The Dangerous Medical Student Prank 2

I already created here an article concerning medical student prank. And now I found another Philippine urban legend. This time I am very sure where the story started to spread.

I included in the previous article a foreign version - the Baughman version. Actually our's is completely similar to it.

Legend

I'll present first the foreign version.

[Baughman, 1945:]

Foreign Version[2]

This story took place in a hospital which was quite near Bowell, and concerned a nurse, called Jane in the story. For some reason Jane was unable to get along with the other nurses in the hospital, and was constantly quarreling with people. They purposely did things to annoy her because they felt she deserved it. One night after Jane had been particularly trying, they decided to do something particularly unpleasant. One of the nurses on surgery duty agreed to bring an arm which had been amputated that day to Jane's room and slip it in her bed after she was asleep. They knew this would frighten her, but they thought perhaps it might force her to be more agreeable in the future. The arm was carefully and quietly put in the bed and Jane did not wake up. The next morning she did not appear, and no sound came from her room. The nurses, thinking she might be sick, went to investigate. They opened the door slowly and saw Jane sitting on the bed. Her hair, which had been black, was now completely white, and she was gnawing on the arm, making low gurgling noises all the while.

Here's our own tale:[1]

A group of medical students were bored and so they tried to think of ways of livening things up. Eventually one had the idea of "borrowing" a human foot from the dissecting laboratory and putting it in his girlfriend's bed as a joke. She was also a medical student staying at the same hall of residence. The students "obtained" a human foot, went up to the girl's room and put it in her bed. They thought it would be fun to hear her reactions so they hid around the corner and waited for her to come home. The student who had the key realized that he had left it in the door. However, before he could remove it the girl arrived back and, not thinking, unlocked the door with the key that was in the lock, took it in with her and locked the door on the other side. A few moments later they heard her screaming and crying out. They ran to the door and tried to open it but it was locked. They shouted to her that it was alright but she continued screaming hysterically. At this point they decided to break down the door. However, it took them a while and they were relieved when the screaming subsided. Finally, when they broke in and turned on the lights, they were horrified at what they found. The girl was sitting in the corner of the room with a glazed expression on her face eating the human foot. The practical joke had backfired and they had driven her mad.

Information

As you notice both are identical. They share the same genre and even the way how those medical students put the victim in madness. However, for me ours is much unfortunate. If it really happened, I wanted to know what the boyfriend did next. I wanted to see his remorse after what he and his buddies did.

Anyway, I just thought, the victim is also a medical student. Right? Then why is she very scared seeing a piece of human cadaver if she, herself, as a med used to dissect human body. If it really did happen, then probably there's something wrong with her. Or maybe, in a paranormal perspective, she saw something inside aside from the cut human foot. Or in a believable side, the girlfriend is still a freshman, when they are not yet used to handle corpses.

According to Snope.com[2]:

'Undoubtedly, some of these stories are true and the events as described did indeed happen at least a couple of times. However, it should be pointed out that most of these stories have long since passed into the realm of lore, with each new class of medical students being told this prank or that was played out right in this very medical school just last term.'

I agree, the said urban legend possibly happened in real life, especially the prank isn't that hard to do. Then just spread to the public acting like a kwentong barbero.

Sources:
[1] True Philippine Ghost Stories Book 4. 2004. Gianna Maniego et al. PSICOM Publishing Inc. ISBN 971-8995-99-4
[2] http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/cadaver.asp
Image Source:
http://silhouettesm.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/bed-black-and-white-girl-window-favim-com-178300.jpg

The Dangerous Medical Student Prank

I am not a medical student, but I am aware that they use cadavers for their study. I don't know what they actually do with it, well except that they dissect it to have a hand with the human internal organ. I personally experienced dissecting a body, but of a frog not of a human, in my biology class, and it was disgusting. Thus, dissecting human body is 100 times more disgusting than of a frog.

Anyway, seeing a person frightened is sometimes funny. Girls are scared of cockroaches and spiders, or any other insects, and I sometimes enjoy seeing them run away from it. Bullies use phobias to intimidate other people.

I am actually a necrophobic and a claustrophobic. I really really don't like closed places because I feel I can't breathe, and I am very very scared seeing personally and in picture or even by just imagining corpses. I will definitely be driven crazy with those phobias. I'm scared of rat, but its not as extreme as that of my phobias.

I can relate on the legend were about to discuss, because, like the main character in the story, I can be deranged with corpses.

In my estimate, the story circulated in the midst of 1990's. But according to my professor, this legend is actually true. The students in the story studies somewhere in Manila. Obviously, the school must have a hospital and/or medical course. However, as I researched everything about it, I found an article with prank closely similar to the Philippine medical student prank. The only difference is, how the prankster did the prank.

Legend

[Taken from Internet:[1]] Philippine Version

A group of medical students decided to play a harmless prank on their easily-frightened classmate. They planned a special study session to be held in the cadaver room with their intended victim. When the girl arrived for the session and found no one in the cadaver room, she thought she was too early and decided to read her notes. The rest of her group mates were actually hiding and they switched the lights off. The girl screamed and screamed to no avail and then she stopped. After a while the pranksters began to wonder what happened. Upon turning the lights on, they were shocked to see their hapless classmate gnawing on a piece of the cadaver.

It was afternoon, when a female nursing student took his lunch out alone. After finishing her meal, she went straight to her next subject in the school laboratory. The laboratory contains five dissecting tables with corpses on it. She arrived there alone. She thought it was too early, so she took her book, seated in one side and read their lesson. She heard a deep sigh of someone else inside the room. She gave a look on her surrounding to identify if someone's with her, then she realized she was alone. A minute later, she heard the door lock clicked, as if it locked by itself. Then the lights turned on and off. Because of the lights turning on and off, the whole room became dim. She went to the door and forced it open. She saw something moving in her peripheral vision. She took a glance on it, and she saw one of the corpses seating in the dissecting table covered with the blanket. She was screaming very loud. On the other side of the door, her classmates were laughing. They didn't open the door until the girl stopped screaming. One of her classmates, who was playing as the corpse seating in the table, called the others. They opened the door and they switched the light on. And they found their classmate gnawing herself.

[Baughman, 1945:[2]] Foreign Version

This story took place in a hospital which was quite near Bowell, and concerned a nurse, called Jane in the story. For some reason Jane was unable to get along with the other nurses in the hospital, and was constantly quarreling with people. They purposely did things to annoy her because they felt she deserved it. One night after Jane had been particularly trying, they decided to do something particularly unpleasant. One of the nurses on surgery duty agreed to bring an arm which had been amputated that day to Jane's room and slip it in her bed after she was asleep. They knew this would frighten her, but they thought perhaps it might force her to be more agreeable in the future. The arm was carefully and quietly put in the bed and Jane did not wake up. The next morning she did not appear, and no sound came from her room. The nurses, thinking she might be sick, went to investigate. They opened the door slowly and saw Jane sitting on the bed. Her hair, which had been black, was now completely white, and she was gnawing on the arm, making low gurgling noises all the while.

Information

Both legends above have almost the same style of story.

In the Philippine version, the classmates of the main character organized a fake group study in the cadaver room. They turned off the light just to scare the student. After a minute of screaming, they switched on the light and they found their classmate chewing a cadaver.

In the second Philippine version, a group of student organized a prank to a lone classmate. In the end, similar to the first one, she was driven crazy and was found gnawing herself instead of a cadaver.

While in the foreign version, they bullied a nursing student by putting a decapitated hand of a cadaver and placed it with the student. It was morning when they found her gnawing the hand and her hair changed its color to white. Actually, I only included here one foreign legend because it was the oldest version of the said prank. The earlier stories have almost the same account compared to the Philippine version, but the difference is they just put a cut hand or leg of a corpse.

The second story is actually my reconstruction based on my interviews and from my friends. My version is completely scary if done in real life because someone played as a fake living/moving corpse.

Anyway, according to Snopes.com, the legend became well known back in 1920's. All of the legends of it have the same element of madness which is reserved to the female medical or nursing student.

However, there is doubt on the origin of the Philippine version because of their difference though both are pranks.

Last Updated: February 20, 2014

Sources
[1]http://spoonlagoon.blogspot.com/2008/10/pinoy-urban-legends-20.html
[2]http://www.snopes.com/horrors/gruesome/cadaver.asp
Image Source:
http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003252663/2420781652_girl20curled20up20in20a20ball20hiding_xlarge_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg

The Elevator Ghost

About

Many Filipinos believe in ghosts, and hospitals, being the place where there's always death, of course, they will think that a single hospital is home for hundreds of ghosts.

There was this text message which could be an example of ghost in hospitals. No one knows if it actually happened or not but, for sure, it was just for the sake of enjoyment. Yet, it created goosebumps to the readers.

It was my classmate who first told me this story. I can't forget the way she tells the legend. It really freaked me out.

I'm not sure if this urban legend only circulated here in the Philippines. The oldest version can be traced in 1990's. This story was told in many dialects but the Visayan made another version of this. In Metro Manila, the most known versions used the University of Sto. Tomas and the Makati Medical Center as the setting of it.

Story

[Taken from a text message:]

Once there was this nurse rushing faster going to the elevator. A child was running after her, that's why. Inside the elevator, a middle-aged man was standing, noticed the nurse looked frightened. Why do you look so pale and scared? He asked. Haven't you seen the little boy after me? The nurse replied. He is wearing a red tag bracelet on his right hand. If he is wearing a blue tag then he is alive, but he's wearing red, thus he is definitely dead. She continued. After she explains everything happened to her, the man raises his hands showing something, and suddenly says . . . Like this? The nurse because of horror, became insane.

---

[Taken from Internet:[1]]

A UST doctor decided to ride the elevator down to the hospital morgue. There was only one other passenger inside. Noticing a patient trying to catch the lift, the doctor immediately shut the door. The other passenger asked her why she refused to wait for the patient. She explained that the “patient” was wearing a red band on his wrist and she'd been warned that only corpses wore such bands. The passenger approached him and lifted his arm. “Tulad nito?” (Like this?) he asked, showing the crimson tag dangling from his wrist. [Click Here]

---

[Taken from Internet:[2]]

I found this Visayan Version of the same story as the others posted here. Naay usa ka-doctor na musakay unta sa elevator, kilid lang sa ER ... Anway, pag-abli sa elevator naay duha ka-tawo sa sulod. Ang usa nag-tindog ug nag-sul-ob ug laboratory gown. Ang usa naa sa sawog, kay nakuyapan. Gidagan ni Doc ang taw na nakuyapan sa ER na naa ra kilid. Kadtong na-uli-an na ang tawo, iyang gipangutana na-unsa to siya, nisulti siya na naa siyang nakit-an nga patay na pero naglakawlakaw pa, ug nag-sul-ob ug orange tag. (this orange tag means you're dead and your body is now in the morgue waiting for disposal). Nagkatawa ang doctor kay basin nag-binuang ra. Mibalik siya sa may elevator ug misakay pag-abli. Naa tong tawo na kuyog adtong nakuyapan. Nagstorya sila bahin adtong nakuyapan ug nakakita daw ug ungo tong tawhana. Pagsulti ni doc na nag-sul-ob daw ug orange tag ang iyang nakit-an, gisaka sa tawo sulod sa elevator ang iyang kamot ug misulti, "parehas niini?" Namugnaw siya kay mao tong tawhana na iyang gi-declare na Dead on arrival pipila ka oras na nilabay. Ug siya, nakuyapan. There was a doctor who decided to take a ride in the elevator near the ER (he was waiting for the elevator to open that time). When the elevator opened, he saw two men inside. One of them was standing, wearing a laboratory gown. The other one was lying in the floor unconscious. He brought the unconscious man to ER which was near the elevator. When the man woke up he asked him what happened, then he answered that he saw a dead person still walking wearing an orange tag in the wrist. (This orange tag means you're dead and your body is now in the morgue waiting for disposal.) The doctor just laughed at what he heard from the person. Then he went back in front of the elevator and took a ride when it opened. There again the person who was with the one who fainted. He told that person the reason why the man lost consciousness - that he saw a dead man. As the doctor speaks about the person wearing an orange tag, the person raised his hand and said, Like this?. The doctor felt cold because that person he was with was the same one he declared dead on arrival some time ago. And he fainted.

---

[Taken from Internet:[3]]

The Elevator Gem is working as a nurse in a big hospital. during that time, gem was on a night shift, where hours would seem like eternity. To keep herself from falling asleep, she and her nurse friends would talk about a lot of things-especially ghost stories-to perk them up while doing their charting. Then one night, the nurses got too busy to chat-someone died in the emergency room,a group of people were admitted due to a vehicular accident, another patient is in a critical condition. The nurses were prepared for such emergencies and were able to attend all those needing medical attention. Gem had to go to the pharmacy downstairs to get some medicine for her patient. She hurried to the nearby elevator to the ground floor. She was on the fourth floor. Gem saw that there was already a man inside the elevator when she got in. She didn't know the guy, but she was happy that she had someone to ride the elevator with. As the elevator reached the second floor,the doors opened. They saw a little boy, about five years old, waiting to get inside the elevator. But before the boy could get in, Gem hurriedly closed the elevator doors and pressed again the ground floor button, leaving the boy behind. The stranger was puzzled and asked gem why she did what she did. "why didn't you let the poor boy ride with us?" the man asked. "He looks like the boy who died here the other day. We tried to save him, but we couldn't. The second floor houses the pediatric ward and that's where the boy died," explained gem who was a bit winded. "How can you be so sure that it was the same boy? Is it because he's wearing the same tag as mine?" the stranger asked as he raised his arm to show gem the hospital tag attached to his wrist. Gem was taken aback. She thought she was going to faint. She stared at the man this time, finally noticing that he was in a hospital gown. She suddenly recognized who the man was- he was the one who was in a critical condition an hour earlier, but died on the operating table. The elevator doors opened as it reached the ground floor. Gem ran blindly away from the lift and never looked back. She got the medicines she needed and hurriedly went back to her patient. but this time, she didn't take the elevator. Instead, she took the stairs. Never again did she ride the elevator during night shifts.

---

[Taken from Book:[4]]

Makati Ghost Stories This one has been going around for some time. An elderly doctor at the Makati Medical Center was riding the elevator going down to the lobby. Next to him is another patient. A bell sounds and the car door swings open. In front of the pair stands a young boy. The little boy asks: Down? The doctor looks up and down the young man and, with a slight crackling in his voice, answers: No, this is going up. He then presses the button to close the elevator door and sends the car on its way. The patient, confused, asks: Why didn't you let him ride with us. This car is going down anyway. The doctor looks to the patient and says, He was my patient a week ago. He died of Leukemia. There is a short silence. The patient then asks: How do you know he died? The doctor glances back and says, Well, he has a blue band on his ankle. That means he's dead. The patient sticks out her foot and asks the doctor: Oh, you mean like the one I have?

---

[Taken from Book:[4]]

The Elevator I By: Jherry Barrinuevo Bad things happen to bad people. A friend told me a spooky story about an unscrupulous doctor who worked in a private hospital in Metro Manila. The doctor charged his patients depending on their social status. But no matter what the status, he always overcharged. He didn't discriminate whether his patients were rich or poor. He preyed on the rich and famous the same as he did the poor and less fortunate patients. He would have gotten old and continued doing this, but for an encounter with the supernatural that changed him for life. The doctor was a practicing physician for almost 15 years. He graduated from a famous medical school here in the Philippines and became one of the topnotchers when he took the board exam. His intelligence and expertise made him famous in the local medical scene and earned him recognition as one of the best doctors in the country. As a result of his fame and achievements, patients flocked to his clinics. Members of high society, politicians and celebrities went to him for treatment. At the same time, some desperate patients sought his medical attention - patients who would spend all they had just to be treated or given a cure. At the start of the doctor's career, he was fair to his patients and used all his talents to help his patients who were in dire need. He charged his patients honestly and sometimes gave discounts to the poor. But, this noble character changed when he realized he could earn much more money and live a king's life if he overcharged his patients. He started overcharging his rich patients, who didn't care as long as the doctor treated them. His greed became atrocious when he started doing it even to the poor. If they can't afford my services they ought to suffer and die, as for me, money is what I need and I am gonna be rich. As a result of his greed, many of those who couldn't afford his services died without undergoing treatment. Although he may have felt a twinge of guilt every so often, whenever he heard that a patient of his died, he remained unmoved and continued to feed his greed, sucking his patients' resources up to the last drop. But, one day, a weird thing happened. The doctor was on one of his rounds. He rode the hospital's elevator to go up to his clinic. It was late in the afternoon and there were few people left in the hospital, so the doctor had the elevator all to himself. He pushed the button for the sixth floor, where his clinic is located. When it reached the second floor, the door opened, but to his surprise no one entered the elevator. He peered outside the elevator to check if anyone outside had pushed the second floor button, but no one was around. When the elevator reached the third floor the same thing happened. This was likewise repeated when it reached the fourth. By the time it reached the fifth level, the doctor was totally mystified. The elevator door opened and still no one joined him in the elevator. Just as it was about to close however, the overloaded warning sounded. The doctor nearly jumped from the shrill buzz of the warning button. That's funny, he thought to himself. How can that buzzer sound when I'm the only one here? All of the sudden he remembered long-forgotten ghost stories about the hospital that he didn't pay attention to. He could feel pinpricks of fear crawling up his spine. When the elevator reached the sixth floor he nearly stumbled in his hurry to get out of it. He ran toward his clinic and tried to forget what happened. Later, as he was examining one patient, his secretary told him that the father of one of his patients who had just died was outside. The family could not afford to pay the doctor's fees and so could no longer continue treatment. The secretary said the father blamed the doctor for the death of his son. Pabayaan mo siya, wala akong pakialam. Alam naman nila na malala na ang sakit ng anak nila 'di sila nag-ipon ng pera (Let him rant and shout, I don't care. They knew very well their son was seriously ill, why didn't they save money for it?), the doctor told his secretary. As his secretary was about to inform the father that the doctor was busy with another patient and send him away, another parent, a father, barged in the clinic shouting that the doctor killed his teenage daughter. Had you treated my daughter and didn't ask for a high fee, she would be still be alive right now, the father said accusingly. The doctor tried to elude the angry parents by telling his secretary he got an emergency call from another hospital. So off the doctor went down the corridor. But as he neared the elevator, he remembered the earlier incident and vowed never to go into the elevator alone. So he waited till another passenger, a teenage girl, came along before boarding the elevator. Sure enough the elevator began acting strange again. He pushed the button for 1st but visibly upset when it went straight to the basement - where the morgue is located. The door opened and the doctor saw a boy running towards the elevator. Recognizing the boy as one of his patients who just died - the same boy whose father was ranting in his clinic upstairs - he immediately pushed the button shutting the door. The teenage girl saw what he did and asked the doctor why he didn't let the boy in. He answered: That boy is dead. How can you tell?? the girl persisted. Can't you see he has a red tag around his wrist? That's a sure sign that he's dead and marked for the morgue, the doctor exclaimed. Oh you mean something like this? the girl asked as she raised her wrist. The doctor turned in time to see the girl shove her wrist in front of his face. The doctor turned deathly white as blood drained from his face. The girl was his other dead patient! That was the last thing that he remembered. He slumped down in a dead faint. He was found by the hospital security guards lying alone inside the elevator. The doctor realized that his sins were fast catching up with him. The overloaded elevator must have been filled with the spirits of all his patients who died from his neglect, just because they couldn't afford his fees! Since then the doctor changed his ways and started treating his patients fairly.

---

[Taken from Book:[5]]

Nurse By: Leonileda L. Leong Julie Marangga was a nurse at the general hospital. She had heard many stories about the hospital she worked in - some were scary, most were sad, but she never paid them any mind. Had she at least heeded their warnings, she might have been better prepared for what happened later. Now she's in a coma. Julie, it's almost 10 o'clock. Leave that to the night shift, the head nurse told her that fateful evening. Why don't you go home early? You'll be celebrating your first paycheck with your mother tomorrow. It's okay, manang, I'll just finish this, she responded. She seemed to love her work. Don't take the elevator at night, Julie's co-workers had advised her. Besides, the stairs are healthier for you. It was past 10 o'clock that night when Julie, together with another nurse from a different station, boarded the elevator on the top floor. She had clocked out and was on her way home. The hospital halls were quiet; visitor hours had ended more than an hour ago, and the night shift had long settled in. Before the elevator doors closed, a doctor called out to them. Hold the elevator, he said. Julie stopped the door from closing. The doctor nodded his thanks and pressed the 'G' button upon entering. As the doors closed, Julie saw a child making his way to the elevator. Dok, sandali, may bata pang sasakay (Doc, wait, a child wants to get in), Julie said. The doctor hurriedly pressed the 'Door Close' button. Huwag mong pansinin and batang iyan, patay na siya. Nakita mo ba ang wristband na suot niya? Iyan ang kulay na suot ng mga bangkay sa morgue (Don't mind that kid, he was already dead. Did you see the wristband he was wearing? That's the color the bodies wear in the morgue), said the doctor. Julie suddenly could not speak. The nurse beside her calmly extended her hand and asked, Like this one? Julie saw that the week before, another nurse had been rushed to the hospital, heavily bleeding after an accident. The nurse didn't make it. Hospitals have more than enough death stories, but that doesn't help Mrs. Marangga, who doesn't know whether she should be grateful that her daughter was alive but in a coma. The doctor accompanied her to Julie's hospital room. He was used to there things already but what was he going to tell Julie's mother?

Variations:

Actually there are many variations on how the story was delivered in text message.

Some tells, that the man saw the child running after the nurse then she abruptly closed the elevator's door before the child can enter, then asked: Why didn't you let the child to enter?. While others, the child got in the elevator but went out again for some reason.

Some it was a little girl instead of a boy.

Another was instead of a female nurse, it was a male; or instead a nurse, it was doctor.

The setting of the legend is unknown but others use University of Sto. Tomas and Makati Medical Center.

Again others didn't mention if the man inside the elevator was of middle age.

As I found this article in a website, that this story was once featured in a Philippine ghost story book, I wonder if this actually came from a real experience of the girl named Gem. The first time I heard this story was from my friend, then I received a text message from another friend with the same story. However, I started to become doubtful because of the versions I found. The only way to answer my question concerning this, I need to know the original version, but I think, it is impossible nowadays to have it.

Last Updated: January 12, 2014

Sources
[1] http://www.spot.ph/gallery/1693/10-scary-stories-set-in-manila-schools-65279-/article/49643#pid=27645
[2] http://hccc.friendhood.net/t161-visayan-myths-and-urban-legends
[3] http://forum.wl.igg.com/viewthread.php?tid=54877 - - [True Philippine Ghost Stories - Haunted Hospitals. PSICOM Publishing Inc.]
[4] True Philippine Ghost Stories Book 2. PSICOM Publishing Inc. 2003. Quezon City, Philippines. ISBN 971-8995-90-0
[5] The Best of True Philippine Ghost Stories. PSICOM Publishing Inc. 2008. Quezon City, Philippines. ISBN 978-971-0372-85-0