Hospital frozen in time after being abandoned with blood samples left on wards
Photos from inside a hospital frozen in time since it shut 15 years ago show wards packed with equipment, blood samples, syringes and even a set of shrivelled lungs.
Puerta De Hierro Hospital in Madrid, Spain, first opened in 1964 and closed just 43 years later when a new hospital by the same name opened nearby, replacing medical care and an A&E ward in the same area.
The old hospital remains largely in the same state it was when it shut, with more than 50 per cent of the hospital still filled with medical equipment.
It once was one of the leading organ and transplant hospitals of its time, as well as being a teaching university.
It is protected 24/7 by security, and costs tax payers almost €900,000 (£800,000) a year to sit empty and out of use.
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A machine left in the hospital in Madrid (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)
The Puerta de Hierro hospital in Spain was founded in 1964 as a leading university teaching hospital (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotte)Urban explorer, Ben James, ventured into the hospital to document what had been left behind.
Ben, a 35-year-old from Eaton Socon, Cambridgeshire, said the enormous building took him more than 10 hours to explore over a period of two days.
“There are around seven floors, and hundreds of rooms on each floor," he said.
“It’s an amazing place, and there’s so much stuff that they left behind including patient records, medicines, surgical equipment and even a full equipped room where opticians would have done eye tests."
A large operating theatre in the abandoned building (mediadrumimages/@places_forgotte)Ben went on to despite how there were even items left in the surgery rooms from the last procedures performed, such as scrubs in the bin and trays with tools like scalpels on.
He described it as "mad" how medical staff had "left all of this bio-hazardous material lying around to rot".
Ben explored every single room, even the mortuary - which he described as "daunting".
A collection of blood samples abandoned on a ward (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)
Ben explored every part of the hospital and took photos of what he found (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)He said: “It was amazing seeing the lecture theatres where medical students would have watched an autopsy, as well as other rooms where they would have done their coursework.
“My favourite part about the whole experience was walking down the corridor of death, which is the stretch between the lower floor and the mortuary.
“It was pretty dark at this point, so it was quite daunting walking down there to explore the mortuary."
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The outside of the abandoned hospital (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)
Photocopies of medical files left scattered on surfaces on a ward (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)The Brit said the vastness of the hospital created an "overwhelming silence" which was "odd" to experience.
“It’s incredibly sad that it’s no longer in use, and that there’s so much stuff being left to rot there.”
An urban explorer is someone who explores manmade structures - typically ones that had been abandoned.
They would venture to ruins of a house or other building and often document their findings to share with followers online.
More than 50 per cent of the old hospital remains packed to the rim with operating tables, blood samples and syringes (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)
It is monitored 24/7 by security (@PLACES_FORGOTTEN / MERCURY PRESS)Last year, an urban explorer spoke to the Mirror exclusively about some of the amazing abandoned buildings he's been to around the world - including monuments to bunkers and abandoned forts.
Decorated travel writer Oliver has spent the last few years exploring some of the most remarkable and surprising abandoned architecture.
And last year in March, some urban explorers were left 'running for their lives' after capturing some eerie images of items left abandoned in a tunnel hidden beneath a busy main road.
After discovering items such as a discarded padlock, police tape, and a rusty nail, they were so spooked by what they found that they scarpered out of the spooky tunnel "as fast as humanly possible".
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