The Haunting In Children's Ward

I was a student nurse at Ermelo hospital in the early 80's and we had to do both night duty and day duty in different wards. I was allocated to do night duty in the children's ward, on the same level as the female ward.

Doing night duty in the children's ward, you work all by yourself, unless there are so many children that they will send someone to help you out. I heard so many stories about the children's ward, but at that time I did not believe in ghosts. I actually have two stories to tell about this ward, but will only write about the one for now.

I came on duty that night with only 5 little patients to look after. They were all young and because they were kids, they tend to go to sleep earlier than the adults. I did my rounds after hand-over time and went to check on each child. We had 5 cubicles each with two beds or cots in it, then there was the 6th cubicle with 6 beds in it. That cubicle was hardly used. All had glass partitions so you could see right to the back when you sit in the duty room.

The 1st cubicle had two young boys in it, the 2nd cubicle had a cot in it with a baby in it. The 3rd cubicle was empty, as the patients in there were discharged during the day and the 4th cubicle had two girls in it.

One or two doctors came to do rounds and I escourted them, but there were no new orders and they were satisfied with their patients. After night sister came to help me with the meds, seeing I was not allowed to hand out the meds myself yet, I gave the children their meds and it was not very long when they all went to sleep. Just now and then the baby in the cot was a bit restless, but otherwise they all slept well. I went to the duty room to write my reports after the doctors came and did rounds earlier.

Round about 02:00 am, I received a call from a doctor, saying he is sending a boy in for observation. He gave me the orders and said he will see the child in the morning. If something happens, then I must just phone him. I let night sister know and she came up to help me with the admission. Right from the start, I saw that this little chubby cheeks boy did not like the idea of being in a hospital. It was policy that the parents were not allowed to stay with their children, unless they are very ill. So the night sister spoke nicely to them that they can stay a bit, but they must leave. They saw that I was working with their child in a nice manner and decided to leave the child in my care. Sister stayed a bit after the administration of the meds to see if it will calm the boy down, as he was scream-crying at times.

Night sister left a while later with a message that I must phone her later on if the meds did not kick in yet. She will then phone the doctor. She just laughed at me and said, "Nursie, I think you have a live wire here! Maybe I will ask the nurse in female ward to come and relieve you later, if he does not chill down." Sister left and I was left with this unhappy chubby boy.

I took a chair next to his cot and I thought all that will help might be some singing, so I started to sing softly to this red curly head chubby boy. He sort of relaxed a bit, but as soon as I stopped, he moaned again. I spoke softly to him so not to disturb the other kids. I could sense the medicine was busy kicking in as he got slower and softer. The nurse from the female ward came to chat with me and did my rounds for me and said all of the others are sleeping, I must just call her if she needs to take over.

I must have sat there for about 20 minutes, when he sort of started to calm down a bit. I kept on singing to him. I felt someone at the back of me - I'm sitting with my back to the door - and assumed it was the female ward nurse again and started chatting to her. All of a sudden, this little boy jumped up in the cot, moved to the feet end and held up his arms and made baby gurgling noises like it was his mom coming in. I sat there, looking at this happen right in front of my eyes... The baby moved to the right hand corner of the cot, following something. My hair was standing up and I had chills all over... I realised that I was not alone in that room with that child. Something was there!

I got up and ran out of the room as fast as my legs could carry me, right to the duty room of the female ward... The two sat there and they looked at me. The junior nurse said, "Wow, did you see a ghost or something? You are very pale!" I could not speak for a while... Eventually I got the courage to say something. Those nurses got up and walked with me to the child's cubicle, after I told them what just happened. And lying in the bed, covered with his blanket, this baby was lying, sucking his thumb, fast asleep...

They both looked at me, then at the baby then ran back. I stood there and I could feel no presence in the room any longer. Then I remembered the stories of the children's ward that I heard. There was once a very sick baby and the baby died and the mother could not come to terms with the death of her child and committed suicide. She is claimed to roam the ward, looking for her baby. The other is of a young boy of 6 who went for an operation, but died of complications and is often heard asking water from the nurses. I believe it must have been that mother that came and helped me to put the baby to sleep.