`wordtoyourmother8` [Thread]

I worked at two hospitals (placement) during my last year of college. At
one hospital I worked with professionals that did therapeutic play with
children on the Pediatric ward as well as on the Adolescent Psych ward
(at the other hospital). My "boss" and I would do crafts, projects, art,
etc. with the teens to help them have an outlet while they were getting
treatment for mental illness, addiction issues and other medical issues.
Each day, before we would see the teens, we would get a run down from
the nurses on the ward explaining who everyone was, what issues they
were being hospitalized for and any other info we needed (this could
include anything from a warning that the patient had violent tendencies,
how they are adjusting to being on the ward, which patients they did or
did not get along with etc.).

So this one night, we were given the usual run down of the teens on the
ward and the nurse mentioned one teen in particular. This girl (I will
call her Sally, obviously not her real name) had all of a sudden just
stopped talking one day and started to act really out of character. She
would not respond to family, friends, siblings, doctors or anyone for
that matter. She was hospitalized because they became concerned about
her harming herself and they were definitely trying to ensure she was
being watched 24/7 just in case she was experiencing some type of
psychosis (I don't know a ton of details because we were just given a
quick run down of the patients' case). From what I was told, they had
checked and ruled out a brain tumor and other possible physiological
causes and found nothing abnormal. Now just to set the stage, this
hospital is a very old hospital with dark hallways, poorly lit rooms,
and the coldest most creepy atmosphere I have ever experienced. In every
way it looked like a hospital you would see in a horror movie and when
walking down the hallways, I remember always being scared something
would jump out at me because there were a lot of "blind spots" due to
it's very old layout.

Anyways, this night in particular my co-worker/boss and I started the
crafts and activities for the kids in the "kitchen" room where we always
did our activities. I was sitting close to Sally and tried to initiate
conversations but she would just stare blankly. My boss/coworker tried
as well and Sally would not respond and without warning she would just
occasionally look at us and laugh loudly or smile at me with glossy
eyes. The doctors had tried all day to get her to speak and she said
nothing so I just chatted and tried my best to "include" her even though
she wouldn't really engage.

I started to doodle on a piece of paper while talking with some of the
teens and just randomly wrote down "Hi!" and drew around it, not even
really thinking about what I was doing. Almost immediately after I wrote
"Hi!", Sally picked up a pencil and wrote "hello"! I was shocked to say
the least. I was the first person in days and days that she attempted to
communicate with. I didn't know if it would work, but I wrote "how are
you?" and she actually wrote an answer! I was blown away! After Sally
and I exchanged a couple questions/answers my co-worker noticed what was
going on so she kept the other teens busy and just nodded at me to keep
going. Within a few minutes, this girl and I had written almost a page
of conversation and she was communicating through writing with no
trouble! I couldn't believe it was happening! I was getting all this
info from a girls that everyone thought was unreachable! We "talked"
through writing for what seemed like hours (but was probably just about
1 hour) and while I was asking her about how she was feeling about being
in the ward, she admitted through writing that she was scared. I pressed
on, trying to see if she was scared because she was in a strange place
or missed her family etc., but she wrote it was because she saw people
in the room with us. Obviously, there were people in the room with us so
I asked her why the people in the room scared her and she simply wrote
"they are dead". I swear, when I read, it felt like my stomach hit the
floor. I looked up from the page we were writing on and she just looked
at me and then turned her head and stared at the door. No one was
there..... well, at least, I didn't see anyone there. Sally stared at
that door for easily a minute and I swear SHE saw something there. I was
more scared than I could even express. I will never forget the look on
her face. Whether or not there was a person/ghost there, Sally could see
someone.

I took some deep breaths and once I had her attention again, we started
communicating again through writing. We "talked" this way until 9pm,
when I had to leave with my co-worker/boss. I thanked Sally for
"speaking" to ee and she seemed a lot more "aware" when I said goodbye.
She still was not verbalizing, but I know that the doctors were going to
do their best to find out why. I collected the papers we had written on
and before leaving the ward showed the entire conversation to my
co-worker and the nurse in charge. Everyone on duty (nurses, etc) was
dumbfounded that I had actually communicated with her and they assured
me that the pages would be passed along to the psychiatrist the next
morning. I was filled with so many emotions.... I was happy I had spoken
to her and she was honest with me but I was also still incredibly scared
and shaken up. My co-worker dropped me off at home and I remember
walking in to the living-room and my roommates knew immediately
something had happened. I was shaking and blurted out everything that
happened. They were supportive but also freaked out by the situation. I
have never been happier to have roommates because if I had gone home to
an empty place, I probably wouldn't have slept for days.

Sadly, because of the schedule I had and the many different shift
changes at the hospital, I never saw Sally again and no one knew what
the final diagnosis was for her. I still get chills when I think about
the look on her face that night when she stared at the door. I don't
think I will ever shake that feeling. I just hope she got the help she
needed. edit - spacing, word/spelling fixes

TL;DR - worked on an Adolescent Psych ward (in a hospital that could be
the set for a horror movie) and got a girl who wouldn't talk to
communicate through writing. During the conversation she divulged she
could see dead people in the room with us and stared at one of them that
was "standing" in the doorway. I gave our the papers from our
conversation to the medical staff who couldn't believe she actually
"spoke".

sort of EDIT: Was gonna change some awkward phrases but I've decided to
leave it. Sorry if I ramble.

  [Thread]: https://reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1f9i14/what_is_the_scariestcreepiest_thing_you_have/ca8585k/