SURGICAL SPIRITS

The City Hospital (formerly Dudley Road) began life as the Birmingham Union Infirmary in 1889. The most famous nurse of all, Florence Nightingale, was involved in its design.

The new hospital was actually an extension of an older building which had been a workhouse. A Victorian workhouse was a cruel place and people experienced an oppressive atmosphere in this part of the hospital. These buildings were still standing in the 1990's when demolition workers had quite a fright inside one of them. A group of workers heard what sounded like a child crying in a derelict old room. When they went to investigate they found nothing. Strangely, an old wooden door closed behind them trapping them inside for several minutes. When they finally got out they were quite relieved to see the demolition ball do its work.

The City Hospital has had several ghost sightings over the years and two spirits seem to have a romantic connection.
The story goes that many years ago a pretty, blonde nurse was having an affair with a surgeon. The nurse, who has been named Mary, died in mysterious circumstances. Her ghost has been seen watching over patients at night.

The ghost of a middle aged man in a long white coat has also been seen wandering the wards at night. Is this the surgeon looking for his pretty young nurse?

Another ghostly doctor has been spotted in the hospital corridors. Dressed in an old suit and a white coat, this spirit is said to look so real that he is often mistaken for a real doctor. People are rather surprised when he suddenly disappears!

At the nearby Birmingham Eye Hospital, CCTV cameras have caught an eerie grey figure wandering around.

The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital can boast an extra member of staff in the form of a kindly old nurse in an old fashioned uniform complete with a frilly bonnet. She is thought to be the ghost of a nurse who spent most of her life working at the hospital. She was so devoted to her patients that she couldn't bring herself to leave, even after she had died.

Like Derby City General, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital has a connection with Roman Britain. Nearly 2,000 years ago a Roman legion camped here for many years while they tried to subdue the unruly locals (I wonder how they would cope today?). Over the years people have been astonished to see ghostly Roman soldiers in and around the hospital. At the moment the Q.E site is undergoing a massive building project, so this could be an excellent time for disturbed spirits to manifest themselves.

People often send me emails telling me of their paranormal experiences and some of these have involved hospitals.

One gentleman told me of a strange encounter he had while recovering from a motorcycle accident. Next to his ward was a T.V room where he would go to relieve the boredom. One afternoon he hobbled into the room and saw a strange, dishevelled man staring intently at the T.V. He asked the man if he was alright but received no reply. Thinking that the man was a bit disturbed he decided to leave, but when he turned around the room was empty. The gentleman asked a porter if he had noticed anybody in the room. The porter said no "but sometimes people see funny things around here".

A woman wrote to me to say that during a week long stay on a hospital ward she had been saddened by the death of a middle aged lady in a nearby bed. On leaving hospital she saw this lady sitting on a bench, smiling at her. "She didn't look real, I knew I was looking at a ghost".

Hospital staff have more paranormal experiences than anybody else. A common encounter is a bluish / white light floating around wards at night. These are often thought to be long, dead nurses still looking after their patients.

Columns of white light have often been witnessed around desperately ill patients and there are many, many stories of dying patients smiling and whispering to unseen people.

In a hospital, life meets death on a daily basis. Physical bodies give way to spiritual souls. Strong human emotions are irresistible to our friends from the otherworld.

No wonder these places are haunted!