[indistinct radio chatter]
[Amber] This little boy passed away unfortunately.
His hand twitched.
Help. Somebody help.
I was terrified.
[Gord] I had an aunt who was put
into psychiatric hospital.
Things weren't like they should be.
[laughs]
[woman] I had both knees replaced.
It's not for the faint of heart.
I didn't realize how vulnerable
it was going to make me.
[Amber] I am telling myself,
"You're losing it."
[Gord] That's when I saw
the first glimpse of a shadow.
[woman] They were upset that I was there.
I just felt like I wasn't alone.
I felt like there was somebody watching me.
I didn't know what I was gonna find.
[whirring]
Hi.
Just leave me alone.
[whistles]
This was not my imagination.
[girl laughing]
[Amber] I didn't know why or what was following me.
[indistinct chatter]
This was a ghost.
- [laughs] - [screams]
[woman screams]
[eerie music playing]
[screams]
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] It's 2010 in Denver, Colorado.
In one of the city's hospitals,
nursing assistant, Amber Mackey
begins her evening shift.
[Amber] I've worked on the pediatric ICU unit.
I would do everything, from setting up rooms
to helping run codes
where you're getting supplies for everything,
changing linens, answering call lights,
helping support the families.
[eerie music playing]
[whistling]
Working on a pediatric ICU unit
is probably one of the most difficult
but yet the most rewarding unit
you could ever work on.
We see a lot of death
and that is the sad part about it.
We see a lot of horrific trauma
and accidents.
[narrator] Amber thought that this night
in the pediatric ward was going to be
just like any other,
but she was dead wrong.
[eerie music playing]
[Amber] I definitely just had like a heavy kind of feeling,
something just didn't feel right.
[whistling]
[gasps]
[woman] Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.
I need you to set up room 25.
Sure. No problem.
[exhales deeply]
[Amber] In charge in nursing,
we have a trauma coming in.
Some of these rooms, you know,
that if a patients goes in there
and they're really critical, they're probably
not gonna make it out.
Room 25 is one of them.
[rock music playing]
[siren wailing]
[Amber] I see the gurney
go through that corridor towards the room.
There's blood dripping down
onto the floor at that time.
Who's the patient?
[radio chatter]
Twelve-year-old boy,
he's been mauled by a dog.
[Amber] The kid was playing in the backyard
and the dog busted through the fence
and just attacked his face and his body.
[paging system chatter]
[eerie music playing]
[groans]
[Amber] Once I saw him with the extent of damage
and the amount of blood coming from him,
I didn't know if he was gonna make it.
It was pretty emotional and scary.
[machine beeping]
[narrator] Despite best efforts,
the little boy cannot be saved.
Amber is tasked with creating a memento
for the family.
[Amber] We normally have a child life specialist
that comes in and they will create
little memories for the family,
like, handprints or a footprint
and because it was the middle of the night,
at this point, they were like nope, like,
we don't have anybody. Can you make it?
[eerie music playing]
[gasps]
[panting]
His hand twitched.
Help. Somebody help.
I was terrified.
Oh, my God.
His hand twitched.
He's not dead.
No pulse.
He's gone.
Are you sure?
Maybe you're just imagining things.
Come on, let's get these molds finished.
[Amber] I was just waiting
for something to happen again,
waiting for the hand to twitch,
waiting for the little boy to open his eyes.
[eerie music playing]
Offer these away for the parents.
We need some more cleaning supplies and linen,
- would you mind getting them? - Sure.
I had to go and get linen,
we like to change the bed,
just so the family could see him cleaned up
all the way before they left for the night.
They had to go to our overflow unit
because that's all we stopped.
I always had felt nervous going in there
just because it's so quiet.
It's like an eerie quiet.
[door creaks open]
[Amber] Just the emergency lights were on
because we don't keep the lights on in a unit
that's not being used.
[kid groaning]
[eerie music playing]
[Amber] It's just very weird.
It's just very scary
feeling all together just to go over there
even if nothing is going on.
It just gives you the,
"Ooh, I don't know if I really wanna be here."
[kid groans]
[Amber] I see this little kid
out of the corner of my eye
and I turned and looked and there was nothing there.
Hello?
Are you lost?
Where did this kid go?
What am I gonna find?
Am I gonna find something behind this curtain?
[suspenseful music playing]
[gasps]
What the...
And there was nothing there.
At that point, I was just terrified.
As I am leaving, I am telling myself,
"You're losing it."
[kid groans]
[Amber] Could that be that little boy
from that room?
I went down to the storage room
just to get the supplies so I could get back
to our unit.
[dial tone beeping]
[Amber] I start hearing something
that sounded like a phone.
[eerie music playing]
Hello?
Like, what if there's somebody in here?
What if somebody was laying on the floor
and I think of the worst,
I didn't know what I was gonna find.
[dial tone beeping]
[Amber] It was just a phone sitting on the couch
that was going off, but it was still hang up
and I didn't know how this was possible.
[dial tone beeping]
Hello?
And it's still was going off.
Hello?
I just felt like I wasn't alone.
I felt like there was somebody watching me.
I didn't know what to do,
so I just unplugged it from the wall
and it went off and I'm like,
"Okay, this has to be defective."
So I just beeline and straight
towards the storage room.
And at this point,
I am terrified just trying to put my code
and as fast as I can to get out of there.
[eerie music playing]
[whistles]
[man] Hello.
Oh, my God.
[whistling]
[kid laughing]
[man] Hello.
I could hear a laugh.
[kid laughing]
[Amber] Then I was like, [bleep]
"I gotta get out of here."
- [panting] - [kid laughing]
[Amber] I slowly turned my head,
there was a ball that was in the middle
of the hallway that wasn't there before.
Oh, my God.
I just wanted to scream and cry
because I didn't know why or what was following me.
[kid laughs]
[screams]
I just had my eyes on the exit only
and just straight line,
just straight out of that hallway
into the main unit.
[panting]
- Are you okay? - There's...
I was shaking and I said, "You don't understand,"
like, I just explained the whole story to her
of what had happened and so, she was like,
"I'll go with you, like,
I think you probably are just seeing things."
And I definitely held onto her the whole time
we went back over into that unit.
And I kinda stood behind her, and was like,
"If you're gonna see this ball sitting in this...
In the hallway..."
I don't see any scary ball.
[woman] It was right there.
It was right there.
I swear.
She thought I was nuts, and she kinda was like
joking about it, like,
"There is nothing here, what are you talking about?
You're losing it."
Come on. Let's get this stuff back.
Sounds like you could use a break.
[panting]
I am just exhausted.
6:00 can't come fast enough to do change of shift,
so that I could go home and go to sleep.
[eerie music playing]
I could put these away if you need to go get some air.
It's fine, really.
[Amber] All of a sudden, the call light went off
and it happened to be the room
that that little boy was in.
[alarm beeping]
I wonder if his parents went back in there.
[Amber] There was nobody in there.
This nurse was just like, "Eh, it had to have been
just a fluke or a short in the cord.
We'll just get a new call light for it."
But I knew that that wasn't a fluke.
[child groaning]
[Amber] I knew that it was not just a short in the...
in the cord. I, at this point,
is getting that feeling that this is the little boy
trying to just reach out.
I think the spirit might've wanted acknowledgement
from Amber, because he died
in such a tragic and painful way.
You know, he might be in so much pain
that that's all he sees,
he can't see anything outside of that.
So, he needs a human counterpart,
a human guide, that could release him.
[eerie music playing]
[Amber] The rest of the night, I went in, did vitals,
I made my rounds to each room,
make sure everything was stocked up.
[door creaks open]
[Amber] They took him down to the morgue.
And I thought in my head kind of whispered that,
"Hey, I know it's you and it's okay.
It's okay that you're here, and that you're safe now."
This has changed me...
a lot.
I think about it probably on a daily basis,
and with that, I always wondered,
could I help out? Is there a way
that I could help these spirits cross over
or let them know that it's okay.
When I have a patient that is getting ready to go,
I will let them know, "It's okay. We will be back.
You can go. You're safe."
You know, just try to give them comfort.
I find that talking to them beforehand helps them go.
And then once they do, I acknowledge them
as if they were still there.
I have a small boy at home.
I don't ever want spirits to come home with me,
attach themselves to me.
I just would like them to stay where they're at
so that I can go home, and be at peace,
and be able to go home and be a mom.
[eerie music playing]
[suspenseful music playing]
[laughs]
[narrator] It's 1984.
Gord McLean is on his way to visit a relative.
My childhood was your typical, normal,
happy, healthy childhood.
Play baseball, sports, all the usual fun stuff,
had no problem finding friends or adjusting with people.
[narrator] But there is something sad
in Gord's young life.
Don't be nervous, sweetie.
Aunt Max is just sick right now.
I had an aunt who suffered from mental health issues.
She was put into the psychiatric hospital
several times throughout her life.
And there was one time that I can vividly remember
that we went up to visit her.
Gordy, just be a good boy
for me and mom, okay?
We even coordinated with the doctor.
I had only, kind of, overheard the stories
of the adults talking about what was going on there,
so I didn't really know what to expect.
[eerie music playing]
[door creaking]
[door slams]
[Gord] The psychiatric hospital smelt like
an industrial cleaner,
like, it just had this very powerful
disinfectant smell.
It was very industrial and barren.
There was no artwork, there was no color.
It was all drab.
- Mr. McLean? - [man] Yup.
[woman] This is a very high security facility.
I'm going to ask you to follow me.
You're not to veer off.
You're to stay right behind me.
[Gord] We would be taken to meet my aunt
in the heart of the building, which was down
a whole series of different corridors.
There'd be a security door.
We'd all have to get
escorted through that door.
The nurse, she'd make sure that door was closed.
[Gord] So, we would go down one hallway.
And she would do the next thing
at the next door.
We probably did that four, five times.
As a kid getting into this building,
getting deeper and deeper,
the hairs on the back of my neck are starting
to stand up a little bit straighter.
And almost feels like there's eyes on me.
I didn't know what was going on around me.
I just knew something was going on.
There are no children allowed beyond this point.
Will you take a seat on the couch, young man?
And you two, follow me.
[beeping]
[door opens]
[Gord] They left me out in the hall.
They knew it was safe and secure
because we had just gone through
all these security door locks.
[eerie music playing]
[Gord] But I had that feeling that...
things weren't like they should be.
[clapping]
[Gord] I knew my parents were in the room next door.
There was a meeting room where
there was my mom, my dad, the nurse, a doctor.
And still, there was a feeling that something was there.
I didn't know what or who it may have been.
But there was something in that hallway with me.
I just didn't know what was going on.
[man] Hi.
[Gord] I tried to put it out of my mind
as best as I could.
I had brought a couple small toy cars with me.
I got down on the floor
and started playing with the cars.
I would, kind of, roll the car down
three or four feet before it would veer off.
I'd run, pick it up, come back.
I had pushed the cars maybe
two or three times down the hall
and gone and collect them up...
[clapping]
[Gord] ...when I heard a sound.
[clapping]
[Gord] It sounded like clapping.
[clapping]
It wasn't like your typical, like, applause,
but it was more like somebody's just super excited
about something fun happening.
I stood up, looked around.
It sounded like it was at the end of the hallway.
Couldn't see anything.
There was nobody there.
I kept trying to find it.
The hairs on the back of my neck were standing up.
There was nobody around
that could've made that sound.
The dread really started to rise up in me.
I had that feeling that I wanted to run,
but there was nowhere I could run to.
[clapping]
[Morgan] Kids like Gord are often
more receptive to paranormal activity.
Their minds just aren't as busy as we are as adults.
Their brainwaves tend to be a lot different than adults
and often, if you've got
a hotspot of paranormal activity,
kids will be the ones to pick up on it,
whether it'd be frightening or not.
I had to, kind of,
just gather my thoughts,
try to convince myself
that maybe I was just hearing it,
that it wasn't actually there.
But then this blast of cold air
came from behind me
and pushed the car down,
not to four feet, not five feet,
but pushed it down the entire length of the hallway.
[eerie music playing]
[clapping]
[Gord] And I heard the clapping again.
[clapping]
[Gord] It was very excited, like uncontrollable joy.
It was almost like
somebody or something wanted to play.
I walked slowly down the hallway.
This sense of terror and dread
just came over me.
This dread just kept increasing
the closer I got to the car.
[panting]
The car had flipped over on to its roof.
The car just started spinning
and there's no way that it could've been doing that.
It was just spinning around, and around, and around.
Almost as if somebody had taken their finger
and flicked the front of the car.
It wasn't explainable.
It just drained the blood from my body.
I just felt ice cold.
I had this pit in the bottom of my stomach
and just this fear that I haven't felt before.
I quickly reached down,
grabbed the car,
ran as fast as I could
back down the hallway.
I curled up into a little tiny ball.
My heart is pounding, I'm out of breath,
and I just want to go home.
I just want to go to some place safe.
[eerie music playing]
[Gord] That's when I saw
the first glimpse of a shadow.
[eerie music playing]
It just didn't make sense why a shadow would be
where it was.
It was just there, watching me,
almost like it wanted me to keep playing
with the cars.
[eerie music playing]
[Gord] I just froze.
I knew my parents were in the room next door,
but I couldn't get to them.
I tried to scream,
but it was as if there was no air in my lungs.
It was a face that I will
- never forget. - [laughs]
[Gord] And there was just this big smile on his face.
Almost like a crazy, happy smile.
The arms and the body were in a straitjacket.
It was moving towards me.
This was not my imagination.
This was a ghost.
[eerie music playing]
- Hi. - [screams]
[Gord] It was the most terrifying thing
that I've ever experienced.
[dramatic music playing]
My parents came out of the room.
I instantly jumped up,
and I ran over to my mother,
and gave her a huge hug.
What's the matter, sweetie?
[dramatic music playing]
I could see the shadowy figure still down
at the end of the hall.
What is that?
Do you see anything at the end of the hallway?
[Gord] My mom said she didn't see anything.
No.
Gord, we're here now.
- What is it? - What is it?
I was playing with my cars,
and then it started going by itself, and...
[Gord] I began to tell
what had happened to my mom and dad.
And then I saw a man in a straitjacket...
[Gord] They didn't believe me.
They thought it must have just been in my imagination.
- We're here now, okay? - [woman] All right.
We're ready for you now. Come on.
[Gord] But I know what I saw that day.
[Morgan] Psychiatric hospitals are often hotspots
for the paranormal, often because emotionally,
emotions are just raging.
You've got the ups, you've got the downs,
you got the highs, you got the lows,
and wherever this emotional activity,
you get paranormal activity as well.
And I think what was going on in this particular case
was that we had an entity that was trying to relate
to Gord on a very child-like level.
And this can be quite common when it comes to children
and paranormal experiences.
[narrator] Six years later,
Gordon McLean is looking through a history book
in his high school highway.
As the years went on,
I kind of didn't really forget about what happened,
but I thought that was the end of it.
It wasn't until grade nine history,
where we were studying the First World War,
that I was instantly transported
right back into that hallway, curled up,
watching that figure at the end of the hall.
[eerie music playing]
[Gord] It was a picture of a soldier
from the First World War,
from the Battle of Passchendaele,
where the caption underneath
was unidentified soldier suffering from shellshock.
And he had the same eyes
and that same smile that I saw.
The face was the same.
That psychiatric hospital did take in
a lot of World War I veterans
that did suffer from
what we now call PTSD.
I think that maybe...
the ghost was a soldier
from the First World War
that unfortunately got put into the hospital.
I haven't really told this story to too many people,
it's not, uh, a story that I'm telling
for adventure or fame, or anything like that.
It's something that happened and I'm telling it
just because it's a story that needs to get told.
This incident has made me realize
that we're not alone
and there are things that we can't explain.
This isn't just my imagination running wild.
There were too many things that I saw or I heard,
from the clapping to seeing the car
spinning on the hood.
If it was one thing,
maybe I could write it off to just being my imagination,
but when you stack all the evidence together,
it adds up to something that doesn't make sense,
something that shouldn't be, but was.
I am so very skeptical of some stories
and some things can be explained away,
but this is one story that I can't explain.
So, do I think that ghosts exist?
Yes, they do.
[eerie music playing]
Just leave me alone.
[eerie music playing]
[narrator] It's 2016,
Author Kitty Janusz
is about to undergo a risky operation.
[Kitty] I had to go in for
what is a very difficult surgery.
I had both knees replaced at the same time.
[doctor] Nurse, let's get started.
Don't worry, it's going to be fine.
[Kitty] It was a terrifying surgery.
Essentially, they cut your legs off
and reattach them.
They slice your leg open,
they remove the knee, then they...
So you back up.
It's not for the faint of heart.
[dramatic music playing]
Hi, there. How are you feeling?
Tired. Really tired.
I promise, I will be out here soon, okay?
I was excited to be out of surgery.
Looked down to see I still had both legs on.
They put ice packs on your knees,
which are run through hoses that go into coolers
so it's circulating ice water around your knees.
I can't move, I can't walk.
I'm in a very vulnerable state,
just lying in this bed,
looking at my legs.
[dramatic music playing]
[Kitty] I didn't realize, mentally,
how vulnerable it was going to make me.
[indistinct ghostly chatter]
[Kitty] I heard voices in the room with me.
I couldn't tell what they were saying.
[eerie music playing]
[Kitty] Then I see these two girls.
At first, I thought they're real humans,
some visitors who had been in the room.
[eerie music playing]
Then I noticed I could see through them.
I'm looking directly at them
and they're looking back at me.
Last step, the night nurse will be here shortly
to check up on you.
[Kitty] The nurse didn't see them.
[eerie music playing]
[Kitty] Every time I get that visual
of those two girls...
[indistinct whisper]
...I still get the chills
every time I think of those two girls.
What do you want from me?
[Kitty] I'm looking at their faces.
They look really, really angry.
They are not just looking at me,
they are glaring at me.
As I'm looking at these girls,
I'm trying to figure out
why they would be so upset of my presence.
They weren't upset of the nurse's presence.
They were upset that I was there.
And I can only imagine that they were upset
by the fact that I saw them.
[eerie music playing]
[Kitty] Never before had...
I had the urge to run
and never before had I had the inability to move.
I felt so trapped within my mind
and in my body as I lay there in the bed.
And it was terrifying.
These two girls...
turned to each other and spoke.
I heard no voices coming from their lips.
[indistinct whisper]
[eerie music playing]
[Kitty] And I knew at that point,
they were talking about me.
And I could only imagine
what they were thinking about doing to me
and to this... I'm just getting the chills again
because it was the creepiest thing
that I've ever seen.
Leave me alone.
[indistinct whisper]
Just leave me alone!
They just completely vanished.
I was feeling so vulnerable after the surgery,
and to think of it now,
my heart still races.
Kitty talks about two aggressive entities
that she sees,
that appeared to her as sisters,
but she inherently knows
that something's not right with them,
that this is an evil force
or something that's negative.
This is likely a negative entity
that was feeling territorial over its base.
Kitty wouldn't leave,
which was ultimately gonna cause a problem.
[knocks on door]
Hi. Kitty?
Is it all right if I come in?
I had to get some answer, so I waited
until the night nurse came in.
Yes, please do.
I have a strange question to ask.
Sure. How can I help?
Has anyone ever complained about this room?
[Kitty] I did not tell him anything
that I had seen or encountered.
Well...
we get patients complained about...
ghost children.
[Kitty] He says, "We always get patients
who say there's children in that room,
standing, just staring at them."
Like little girls?
[nurse] Yeah, something like that.
[Kitty] There was no way I was gonna get any sleep...
between staring at that corner,
staring at the door,
wondering what might be coming in.
As the night progressed,
I didn't see the girls anymore.
But I'm just staring at that empty corner
where those two girls had been.
Feeling the walls close in on me.
I wanted to get out so bad.
[eerie music playing]
Are you all right?
You don't look like you slept a wink.
I need to get out of this room.
[nurse] Well, I have good news.
I'm here to move you from the recovery wing
- and into your new room. - [exhales]
[Kitty] I was so relieved to get out of that room.
I thought, "Finally,
I'm gonna go to a place where I can heal
and I can get some rest,"
because I hadn't slept a wink.
[man] Dr. Hannigan, call on line one,
Dr. Hannigan.
[eerie music playing]
[indistinct ghostly chatter]
[Kitty] And I thought at that point
I was finally gonna get some peace.
I wasn't gonna get any peace.
[indistinct ghostly chatter]
Because that's when I started hearing the voices.
These voices were in the room.
I think I was able to distinguish
at least 10 different voices.
And as I'm just laying there, listening to these voices
going back and forth,
the light started flickering.
[woman screams]
But now I see the shadows.
These are shadow figures within the room.
[growling and whispering]
My heart's racing right now.
[growling and whispering]
I call for the angels.
[Kitty] And in my own exhaustion,
I just... I called forth the universe,
I called forth angels.
Please help these tortured souls.
I need this to stop now.
I need you guys to just go home.
[growling]
Please help them just get home.
Please guide them to the light.
[faint screaming]
[exhales sharply]
And they finally just stopped.
I stopped hearing the voices
and I stopped seeing the shadow figures.
[sighing]
She very clearly and very definitively
told the spirit she'd had enough,
and that active dominance, that assertion
was enough to get the entity to back off.
So in this case, she was really fortunate.
If it had have been left, however,
and this had have continued,
then she likely would've end up injured.
[woman] [on radio] Dr. Hannigan, please come...
[narrator] Kitty spends five more days in the hospital
with no further paranormal experiences.
Even to this day, when I retell the story,
I remember those two girls
and I remember those shadow figures.
[woman] [on radio] Radiology, pick up line two.
[Kitty] Seeing those two evil little girls
standing in that corner, glaring at me, to realize
that there is still evil
on that other side of the vale,
that they do have the power to harm.
And you have to have really strong
personal boundaries,
dealing with the paranormal.
[eerie music playing]
[indistinct whisper]
[eerie music playing]