St. Michael’s hospital opened at its current site in 1892 in a Baptist church which had been converted into a women’s boarding house by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The hospital opened with 26 beds, six doctors and five nurses. In 1892 the Sisters opened the first catholic nursing school in Canada and in 1910 the hospital became formally affiliated with the University of Toronto faculty of medicine. Many Canadian “Firsts” took place during the hospitals first century including the first blood transfusion (1917), the most successful Canadian heart transplant (1968), the first muscle translate in North America (1973) and the world’s first sciatic nerve transplant (1988). In addition, numerous medical procedures and technological innovations were developed at the hospital. By its centenary in 1992, St. Michael’s Hospital, still owned by the Sisters of St. Joseph, had become a 500 bed tertiary care hospital. (Toronto Historical Board, 1992)
Not only does this hospital have a rich history in the everyday it also has a rich history of ghostly encounters throughout the years. These are several stories from various sources.
1999-Anonymous
A staff member from the IT department was working alone one Saturday, replacing a computer in the Medical MediaCentre. At that time most of the wing was padlocked and moth balled (it was previously an ICU for many years), so he knew that he was alone. As he was leaving, he realized that he had left something behind so he went back to where he had been working. As the employee started to pickup the forgotten n item, he heard papers rustling loudly behind him. He turned to see what the noise was and, as he did, something walked through him; it gave him huge goose pimples and sucked the breath out of him. The experience gave the employee a scare and he left as fast as he could. Afterwards, the employee was talking to a member of the cleaning staff who relayed a similar experience; one day she was watering a plant in that office when it began to move and shake vigorously. Prior to this experience the employee had no opinion of whether ghosts and spirit sexist, but now he is convinced. He has never gone back to that area of the hospital by himself again.
2010
This happened a few years ago in MSICU. We were expecting an admission and, in the process of preparing the bed, got the cardiac monitor to go on standby mode. No sooner than this was done, the sounds of a heart beat emanated from it, audible for all working around to hear. This spooked the RN enough to change the spot. I suspected that the monitor had some sort of recording device installed in it, and assumed that the sounds were a result of it malfunctioning. However, I discovered that I was wrong when I bumped into engineering one evening when they came into fix another monitor. I was told that one should not hear the sounds of a heart rhythm unless the monitor Is hooked up to a patient or a simulator.
About three years ago on an overnight shift, working as a porter, I took a break in the 4CCMSICU/CVICU waiting room. I had just finished a morgue call by myself and couldn’t help but reminisce about a ghost story that a friend had recounted to me earlier in the week. I was a little freaked out and wanted to calm myself down. So I turned on the television to take my mind elsewhere. Alone in the room, all the doors shut and lights off except for the TV, I took a seat to relax. Within moments the kitchen sink was on full blast and I froze. There was nobody else in there who could have turned it on. I couldn’t move for a while and was just in shock until I calmed myself down. About ten minutes later I finally was able to get up and remove myself from the room. I turned off the TV and on my way out physically turned off the tap, which was on full blast that whole time. I forget which temperature it was, hot or cold, but that was my one erie experience working at the hospital.
There are many ghost stories from St. Michael’s hospital but perhaps one on the most relevant to this cache is on that is more kind in nature, it is probably the best known also: the ghost is Sister Vincenza, who worked at the Hospital for 28 years as Nursing Supervisor of Obstetrics. She had a reputation for being intimidating, but also for caring deeply about her patients. She passed away in 1958.
Beginning in 1965, Sister Vinnie has been “seen” by numerous St.Michael’s staff and patients. She is known to place blankets on new moms, rearrange medication carts, and turn lights on and off.
She is usually seen faceless, dressed all in white.
Please feel free to Google search for more interesting ghosts stories of various kinds and the Sisters of St. Joseph and the building are beside.
This Cache is a Camo’d Lock-n-Lock Container approximately 180cc, it should be east to find and the perhaps after you can enjoy a lunch in the park nearby or check out the churches in that area to check out their beauty and perhaps if you are lucky to be in the area at the right time you will hear the beautiful church bells ringing.
There is a small reward for the FTF. I hope you enjoy my first hide.
Please place back exactly where it was found. Congrats to MAGnitude2.1 for FTF!