What Doctors in Glenwood, Prague Have Seen That Science Can't Explain

The concept of "physician as healer" — as opposed to physician as technician — has deep roots in the medical tradition and is experiencing a revival in contemporary medicine. The healer-physician understands that their role extends beyond prescribing treatments and performing procedures to encompass the full spectrum of care: emotional, relational, and spiritual. Dr. Scott Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories" profiles physicians who embody this healer ideal, demonstrating through their practice that medicine at its best is not just a science but a vocation — a calling that requires not only expertise but empathy, not only knowledge but wisdom. For physicians in Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia, Kolbaba's book is an invitation to rediscover the healer within.

Dr. Scott Kolbaba

About the Author

Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD is an internist at Northwestern Medicine in Wheaton, Illinois. He interviewed more than 200 physicians about their most extraordinary experiences.

Book cover

Physicians' Untold Stories

by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars (1018 reviews)

Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!

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Dr. Kolbaba interviewed 200 courageous physicians who came forward with 26 of the most miraculous experiences of their careers.

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Medical Fact

The word "quarantine" comes from the Italian "quarantina," referring to the 40-day isolation period for ships during plague outbreaks.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Glenwood, Prague

Physicians practicing in Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia 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 Glenwood, Prague 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.

The medical community in Glenwood, Prague includes physicians across every stage of their careers — residents navigating the exhaustion of training, mid-career practitioners balancing clinical demands with family life, and veteran physicians carrying decades of experiences that challenge the boundaries of conventional medicine. Burnout touches all of them differently, but a common thread runs through: the desire to remember why they chose medicine in the first place, and the rare but profound moments that remind them.

Physician Burnout by Specialty

Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)

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Medical Fact

The first laparoscopic surgery was performed in 1987, launching the era of minimally invasive procedures.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Glenwood, Prague

The Midwest's tornado recovery efforts near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia demonstrate a healing capacity that extends beyond individual patients to entire communities. When a tornado destroys a town, the rebuilding process—coordinated through churches, schools, and civic organizations—becomes a communal therapy that treats collective trauma through collective action. The community that rebuilds together heals together. The hammer is medicine.

Harvest season near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia creates a surge in agricultural injuries that Midwest emergency departments handle with practiced efficiency. But the healing that matters most to these farming families isn't just physical—it's the reassurance that the crop will be saved. Neighbors who harvest a hospitalized farmer's fields are performing a medical intervention: they're removing the stress that would impede the patient's recovery.

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Medical Fact

The average medical residency lasts 3-7 years after four years of medical school, depending on the specialty.

Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia

Sunday morning hospital rounds near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia 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.

Quaker meeting houses near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia practice a communal silence that has therapeutic applications no one intended. Patients from Quaker backgrounds who request silence during procedures—no music, no chatter, no television—are drawing on a faith tradition that treats silence as the medium through which healing speaks. Physicians who honor this request discover that surgical outcomes in quiet rooms are measurably better than in noisy ones.

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Did You Know?

Approximately 40% of patients in the U.S. seek a second medical opinion for serious diagnoses.

Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia

Midwest hospital basements near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia 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.

The Midwest's abandoned mining towns, their populations drained by economic collapse, have left behind hospitals near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia that sit empty and haunted. These ghost towns within ghost towns produce the most desolate hauntings in American medicine: not dramatic apparitions but subtle signs of absence—a children's ward where the swings still move, a maternity ward where a bassinet still rocks, everything in motion with no one there to cause it.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Did You Know?

The human body generates enough heat in 30 minutes to bring half a gallon of water to a boil.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

The "laying on of hands" — a healing practice found in nearly every culture — has been studied scientifically under names like therapeutic touch and Reiki.

Prague: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge

Prague is one of Europe's most mystical cities, known as the 'City of a Hundred Spires' and steeped in alchemical and supernatural lore. The legend of the Golem of Prague—a clay figure brought to life by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel in the 16th century to protect the Jewish ghetto—is the city's most famous supernatural tale and is said to still lie in the attic of the Old New Synagogue. Emperor Rudolf II (1576-1612) transformed Prague into the occult capital of Europe, attracting alchemists, astrologers, and mystics from across the continent to his court. The city's labyrinthine medieval streets and underground passages generate countless ghost stories. The White Lady (Bílá paní) of the Rožmberk family is one of the Czech Republic's most enduring ghost legends. Prague's Jewish Quarter is particularly rich with supernatural folklore, including stories of dybbuks (possessing spirits) and mystical Kabbalistic practices.

Prague is home to one of Europe's oldest medical traditions. Charles University, founded in 1348, established its medical faculty as one of the first in Central Europe, training generations of physicians who shaped medical practice across the region. Jan Evangelista Purkyně, who studied and taught in Prague, was a pioneering physiologist who discovered Purkinje cells in the cerebellum and Purkinje fibers in the heart—fundamental discoveries in neuroscience and cardiology. Prague was also where the contact lens was significantly developed, building on the work of Czech chemist Otto Wichterle, who invented the soft contact lens in 1961. The city's medical schools continue to attract international students from across Europe and beyond.

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About the Book

The book has been featured on over 50 podcast and radio programs, reaching millions of listeners worldwide.

Notable Locations in Prague

Prague Castle: The largest ancient castle complex in the world (dating to the 9th century) is said to be haunted by numerous ghosts, including a headless knight, a flaming skeleton, and a black dog that roams the castle grounds at night.

The Old Jewish Cemetery: Used from the 15th to 18th centuries, this cemetery has approximately 12,000 headstones packed into a small area with up to 12 layers of burials; it is associated with the legend of the Golem of Prague, a clay figure brought to life by Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel to protect the Jewish community.

Charles Bridge: This iconic 14th-century bridge, decorated with 30 Baroque statues, is said to be haunted by multiple ghosts, including a water sprite (vodník) living beneath it, and the spirits of those thrown from the bridge during centuries of conflict.

General University Hospital in Prague (VFN): Founded in 1790, VFN is the oldest teaching hospital in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest in Central Europe, affiliated with Charles University's First Faculty of Medicine (founded 1348).

Na Bulovce Hospital: Established in 1931, Na Bulovce is one of Prague's largest hospitals and gained historical notoriety as the hospital where Reinhard Heydrich died after his assassination in 1942.

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About the Book

The book is available in print, e-book, and audiobook formats, making it accessible to a wide range of readers.

How This Book Can Help You

For Midwest medical students near Glenwood, Prague, Bohemia who are deciding whether to pursue careers in rural medicine, this book provides an unexpected argument for staying close to home. The most extraordinary medical experiences described in these pages didn't happen in gleaming academic centers—they happened in small hospitals, in patients' homes, in the intimate spaces where medicine and mystery share a room.

Physicians' Untold Stories book cover — by Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD

Reader Ratings Distribution

Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings

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Research Finding

Forgiveness practices have been associated with lower blood pressure, reduced depression, and improved cardiovascular health.

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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud

Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD4.5 stars from 1018 readers.

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Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba

Amazon Bestseller

The Stories Medicine Never Told You

Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 true stories of ghost encounters, near-death experiences, and miraculous recoveries that will change the way you think about life, death, and what lies beyond.

By Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5★ from 1,018 ratings on Goodreads