![]() Other phenomena in the buildings include rooms that appear lit even though there is no power to the building, doors that close by themselves, phantom voices, and even the scent of food cooking.Įven more strange, however, is the frequency at which strange occurrences are documented at the Sanatorium, and the extreme nature of those phenomena. Over the next twenty years, conditions worsened until, in 1982, Woodhaven was shut down by the state of Kentucky.Īctual sightings of apparitions range from phantom children running about in the third-floor solarium, a boy bouncing a ball who disappears before visitors’ eyes, and even an old woman, who is seen bleeding from the wrists screaming “Help me!” running from the front door before vanishing. Patients were administered shock treatment unnecessarily, often times with the death of the patient. ![]() Patient abuse was rampant, with conditions turning rapidly squalid. Where the doctors of Waverly Hills were sincere, if not misguided, in their attempts to heal, many accounts place the employees of Woodhaven at the opposite end of the spectrum. Less than a year later, the hospital was reopened as the Woodhaven Geriatrics. Within twenty years, cases of Tuberculosis dwindled until there was no longer a need for the treatment at Waverly Hills, and the hospital was shut down in 1961. ![]() Such a sight would lower their spirits, they reasoned, and impede the recovery process.īy 1943, an effective treatment was discovered in the form of an antibiotic called Streptomycin, which is still in use today. However, the doctors did not want the patients to see just how many bodies were leaving the building, or how many times a day the hearses came. This “body chute” was used originally as an entrance for employees and for delivering groceries. So high was the mortality rate that doctors began disposing of bodies by way of a rail-driven tunnel that emerged on the far side of the building. More than ten thousand people suffered their last breaths within the walls of the sanatorium, many of them children. Common belief was held that fresh air was beneficial to those suffering from Tuberculosis, so patients were left outside in the open air, even during bitter winter and during snowstorms, to let their lungs "heal." The treatments, however, had a poor success rate. Balloons were inserted into the lungs to try to reinflate past the scarring and degradation of the cells. New techniques in treatment were attempted, including removing up to seven ribs surgically in the hopes that a patient’s lungs would inflate to fill the space. In 1926, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened its doors, often admitting entire families stricken with the disease. The state donated lands and nearly eleven million dollars for the construction of a new facility that could accommodate the nearly one hundred-thirty cases that begged for entry at the hospital. It soon became apparent, however, that such a place was inadequate. Those affected by the disease were sent to a hospital on Waverly Hill in 1910, a two-story facility with only forty beds. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky, had more than its share of victims of the “white plague,” which was also known as “consumption.” This condition, now called Tuberculosis, was quite contagious and had no known cure. Visitors feel Caron’s hand at their backs, and the buildings earn the dubious distinction of being haunted. In those places, where death was slow and painful and hope dwindled, the memories remain embedded in the brick, staining the tiles and scarring the hallway. ![]() New treatments were tried that, by today’s standards, were barbaric in nature, all in the vain hope of staving off the Reaper’s hand. ![]() However, some plagues were so dangerous that special facilities were built in which the dying could be shut away and cared for in their final days, hoping for a miracle cure that often did not come. By doing so, they exercised some control over the spread plagues. Before the discovery of many medicines, those infirmed were often shut away, out of site of those who were healthy. People have an instinctive aversion to death and disease. ![]()
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