This is my first time writing on here. This has to do with me working the night shift at a nursing home. There are a few stories that I have that I still cannot explain.
There are 3 floors in the Assisted Living area of the nursing home. PC (personal care) where all the patients needed full care, being helped with bathing and dressing, and then there was an assisted living area where only a few residents would need help.
The first story I am going to share was when I was working in the PC unit. I was folding the clothes to put them away when I heard a distinct call for help. It sounded exactly like one of my patients that needed full care. I heard her screaming help. I walked down to her room and she was fast asleep snoring away. So I brushed it off. A few minutes later I was folding clothes again, and I heard the same exact scream for help. I went to investigate but once again the resident was sleeping. I once again brushed it off as if I was hearing things. Once again I started to fold clothes and I heard it as if it were right next to my ear. I ran out of there and would not go back unless I had a co-worker with me. I still to this day do not know why she was calling for help, but she was asleep during this time. A few weeks later she was admitted into Long Term Living due to falling out of her wheel chair screaming for help for a half hour before someone heard her.
I have also seen shadows walking the halls in that unit as well, and hear walkers going up and down the halls.
Another story I have is in the same unit, an older gentlemen was always talking to himself in the room stating he was talking to an old friend, when nobody would be in the room. He would have conversations with himself about the old milling factory he worked at in his younger days. One night he woke up in a panic saying that there was a man in his room that kept waking him up. I told him that there was nobody there and that he needed to go back to bed. He was in a panic and would not return to his bedroom so a co-worker and I went to see what was going on. When we entered the room the lights started to flicker. I then started to believe him and had to wake up his wife on a different floor to calm him down and go back to bed.
This story happens on "First floor". It is part of assisted living. There was a gentleman who passed away a few weeks before I started to work there. He would go out nightly between 12:30 and 1am to go for a cigarette. He would use the elevator to go down to the smoking area right outside of "Lower Level". Now a little back story to the elevator it "dings" every time you press a button, like when you are opening a door or when the door opens it makes this dinging sound. EVERY time! Well after he passed we used to see his call bell go off and light up almost nightly. That stopped after another resident was living in that room. But every single night between 12:30 and 1:00 am we would see the elevator door open and close without making a sound, it would just open and close exactly 15 minutes later it would come back up to first floor and open and shut again without making a single sound. We all would just tell Larry to enjoy his smoke and when he returned we would welcome him back.
I no longer work there but friends of mine that do work there still tell me about Larry going for his nightly smoke and the shadows that roam the hall ways and the lights flickering.
I know this is a long story and I appreciate you taking the time to read this for me. I just wanted to share a few experiences that I've had and see if anyone can explain why I was hearing a plea for help and why Larry is still going for his nightly smokes.
Thank you very much for reading this
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There are many people there suffering and slowly, crewly dying with dementia. They constantly yell out asking for help but when you go and speak to them they give you blank stares and say nothing. As soon as you leave the room they start again.
At the moment there are 2 in particular that have the same conversations day and night. It seems that they are re-living some pivotal moments in their life. I can confirm this because one of them is a relative of my stepmother and I get that confirmation first hand. The interesting thing about these 2 cases Is that as I said their verbal and physical behaviours seem to be on a loop, constantly recycling themselves and they are ALWAYS staring into the right hand corner of the ceiling when this is going on, ALWAYS.
From my minimal research this is lewy body dementia that is categorised by auditory and visual hallucination. In the recent past this could only be determined after death at autopsy where brain samples would show the presence of the lewy body.
This is what health care workers and the families of these tortured souls deal with. Your tax payer dollars go toward the care of these people too. These people led productive lives, had families, lived and loved, had dreams, fought in wars, welcomed grand children and great grand children into this world.
So please take time out to treat everyone with dignity and respect regardless of how they may be now. They have contributed in some way to your way of life.
And get ready for the next influx or dementia with the aging of the generation below mine that have done a lot of heavy drugs and already have severe to mild cognative problems. The level of dementia is set to explode expedentialy in the next 30 years.
I am not per say a "religious " person but a great quote now comes to mind " in god we trust."