True Stories From the Hospitals of Yancheng
The relationship between faith and healing has been studied for centuries, but the modern scientific investigation of this relationship is barely fifty years old. For physicians in Yancheng, this means that the most important factor in many patients' healing journeys — their spiritual lives — is also the factor about which medicine knows the least. Dr. Kolbaba's book begins to address this gap by giving physicians permission to acknowledge what they have always privately suspected.
Near-Death Experience Research in China
Chinese near-death experience accounts are distinctively shaped by the cultural concept of Diyu, the bureaucratic underworld. Research has shown that Chinese NDEs frequently involve encounters with underworld officials, being judged in halls of justice, and having one's life record reviewed — reflecting the Taoist and Buddhist vision of an afterlife judiciary. A landmark 1992 study by Zhi-ying and Jian-xun surveyed 81 survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake (one of the deadliest in history, killing approximately 242,000 people) and found that many reported NDE-like experiences, though their content differed markedly from Western patterns. Chinese accounts were more likely to feature a sense of the world being destroyed around them and less likely to include tunnel or light experiences. Buddhist concepts of the bardo (intermediate state between death and rebirth) and the Tibetan Book of the Dead have contributed significantly to cross-cultural NDE research.
The Medical Landscape of China
China is the birthplace of one of the world's oldest continuous medical traditions. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), with roots stretching back over 2,500 years, is based on concepts of qi (vital energy), yin-yang balance, and the five elements. The Huangdi Neijing (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine), compiled around the 2nd century BCE, remains a foundational text. Hua Tuo (c. 140-208 CE) is celebrated as the first surgeon to use general anesthesia (mafeisan) during operations, and Li Shizhen's 16th-century Bencao Gangmu (Comperta of Materia Medica) catalogued over 1,800 medicinal substances. Acupuncture, herbal medicine, and practices like qigong and tai chi continue to be widely practiced alongside Western medicine.
Modern Chinese medicine achieved a landmark in 2015 when Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering artemisinin, an antimalarial compound derived from the traditional Chinese herb qinghao (sweet wormwood, Artemisia annua). This discovery, which has saved millions of lives, beautifully exemplifies the bridge between ancient herbal knowledge and modern pharmacology. China's healthcare system has undergone massive expansion, with institutions like Peking Union Medical College Hospital (founded 1921 by the Rockefeller Foundation) serving as centers of excellence. China also pioneered variolation — an early form of smallpox inoculation — centuries before Edward Jenner developed vaccination in England.
Medical Fact
Human bones are ounce for ounce stronger than steel. A cubic inch of bone can bear a load of 19,000 pounds.
Miraculous Accounts and Divine Intervention in China
China's vast history contains numerous accounts of miraculous healings, many associated with Taoist immortals, Buddhist bodhisattvas, and folk deities. Guanyin (Avalokiteśvara), the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is widely venerated as a healer, and temples dedicated to Guanyin — such as the Putuoshan temple complex in Zhejiang Province — maintain extensive records of attributed miraculous cures spanning centuries. In TCM, the concept of "miraculous" healing is often framed differently than in the West, with practitioners pointing to cases where correct qi alignment produced seemingly impossible recoveries. Modern Chinese hospitals have documented cases of spontaneous remission that combine elements of traditional practice and unexplained phenomena. The qigong movement of the 1980s and 1990s produced numerous claims of extraordinary healing abilities, some investigated by Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers, though many remained controversial.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Yancheng, Jiangsu
Czech and Polish immigrant communities near Yancheng, Jiangsu maintain ghost traditions that include the 'striga'—a spirit that feeds on vital energy. When Midwest nurses of Eastern European heritage describe patients whose vitality seems to drain inexplicably despite stable vital signs, they sometimes invoke the striga, a diagnosis that their medical training cannot provide but their cultural inheritance recognizes immediately.
The Haymarket affair of 1886, a pivotal moment in American labor history, created ghosts that haunt not just Chicago but hospitals throughout the Midwest near Yancheng, Jiangsu. The labor movement's martyrs—workers who died for the eight-hour day—appear in facilities that serve working-class communities, as if checking on the descendants of the workers they fought for. Their presence is never threatening; it's vigilant.
Medical Fact
The first hospital in recorded history was established in Sri Lanka around 431 BCE.
What Families Near Yancheng Should Know About Near-Death Experiences
The Midwest's land-grant universities near Yancheng, Jiangsu are beginning to fund NDE research through their psychology and neuroscience departments, applying the same empirical methodology they use for crop science and animal husbandry. There's something appropriately Midwestern about treating consciousness research with the same practical seriousness as soybean yield optimization: if the data is there, study it. If it's not, move on.
Sleep researchers at Midwest universities near Yancheng, Jiangsu have identified parallels between REM sleep phenomena and NDE features—particularly the out-of-body sensation, the tunnel experience, and the sense of encountering deceased persons. These parallels don't debunk NDEs; they suggest that the brain's dreaming hardware may be involved in generating or mediating the experience, regardless of its ultimate origin.
The History of Grief, Loss & Finding Peace in Medicine
Veterinary medicine in the Midwest near Yancheng, Jiangsu has contributed more to human health than most people realize. The large-animal veterinarians who develop treatments for livestock diseases provide a testing ground for approaches later adapted to human medicine. Midwest physicians who grew up on farms carry this One Health perspective—the understanding that human, animal, and environmental health are inseparable.
Recovery from addiction in the Midwest near Yancheng, Jiangsu carries a particular stigma in small communities where anonymity is impossible. The farmer who attends AA at the church where everyone knows him is performing an act of extraordinary courage. Healing from addiction in the Midwest requires not just sobriety but the willingness to be imperfect in a community that has seen you at your worst and chooses to believe in your best.
Faith and Medicine Near Yancheng
The phenomenon of "deathbed visions" — reports by dying patients of seeing deceased relatives, religious figures, or transcendent light — has been documented across cultures and throughout history. Research by Peter Fenwick, Karlis Osis, and Erlendur Haraldsson has shown that these experiences occur regardless of the patient's religious background, medication status, or level of consciousness, and that they are consistently associated with a shift from distress to peace. While mainstream medicine has traditionally attributed these experiences to hypoxia, medication effects, or temporal lobe dysfunction, the consistency and content of the reports challenge purely neurological explanations.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" includes physicians' observations of deathbed experiences that they found impossible to dismiss as mere neurological artifacts. For physicians and nurses in Yancheng, Jiangsu, these accounts validate observations that many healthcare professionals have made but few have felt comfortable discussing. They remind us that the intersection of faith and medicine is not only about coping and outcomes but about the nature of consciousness itself — and that the experiences of dying patients may carry information about reality that science has not yet integrated.
The emerging field of "neurotheology" — the neuroscientific study of religious and spiritual experiences — has begun to map the brain correlates of experiences that the faithful have described for millennia: mystical union, transcendent peace, the sense of a divine presence. Andrew Newberg's SPECT imaging of meditating Buddhist monks and praying Franciscan nuns revealed significant changes in brain activity during spiritual practice, including decreased activity in the parietal lobes (associated with the sense of self) and increased activity in the frontal lobes (associated with attention and concentration).
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" presents cases that push beyond what neurotheology has yet been able to explain — cases where spiritual experiences coincided with physical healing in ways that brain imaging alone cannot account for. For neuroscience and theology researchers in Yancheng, Jiangsu, these cases define the frontier of neurotheological inquiry, suggesting that the biological effects of spiritual experience extend far beyond the brain to influence the body's healing mechanisms in ways that current science has only begun to explore.
The local chapters of professional medical associations in Yancheng have hosted discussions of "Physicians' Untold Stories" as continuing education events, recognizing that the book addresses clinical realities that formal medical education often overlooks. For physicians in Yancheng, Jiangsu who have questioned how to integrate patients' spiritual needs into their practice, these discussions — informed by Kolbaba's documented cases — provide practical guidance, peer support, and the reassurance that attending to the spiritual dimension of care is consistent with the highest standards of medical professionalism.
Comfort, Hope & Healing Near Yancheng
Post-traumatic growth—the positive psychological change that can emerge from the struggle with highly challenging life circumstances—was first systematically described by Tedeschi and Calhoun in their 1996 foundational study. Their research identified five domains of post-traumatic growth: greater appreciation of life, improved relationships, new possibilities, personal strength, and spiritual or existential change. Subsequent studies, including meta-analyses published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress, have confirmed that a significant minority of individuals who experience trauma—including the trauma of losing a loved one—report meaningful positive growth alongside their suffering.
"Physicians' Untold Stories" can facilitate post-traumatic growth for grieving readers in Yancheng, Jiangsu, by addressing each of Tedeschi and Calhoun's five domains. The book's extraordinary accounts inspire greater appreciation for the mystery and beauty of life. They foster connection between readers who share and discuss the stories. They open new possibilities by suggesting that death may not be the final chapter. They reveal the strength of physicians who carry the weight of these experiences. And they catalyze spiritual change by presenting evidence of the transcendent from within the most empirical of professions. Dr. Kolbaba's collection is, in essence, a post-traumatic growth resource disguised as a collection of remarkable true stories.
Continuing bonds theory—the understanding that maintaining an ongoing relationship with a deceased loved one is a normal and healthy part of grief—has transformed bereavement practice in Yancheng, Jiangsu, and worldwide. The theory, developed by Dennis Klass, Phyllis Silverman, and Steven Nickman, challenged the dominant Freudian model that viewed attachment to the dead as "grief work" that must be completed (detached from) for healthy adjustment. Contemporary research supports the continuing bonds perspective, finding that bereaved individuals who maintain a sense of connection to the deceased—through conversation, ritual, dreams, or felt presence—report better adjustment and greater well-being than those who attempt complete detachment.
"Physicians' Untold Stories" naturally supports continuing bonds. Dr. Kolbaba's accounts of dying patients who reported seeing deceased loved ones, of inexplicable events that suggested ongoing connection between the living and the dead, provide narrative evidence that continuing bonds may be more than psychological construction—they may reflect something real about the nature of consciousness and relationship. For the bereaved in Yancheng, these stories do not demand belief but they offer encouragement: the relationship you maintain with the person you lost may not be a comforting fiction but a genuine, if mysterious, reality.
The social workers and therapists who serve Yancheng, Jiangsu's bereaved population often search for resources that can supplement their clinical work—books, articles, and materials that clients can engage with between sessions. "Physicians' Untold Stories" is an ideal between-session resource: it is self-contained, emotionally engaging, and therapeutically relevant without being clinically demanding. A therapist in Yancheng can recommend a specific account to a client based on the client's particular grief experience, knowing that the story will provide comfort and provoke reflection without triggering clinical crisis.
Faith and Medicine
The role of physician empathy in patient outcomes has been extensively studied, with research consistently showing that empathetic physicians achieve better clinical results across a range of conditions. A landmark study by Hojat and colleagues found that diabetic patients treated by physicians who scored higher on empathy measures had significantly better glycemic control and fewer complications. Other studies have linked physician empathy to improved patient adherence, better pain management, and higher patient satisfaction.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" suggests that the connection between empathy and outcomes may extend to the spiritual dimension. The physicians in his book who engaged most deeply with their patients' faith lives — who prayed with them, honored their spiritual concerns, and remained open to the possibility of transcendent healing — also describe relationships with their patients that were characterized by unusual depth and trust. For physicians in Yancheng, Jiangsu, this connection between spiritual engagement and clinical empathy offers a practical insight: that attending to the spiritual dimension of care may enhance the physician-patient relationship in ways that benefit both parties.
The evidence that social isolation increases mortality risk — by as much as 26% according to some meta-analyses — has important implications for the faith-medicine relationship. Religious communities provide one of the most consistent and accessible forms of social connection available in modern society. Regular attendance at worship services exposes individuals to face-to-face social interaction, emotional support, shared rituals, and a sense of belonging — all of which have been linked to better health outcomes.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" illustrates this social dimension of the faith-health connection by documenting cases where patients' recoveries occurred in the context of intense congregational support — prayer chains, meal deliveries, bedside vigils, and the steady presence of fellow believers. For public health professionals in Yancheng, Jiangsu, these accounts suggest that religious communities may serve as protective health infrastructure, providing the kind of sustained social support that research has shown to be as important for health as diet, exercise, or medication.
The concept of "sacred space" in healthcare — the idea that certain environments within medical institutions are set apart for spiritual reflection and practice — has gained renewed attention as hospital designers and administrators recognize the healing potential of environments that engage the spirit. In Yancheng, Jiangsu, hospitals that have invested in chapel renovation, meditation gardens, and contemplative spaces report improvements in patient satisfaction and, in some cases, in patient outcomes.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" supports the case for sacred space in healthcare by documenting moments where patients' spiritual experiences — many of which occurred in or near sacred spaces within hospitals — coincided with turning points in their medical care. For hospital administrators and designers in Yancheng, these accounts provide evidence that investment in sacred space is not a luxury but a component of healing-centered design — an acknowledgment that patients heal not only through medication and surgery but through encounters with beauty, silence, and the transcendent.
Christina Puchalski's development of the FICA Spiritual History Tool transformed the practice of spiritual assessment in clinical settings. The FICA tool — which stands for Faith/beliefs, Importance/influence, Community, and Address/action — provides physicians with a structured, respectful framework for exploring patients' spiritual lives. The tool was designed to be brief enough for routine clinical use, open enough to accommodate any faith tradition or spiritual perspective, and clinically focused enough to elicit information relevant to patient care.
Research on the FICA tool and similar instruments has shown that spiritual assessment improves patient-physician communication, increases patient satisfaction, and helps physicians identify spiritual distress that may be affecting health outcomes. Importantly, research also shows that patients overwhelmingly want their physicians to address spiritual concerns — surveys consistently find that 70-80% of patients believe physicians should be aware of their spiritual needs, and 40-50% want physicians to pray with them. Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" illustrates what happens when physicians respond to these patient preferences: deeper relationships, greater trust, more comprehensive care, and, in some cases, healing outcomes that purely biomedical approaches did not achieve. For medical educators and practitioners in Yancheng, Jiangsu, Kolbaba's book provides compelling evidence that spiritual assessment is not a peripheral concern but a central component of patient-centered care.
The concept of "salutary faith" — religious belief and practice that contributes positively to health — has been distinguished by researchers from "toxic faith" — belief and practice that harms health. This distinction is crucial for the faith-medicine conversation because it acknowledges that religion is not uniformly beneficial. Research has identified several characteristics of salutary faith: a benevolent image of God, an intrinsic (personally meaningful) rather than extrinsic (socially motivated) religious orientation, participation in a supportive community, and the use of collaborative (rather than passive or self-directing) religious coping strategies.
Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" predominantly documents cases consistent with salutary faith — patients whose benevolent, intrinsic, communal, and collaborative faith appeared to support their healing. The book does not ignore the existence of toxic faith, but it focuses on cases where faith functioned as a health resource rather than a health risk. For healthcare providers and chaplains in Yancheng, Jiangsu, this distinction is clinically important. Supporting patients' faith lives means not merely endorsing religiosity in general but helping patients cultivate the specific forms of faith that research has shown to be health-promoting — and gently addressing forms of faith that may be contributing to distress.
How This Book Can Help You
The Midwest's newspapers near Yancheng, Jiangsu—those stalwart recorders of community life—would do well to review this book not as a curiosity but as a medical development. The experiences described in these pages are occurring in local hospitals, being reported by local physicians, and affecting local patients. This isn't national news from distant coasts; it's the Midwest's own story, told by one of its own.
About the Author
Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD is an internist at Northwestern Medicine. Mayo Clinic trained, he spent three years interviewing 200+ physicians about their most extraordinary experiences.
Medical Fact
Medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease and cancer.
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Neighborhoods in Yancheng
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