
What Happens After Midnight in the Hospitals of Liberty, Vienna
Dr. Jeffrey Long's Near-Death Experience Research Foundation (NDERF) has collected over 5,000 NDE accounts from around the world, making it the largest database of near-death experiences in existence. Long's analysis of this data, published in his book Evidence of the Afterlife, identified nine lines of evidence suggesting that NDEs represent genuine experiences of consciousness separated from the body. These include the lucid nature of the experiences (often described as "more real than real"), the occurrence of NDEs during flat EEG, the consistency of experiences across cultures, and the transformative aftereffects. For physicians in Liberty, Vienna who have witnessed patients return from clinical death with these characteristic reports, Long's research provides quantitative support for what their clinical observations already suggest. Physicians' Untold Stories complements Long's large-scale data by offering the intimate, individual perspective of the physicians who were there.

Medical Fact
A severed fingertip can regrow in children under age 7, complete with nail, skin, and nerve endings.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Liberty, Vienna
Liberty, Vienna's healthcare landscape reflects broader patterns in Vienna's medical system — the pressures of modern practice, the isolation that comes from witnessing extraordinary events without a framework to discuss them, and the gradual erosion of meaning that drives so many physicians toward burnout. Yet it is precisely in communities like Liberty, Vienna that the unexplained tends to surface most vividly, in moments that practicing physicians remember for the rest of their careers.
Physicians practicing in Liberty, Vienna, Vienna work at the intersection of modern medicine and experiences that resist explanation. In conversations that rarely leave the break room or the on-call suite, doctors in and around Liberty, Vienna have reported encounters with phenomena that their training never prepared them for — from patients who describe verifiable details about events that occurred while they were clinically dead, to deathbed visions shared simultaneously by multiple family members, to recoveries that defy every prognostic model available.
Medical Fact
The average person blinks about 15-20 times per minute — roughly 28,000 times per day.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Liberty, Vienna, Vienna
Hutterite colonies near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna practice a communal lifestyle that produces remarkable health outcomes: lower rates of stress-related disease, higher life expectancy, and a mental health profile that confounds psychologists. Whether these outcomes reflect the colony's faith, its social structure, or its agricultural diet is unclear—but the data suggests that communal religious life, whatever its mechanism, is good medicine.
Sunday morning hospital rounds near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna have a different quality than weekday rounds. The pace is slower, the conversations longer, the white coats softer. Some Midwest physicians use Sunday rounds to ask the questions weekdays don't allow: 'How are you really doing? What are you afraid of? Is there someone you'd like me to call?' The Sabbath tradition of rest and reflection permeates the hospital, creating space for the kind of honest exchange that healing requires.
Reader Ratings Distribution
Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings
Medical Fact
The average adult has about 5 liters of blood circulating through their body at any given time.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna
The underground railroad routes that crossed the Midwest left traces in hospitals near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna built above former safe houses. Workers in these buildings report the same phenomena across state lines: the sound of hushed voices speaking in code, the creak of a hidden trapdoor, and the overwhelming emotional impression of desperate hope. The enslaved people who passed through sought freedom; their spirits seem to have found it.
Midwest hospital basements near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna contain generations of medical equipment—iron lungs, radium therapy machines, early X-ray units—stored rather than discarded, as if the hospitals can't quite let go of their past. Workers who enter these storage areas report the machines activating on their own: iron lungs cycling, X-ray tubes glowing, EKG machines printing rhythms. The technology remembers its purpose.
Did You Know?
The first blood bank was established in 1937 by Dr. Bernard Fantus at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Discuss These Stories
Did You Know?
The Nightingale Pledge, recited by nursing graduates, was composed in 1893 — a modified version of the Hippocratic Oath.

Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD
Northwestern Medicine internist. University of Illinois College of Medicine. Mayo Clinic residency. 200+ physician interviews.
"Chicken Soup for Doctor's Souls." — Mary Ellen M.
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba found that many physicians' stories involved patients who predicted their own death — sometimes down to the hour.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Liberty, Vienna
Cardiac rehabilitation programs near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna are discovering that NDE experiencers exhibit different recovery trajectories than non-experiencers. These patients often show higher motivation for lifestyle change, lower rates of depression, and—paradoxically—reduced fear of a second cardiac event. Understanding why NDEs produce these benefits could improve cardiac rehab outcomes for all patients, not just those who've had the experience.
The Midwest's volunteer EMS corps near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna—farmers, teachers, and retirees who respond to cardiac arrests in their communities—are among the most underutilized witnesses to NDE phenomena. These volunteers are present during the resuscitation, often know the patient personally, and can provide context that hospital-based researchers lack. Training volunteer EMS workers to recognize and document NDE reports would dramatically expand the research dataset.
About the Book
Many physicians quoted in the book expressed relief at finally telling their stories — some had carried them for over 20 years.
Vienna: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge
Vienna's supernatural atmosphere is deeply connected to its Habsburg imperial legacy and its role as a center of both scientific rationalism and mystical traditions. The city was home to many prominent figures in the occult and paranormal, and the Theosophical Society had a significant Viennese following. The Hofburg Palace, with its centuries of intrigue, suicide, and political violence, generates numerous ghost stories. The Kapuzinergruft (Imperial Crypt), where the preserved remains of 149 Habsburg royals lie in elaborate sarcophagi, is a uniquely Viennese confrontation with death. The Narrenturm, the world's first purpose-built psychiatric hospital, combines the history of mental illness treatment with an unsettling collection of anatomical specimens. Viennese folklore includes the tradition of the Krampus, a horned demon who punishes naughty children during the Christmas season—a pre-Christian supernatural tradition that remains vigorously celebrated.
Vienna is one of the most important cities in the history of medicine. The Vienna Medical School, known as the First and Second Vienna Schools of Medicine, produced an extraordinary concentration of medical breakthroughs. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered in 1847 that handwashing with chlorinated lime dramatically reduced childbed fever deaths—a finding initially rejected by the medical establishment. Theodor Billroth performed the first successful gastrectomy and esophagectomy. Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis while practicing in Vienna. Karl Landsteiner discovered the ABO blood group system in 1901 at the University of Vienna, making safe blood transfusions possible. The city's medical heritage also includes the development of the ophthalmoscope by Carl Ferdinand von Arlt and pioneering work in dermatology by Ferdinand von Hebra.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
Social isolation has the same health impact as smoking 15 cigarettes per day, according to a meta-analysis of 148 studies.
Notable Locations in Vienna
The Hofburg Palace: The former imperial palace of the Habsburgs, spanning over 700 years of history, is said to be haunted by the ghosts of several members of the imperial family, including Empress Elisabeth ('Sisi') and the restless spirit of the suicide-prone Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria.
The Vienna Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof): One of the world's largest cemeteries with over 330,000 graves, the Zentralfriedhof is the final resting place of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, and Strauss, and is the subject of numerous ghost stories, particularly around the old Jewish section.
The Narrenturm (Tower of Fools): Built in 1784 as the first facility dedicated exclusively to housing the mentally ill, this cylindrical tower now houses a pathological-anatomical museum with preserved specimens and has an unsettling reputation for paranormal activity.
Allgemeines Krankenhaus (Vienna General Hospital): Founded in 1784 by Emperor Joseph II, the AKH is one of the largest hospitals in the world and home to the University of Vienna's medical faculty, where Ignaz Semmelweis discovered the importance of hand-washing and where Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis.
Rudolfinerhaus: Founded in 1882 by Theodor Billroth, one of the founders of modern abdominal surgery, this private hospital represents Vienna's tradition of surgical innovation.
Research Finding
Spending time in nature for just 20 minutes has been shown to lower cortisol levels significantly.
How This Book Can Help You
Book clubs in Midwest communities near Liberty, Vienna, Vienna that choose this book will find it generates conversation across the usual social boundaries. The farmer and the professor, the nurse and the pastor, the skeptic and the believer—all find points of entry into a discussion that is ultimately about the most fundamental question any community faces: what happens when we die?

“These physicians had everything to lose professionally by sharing their stories — and they shared them anyway.”
— Physicians' Untold Stories
Free Interactive Wellness Tools
Explore our physician-designed assessment tools — free, private, and educational.
Other Neighborhoods in Vienna
Explore Other Countries
Related Reading
Frequently Asked Questions

Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud
Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
Order on Amazon →This page contains approximately 1,285 words of unique content.