Claimed to be one of the most haunted abandoned hospitals in the world, Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Louisville, Kentucky used to be a site for the Tuberculoses epidemic back in the early 1900’s.
Tuberculoses or “TB” is a bacteria which attacks and causes tumors in the lungs causing them to bleed. If not treated properly it would be fatal as a person was said to die every other minute back at the height of the disease. An urban myth suggests that more than 60,000 deaths occurred at Waverly Hills, but these accounts have been shot down and believe it or not I could not get a straight answer of how many people died, so it’s no wonder that even after the Sanitarium closed it’s doors in 1980 that the spirits of former patients are still lurking in the shadows of what was once their home.Patients were given proper treatment for their condition: plenty of rest and fresh air in an open air room; diets, good nutrition, sun treatment or Heliotherapy was used as the sun rays kill bacteria and clean infection. There was also another treatment called Pneumothorax, where a doctor would take out up to eight ribs to cause the lungs to deflate giving that part of the lung to heal. At one point the hospital held more at least 400 patients, but after a cure was found in 1961, the hospital was shut down to be quarantined, it opened in 1962 as a medical services building, and then closed for good in 1980, but did it really?
Disembodied voices, shadow people, doppelganger(“double goer” in German), and of course the Creeper. All of these spiritual occurrences are a common thing in Waverly Hills, but there’s also the Body Shute:
Ever since it’s closure the screams of past victims can still be heard from the depths of the building and the spirits of children invite the living to play with them. Of a little girl on the third floor who likes to play games, her favorite is hide and seek. Then, there’s the gruesome stories such a woman frantically screaming with her wrists cut and blood coming out of the wounds, screaming for mercy and help. Satanic rituals are said to have taken place within these walls; did those rituals leave behind the Waverly Hills icon, “The Creeper?”
There is another notorious figure in the building and that is of a nurse of Room 502 who committed suicide due to she was ashamed of the fact that she was pregnant before she even got married, which was intolerable in those days, said to be 1928. A worker came in and when the elevator doors opened he was met by a horrific site of the bleeding nurse who hung herself. It was said to look like “an abortion gone bad”, but the nurse stayed behind maybe searching for her unborn baby out of shame?
The Creeper, an unknown spirit, some who say isn’t even a human spirit, is said to crawl on the floor from room to room, and even on the ceiling. It’s a black spirit who is said to be demonic and dark. If Waverly Hills hasn’t scared you yet, how about this? There is also doppelganger, which in German means “Double goer”, and what this is, is it’s said to be a double spirit of yourself, and if you see yourself you’re suppose to die.
Is it just a horror story to scare the kiddies? Go find out for yourself. But most people will tell you that if death has an address, it is Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
Sources:
www.underworldtales.com
Ghost Adventures/Season 4/Episode: Waverly Hills Sanitarium-October 8th, 2010
James Paradie is a paranormal columnist as well as a paranormal investigator who has been featured on such websites as: paranormalnews.com and mostlyghosts.com. He will also be a featured contributor to Unexplained Paranormal Magazine.
