Mike Epp was no stranger to an ambulance. As an EMT, he often walked patients through the Emergency Room doors to the doctors. But when he was the one on the gurney, he realized just how true the old adage of “medical professionals make the worst patients” really was. Frightened and in the ICU with kidney failure, he had no idea how strange things were about to get.
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Priscilla Thompson’s stepfather, Daryl, was brought in after a massive stroke. They began working on him as soon as he arrived, and didn’t think he’d make it through the night. Her daughter, Tonya, arrived and began comforting her mother while they kept watch. Nobody expected him to suddenly wake in the middle of the night and begin wrestling with an invisible foe.
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Hospital IT technician Courtney McFate was repairing a computer in one of the operating rooms when the heart monitor in the room suddenly began beeping. There was nothing hooked up to it. Those machines only worked like that if a person was hooked up to the electrodes. What on earth was going on?
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Just as suddenly as the heart monitor had started, it went silent. A tray of surgical tools behind Courtney began rattling. Desperate to finish work on the computer and get out of there, she tried to focus. Something made her turn around, bringing her face-to-face with a black mist that quickly shot up into the ceiling.
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In the ICU, Mike Epp saw this dark shadow out of the corner of his eye. It was like a ghost, but not white. Mike didn’t know what it was, but he knew it was going somewhere. It was looking for someone.
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Tonya Thompson went to check on Daryl. As she walked in, she heard strange whispers. Daryl woke, and began another round of his fight with the invisible enemy. He began yelling for a bat. His pulse was racing, to a point where Priscilla didn’t think the machine could keep up. Something was in that room, and it was out for Daryl.
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Courtney bolted out of the operating room as soon as the computer was fixed. She went back down the desolate corridor to her office, stopping when she began to get an eerie feeling from right behind her. Terrified, she turned to face the mist again. She ran, not stopping until her cell phone rang. When she looked up, she was in front of the morgue. There was a woman, looking down at her own body on the morgue gurney. Courtney bolted.
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Psychiatric orderly Ron Koval arrived at about 6:35 for work. He ran into Mark, his favorite patient. The two went outside to have a smoke. While he was standing there, Ron was attacked by the black mist. It felt like something was grabbing his heart in a vise. He was dying. The pain suddenly stopped. When Ron turned to go back inside, Mark wasn’t there. Ron assumed Mark had gone to get help, as Mark’s cigarette was still smoldering on the ground.
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Ron was called in by one of the night shift to help with a patient who’d passed away from a heart attack that morning at 6:30. He was shocked when he saw that the body was Mark’s. Ron struggled to understand what he’d experienced, even consulting the hospital’s resident priest. The priest told Ron that he’d experienced the Angel of Death. Ron had experienced Mark’s pain. Ron had shared a cigarette with Mark’s spirit.
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Daryl’s body began deteriorating. The hospital called in hospice nurse Vickie Durst. Vickie sent Priscilla to get some rest while she sat vigil. Daryl began fighting off something again. Vickie knew he was struggling with something, and tried to give him some pain medication. It didn’t help. Vickie got chills, and the atmosphere changed in the room. There was a shadow there, and it was dark.
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Daryl began wrestling with something, trying to get it off of him. Vickie thought he was in pain, and gave him another dose of pain meds. Instead of calming down, his thrashing became more violent. Frightened, Vickie got out her Bible and began to pray for both of them. Can’t hurt, right? When Priscilla returned the next day, Vickie told her she’d never seen anything like the torment Daryl was enduring.
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Mike Epp was still in ICU when he was suddenly unable to breathe. He buzzed the nurse with everything he had, but the only answer was a dark, black figure. Mike knew it was going to take him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a little girl. The dark figure slowly left. Mike began hitting himself in the chest, finally coughing up a blood clot. The girl had saved his life. The next day, Mike told his wife about the little girl.
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When Priscilla and Tonya arrived the next day, Daryl had passed away. He had been looking at the door to the room, and Priscilla knew something had come to get him. All of the torment and pain they’d experienced was gone. For the first time, they could exhale. Unable to take the death with her in her work, Vickie went to her car and cried. She had never seen anything like what had happened to Daryl.
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Mike’s kidneys re-started, and he was finally discharged. As Jeannie was driving them home, Mike saw the little girl again. This time, he remembered her. He’d been on the 911 call five years previous where she’d passed away before the ambulance could get to her. Mike knew she’d been sent to be his guardian angel.
