Woman who says she was an ER nurse recalls an 80-year-old patient who stopped thrashing and said ‘don’t you dare’ when a nurse mentioned holy water

A woman who identifies herself as a former ER nurse has shared a case from her career that she says still keeps her up at night. In a TikTok video, she recounts treating an 80-year-old patient. She says the night took a turn once someone mentioned “holy water.”

The creator, who goes by Sydney, says she spent about 10 years in the ER and later worked three years as a psychiatric nurse. She says she cannot name the patient or hospital because of privacy laws, placing the incident only in the Appalachian Mountains.

Sydney says the night began with a call from EMS about an elderly woman with altered mental status. A second call followed for the woman’s son, who had a severe arm injury. The staff were left asking “what’s going on?” she says.

The ER staff struggle to restrain the elderly woman

The woman reportedly arrived in handcuffs. Sydney says staff asked for them to come off. She then describes a patient who needed multiple nurses, security officers and paramedics to hold her down. She says the woman bit, kicked and bent her body in ways that looked impossible. At one point, Sydney says, the patient looked at her and said, “get this brute out of me.”

The son then arrived with what Sydney calls a large bite wound. She says he told staff, “this is not my mom.” According to her, he described his mother as normally sweet. He also said he called police because he had no other option.

Sydney says sedatives and IV injections had no effect. She also says a urine screen and blood work came back normal. Then a nurse said, “we need some holy water.” Sydney says the woman stopped thrashing, looked up and said, “don’t you dare.”

Sydney says she did not see what came next because she works in the ER. She says she was told the woman was admitted upstairs. Nothing helped, she says, until her son asked for an exorcism. A priest reportedly came to the hospital, and the woman went home soon after. Sydney says she knows what she believes and calls herself “Right with the Lord.”

Beyond the urine screen and blood work, Sydney does not specify what other tests were run. Sudden confusion and aggression in older adults can have several causes, including infections and medication side effects, according to the NHS. Sydney’s account could not be independently verified.

Other healthcare workers have shared unexplained experiences online, including a psychiatric nurse who described a printer producing strange messages on a hospital ward. Those stories, like Sydney’s, rest on the accounts of the people telling them.

Many commenters leaned toward a spiritual reading. One commenter wrote, “I’ve always believed that not all mental issues are mental.” The comment has about 6,540 likes. Another user says they worked in a psychiatric emergency room and saw a similar case. A doctor there, she wrote, had practiced for about 25 years. She says he called it only the second patient “he ever truly believed was possessed.”

Others kept it lighter. One asked, “Does the ER now stock a bottle of holy water????” That comment has more than 6,700 likes. Sydney ends the video by asking whether others have had similar encounters.

She also says she may share more stories from her ER and psychiatric work. Hospice workers have described their own unsettling cases, including staff who reportedly kept seeing a girl in a red dress despite attempts involving holy oil and an alleged exorcist.