"The Man in the Blue Shirt"

"The Man in the Blue Shirt"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

While doing my rotation in the San Lazaro Hospital I experienced something that I still remember to this day.

I was assigned in the ward , which one escapes me at the moment. I was asked to stay in an examination room that held a single bed in front of the Nurses station. I was busy doing ward work like inserting IV's and updating charts. This room is where the Junior Interns would stay if they were on 24 hours duty.It had to do with the room next door which is the busiest ward room on this floor due to the constant flow of patients.

It was around 7:30pm when I felt hungry so I went to the nurse station and told the nurse on duty that I would just go out for a quick bite. When I returned to the ward I noticed that ahead of me was a bald man in a light blue shirt. The man passed in front of the nurse station and turned left to the room that was assigned to me.I was thinking that this man might have come back for an abstract or an inquiry about something. I waved to the nurse and turned to the room. There was no one there.

I hurriedly walked out because I already knew what it was but still seeking a rational explanation. I asked the nurse if she saw the man in blue. She saw no one.

Thinking that it was an evening visitor for one of the patients I went to the ward room that was right next to mine. There was no one in blue in the room. No one was bald. Most of them were female. The hospital is room of these walking spirits. Needless to say. The nurse on duty was not surprised to see me slumbering away in their station until the morning.