10 Hospitals With Spine Chilling Histories

Here are 10 hospitals with spine-chilling histories.

Many regard hospitals as places where miracles can happen and stories of triumph over adversity begin, but sadly that isn’t always the case.
Here are 10 hospitals with spine-chilling histories.
Number 10. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, West Virginia. When the massive hand-cut stone building was being constructed in the mid-1800s, hopes were high about the amazing work that would be done here. Before long, overcrowding, patients kept in cages, and lobotomies performed with ice picks became the norm. 
Number 9. Bellevue Hospital, New York. Throughout much of the facility’s nearly 300-year history, inhabitants, which included murderers, the mentally ill, alcoholics, and those with contagious diseases, were bound by one common thread – extreme poverty. For a time, conditions were so deplorable amputation patients died in astounding numbers due to contact with poison leeching from the walls. 
Number 8. Metropolitan State Hospital, Massachusetts. The atrocities that occurred here were many, but perhaps the best known is the murder of Ann Marie Davee. Years after she disappeared, an investigation was opened. Eventually, the woman’s killer, a fellow patient, led investigators to the many nearby graves where he buried parts of Davee’s dismembered body. 
Number 7. Topeka State Hospital, Kansas. Those residing here were mistreated in both life and death. One report describes a person bound to a bed for so long that the skin was growing over the leather straps. More than a thousand of the individuals who died here were buried on the grounds in unmarked graves. 
Number 6. Pennhurst Asylum, Pennsylvania. Based on Bill Baldini’s 1968 expose of the wretched treatment many endured, care was not something taken seriously here. However, punishment was. Children caught biting others had their teeth removed on the second offense.  
Number 5. Athens Lunatic Asylum, Ohio. The treatment center is now known as The Ridges, but evidence of past horrors remains. Visitors to the top floor of Ward 20 can still see the outline of Margaret Schilling’s body. She took refuge there in the winter of 1978, and died while hiding. The combined effects of decay and sunlight through a window created a stain that cannot be removed. 
Number 4. Brownsville Hospital, Pennsylvania. Used for some time as a home for the elderly, years of resident mistreatment and medical wrongdoing fostered a number of lawsuits. The facility was closed in 1985, but the building still stands, neglected and crumbling. 
Number 3. Rancho Amigos Hospital, California. For decades this place was successful and thriving, but by the 1950s it began to decline.  Onsite farms, livestock barns, and wings of housing were all shut down and abandoned. In 2006, Marines performing drills in the unoccupied areas came upon a bag of feet, legs, and bits of brain stashed in what had been a freezer. 
Number 2. Creedmoor State Hospital, New York. The downward spiral spanning decades started off slow before fully accelerating in the 1970s. Patients both committed and were victimized by crimes. Shootings broke out, riots ensued, and before long parts of the center were abandoned. In Building 25, furniture, equipment, and even undergarments were left behind and still remain. 
Number 1. Greystone Psychiatric Hospital, New Jersey. The extraordinarily large care center was once self-sustaining, complete with a chapel, dental clinic, and a school. Like many others, Greystone eventually became overcrowded and a locus of abusive treatment and horrifying acts of violence. Many comment on the extent of building decay that occurred after the 2003 closing, but sadly the neglect began long before.
Which hospital’s history do you find most spine chilling?