxygen. It's not low oxygen. Uh, people will say it's a burst of DMT maybe, but that's not usually when the, we don't even know if the burst of like the burst of DMT thing is not actually proven anyway. So it could be that, but also when it's happening, usually, uh,

it's not on like the deathbed as people think. Um, I don't necessarily think it's something biological. I think it's, um, I think we are connected to a place that we forget about because we're during this life. Um,

And I think that place is, you know, like the afterlife or home, or I think when we die, we go to a place we've always known, right? Like even more than we are more like, it's more familiar to us than this place that we call home now. But again, like,

I know enough to know I don't know. So yeah, the reason I wanted to ask her about this was because I wanted to get like the medical world's professional opinion on this thing that happens to so many people. And even hospice nurse Julie is like, it feels slightly supernatural. Like it's not something that they can explain, but it's not biological because they're measuring people's vitals and they know that they're not just hallucinating or getting that hit of DMT or losing a bunch of oxygen and

Like it is something that

is unexplainable. Yeah. And you know, when you lose someone there and either you just lost them or you lost them years ago, when you're about to pass on to the other side, they're probably there to help you cross over. Yeah. A lot of people apparently talk about like seeing their mothers or parents, you know, that have passed away. And then because I had her on a call, I did ask about the spookiest thing that she experienced working in hospice and

And she also had a story of something she experienced. So there was a woman who went on a hospice. She had a son who had some like mental challenges. So he was, you know, like she was caring for her son. And then she had this caregiver that lived in with her as well who cared for her and the son.

And she almost didn't make it on hospice. That's how not sick she was. I mean, she was sick, but like it was a chronic illness that like was kind of coming and going. And we got her on service to help her out. But we kind of figured she would come off service eventually, maybe come back on later. So yeah, I admitted her onto service and like didn't really think anything of it. And about a week later, we got a call to go do a death visit. And it was for her. And I was like, what the heck? This lady died?

And I went to the house and I saw the caregiver and we were both kind of like, I was kind of like, what happened? You know, she was like, Julie, it was the craziest thing. We were making blueberry muffins or something the night before. Like we always do on Sundays, whatever she said. And afterwards she went to bed and she called me in and she was acting really sentimental and saying like, thank you so much for caring for me. I love you. Um,

Promise me you'll care for so-and-so, her son. And the woman was like, of course. What are you talking about? Why are you talking like this? Of course I'll care for so-and-so. I love you guys. I'm happy to be here. And she was like, okay, thank you. Thank you for all you've done for me. Just saying all these sentimental things. And then she was like, call my son in. And she had her call her son in. And she was whispering to him and saying all these nice things. And he was like, okay, good night, mom, whatever.

and she was like why are you acting like this and she was like listen I'm really tired I'm going home I've had enough like thank you for all you've done and like um I think she actually like left her her house and everything like it was already prepared where like this woman was gonna basically be there and help her until whenever right um and help her son and so she kept just saying like thank you and promise me you'll always be here and she was just sort of like

would you stop? Eventually she was just sort of like, would you stop? Okay. Good night. I'll see you tomorrow. Um, and then she died that night and she woke up the next morning and she was dead in the bed. And the first thing I always think, cause I'm like still skeptical is like, did she take something? What was this? You know? And it wasn't even in the house. It wasn't even a thing like that could have been done. It was like this lady just knew. And she kept saying, I'm tired. I'm going tonight. Um,

I've had enough, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like I've lived a good life. Thank you so much for everything. And sure enough, she was dead the next day. Like no explanation. It feels undeniable that there is something supernatural at play here. And even though this episode is morbid, I also hope that it's a bit comforting. Maybe there is a conversation happening across the veil of life and death. And maybe those most tuned into that conversation are the people standing closest on either side.

Maybe we won't really know until it's us. This has been Heart Starts Pounding. I'm your host, Kaylin Moore. Thank you so much to Julie and Katrina for speaking with me for this episode. You can follow Julie on TikTok at HospiceNurseJulie. And you can follow the podcast on Instagram at HeartStartsPounding.

Have a heart-pounding tale you'd like to share on the podcast? Email heartstartspounding at gmail.com. This episode was written and recorded by me, Kayla Moore, music by Artlist. Until next time.

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