Waverly Hills was purchased again in 2001, by paranormal enthusiasts Tina and Charles Mattingly and has since become a popular haunted attraction during Halloween. This documentary or visiting the facility in person is far more interesting. However, Death Tunnel does not do the facility, nor does it provide Waverly’s ghosts true justice. The movie The Death Tunnel, released by Sony Pictures in 2006, is about Waverly Hills, and dedicated to those lost within its walls. The documentary, Spooked, The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, premiered on SyFy in July 2006. It has been on the ABC/FOX program Scariest Places on Earth, VH1’s Celebrity Paranormal Project, SyFy’s Ghost Hunters, Zone Reality’s, Creepy, British Show’s Most Haunted, along with the Travel Channel’s Paranormal Challenge. Waverly has been featured on the Travel Channel’s television program Ghost Hunters, as one of the most haunted hospitals in the United States. Sadly, it was long after many accounts of unforgivable allegations regarding misconduct and mistreatment of patients. Unfortunately, most patients had no family to complain too, so the torturous experiments continued until Woodhaven too closed its doors in 1981. Horrifying rumors and testimonies were given as to the torturous treatment of Woodhaven residents, including electrotherapy and electric shock therapy. It was closed, quarantined and renovated into Woodhaven Medical Services, which was a geriatric facility. By 1961 Waverly Hills TB hospital had became a ghost town. Finally, an antibiotic was discovered in 1944 that ended the TB reign. One nurse committed suicide, jumping from the tower, and several became ill. Traumatic surgeries and painful, questionable remedies continued for decades, with the stress even taking a toll on the medical staff. Thus, Waverly had a special wing for the insane, ironically near the children’s area. Some of the residents eventually went mad, which should come as no surprise. The patient was completely awake during each and every procedure, with only Morphine to numb the pain. Afterwards, a Lobectomy was performed in hopes of removing the damaged tissues. Doctors removed up to 8 ribs, but could only do 3 at a time, so it often took multiple procedures. Another terrifying procedure was the Thoracoplasty, in which the patients were cut open in the front and the back. This was the collapsing of a lung in hopes the holes caused by TB would heal. Since putting patients to sleep was unheard of at this time, unfortunate victims underwent painful surgeries, such as Artificial Pneumothorax. The surgeries performed on the residents were horrific. If you became a patient at the Hill, you stayed at the Hill… but at least you got a room with a view and a bath. Once that realization sunk in, Waverly became completely sustainable, having a post office, gardens, fruit trees, and a water source. Physicians had not yet discovered Tuberculosis was an air born disease, thus anyone in the close proximity of patients was becoming infected. Unfortunately, there were many deaths due to the lack of space and medical knowledge during that time. In 1914, a children’s wing opened with beds for 50 TB-afflicted children, along with children of TB patients who had no other family to care for them. The city funded a larger facility in 1911, but by August 1912, the outbreak was so massive, the city began moving patients onto the Waverly grounds in tents.įortunately, by December of 1912 a new wing opened in the facility for 40 more patients. Initially, a small 2 story building and 2 open air pavilions were built to house the early cases… but it just wasn’t enough. Thus, they approached Hays and plans for Waverly Hills Sanatorium took hold. A Tuberculosis epidemic overtook Louisville back in the early 1900s, and the city needed somewhere to put the chronically ill patients to prevent the fast spread of the disease.
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