Local History
M
Tammy's ghost seen by fellow employees
For several years prior to my retiring, Muhlenberg Community Hospital had a history of certain personnel seeing the apparition of a past employee there in the hospital. These sightings always occurred prior to the death of a patient who was known by all the employees. The apparition that we saw belonged to an employee who had died suddenly and quite unexpectedly. Her given name was Tammy, and she was a nurse in the Long-Term Care Unit of the hospital.
Tammy was known to have a preexisting heart condition. She often came to work quite ill and would then have to leave and return the next day. She always called in when she had to miss her shift due to illness. One day, when she failed to get to work, the nursing supervisor sent someone to Tammy's home to check on her. They found her body, thus indicating that she had died in her sleep, alone, with no one to aid her. About a month passed, then the sightings of Tammy began at the hospital.
She was frequently seen in the area between O.R. and Intensive Care, always when a patient was in the process of dying. One sighting was so clear to the viewer that facial details were observed. Tammy was always wearing her uniform that she had worn to work prior to her death. Her presence was never threatening. Instead, it gave a sense of peace and caring.
On a few occasions, she was present in the elevator with me and the night nursing supervisor. It was as if she were present to comfort the hospital personnel as much as the dying patient.
Not long after she was seen, Tammy would disappear. Even those persons who never actually saw her could always sense her presence. Many employees would not let you talk about the sightings and would panic when they felt any sense of difference in the surroundings.
The night nursing supervisor and I would often talk about Tammy as if she were there with us. We knew that she would soon appear because we were keeping vigil with a dying patient.
I don't know if anyone has seen her apparition since the night supervisor and I both retired. And, by the way, the night supervisor has since died.
Note: Told by Paula W. Atkins, Greenville, June 20, 1999.
Source: Montell, W.L. “Tammy's ghost seen by fellow employees.” Ghosts Across Kentucky. Lexington, KY: UP of Kentucky, 2000, p. 38.
Updated July 13, 2022