Chilling video shows underground tunnel of abandoned Charity Hospital

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Since Hurricane Katrina, Charity Hospital in Downtown New Orleans has been abandoned. One local urban explorer recently went inside to discover more about the underground tunnels.

“A lot of times with abandoned hospitals there’s a tunnel system below it. There were rumors of there being a tunnel system underneath Charity Hospital,” John Gualtieri, urban explorer and ghost hunter said.

Gualtieri decided he wanted to see for himself, so that’s when he went to discover the two different underground tunnels at Charity.

“In the hobby of urban exploring, you find ways to access buildings. A lot of those ways are illegal, but it is important to know that I’m not there for mischief or stealing. We’re there to film and document. Never here to vandalize and never here to destroy the building,” he said.

As he explored he shot videos throughout, which he says felt like a rat maze.

“In the bottom where you have the basement, it is massive. In the basement there is a lot of heavy machinery, old MRI machines, and old cat scans,” Gualtieri said.

He said one of the tunnels is on the backside of Charity Hospital and goes to the old VA hospital, while the other one goes underground and across LaSalle Street to the Tulane Medical buildings.

“There’s a tunnel that goes underground to the medical school over there across from Charity. I almost got to walk the entirety, but had to stop midway because of the heat. It was 120 degrees,” Gualtieri said.

While exploring he was fascinated by what he saw.

“The first thing that stands out is the iconic autopsy theater that there have been many pictures of. You see the flooded autopsy table,” he said.

While down there he said they kept hearing a lot of banging noises.

“Sounded like a water hammer would hit every three or four seconds. All I know is there was a bunch of water being pumped,” he said.

As he was exploring around Charity Hospital he said they did discover unusual activity.

“We were using spirit boxes, and we were getting hits on the devices,” he said.

Gualtieri went on to say that he’s went inside the abandoned Charity Hospital around 30 times.

“I guess I’ve always been drawn to abandoned buildings, but there’s something special about this one. I fell in love with this building literally it is one of my favorite buildings in the entire city,” he said.

To follow John Gualtieri’s urban exploring adventures, follow him on Instagram.

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