
Miracles, Mysteries & Medicine in Southwest, Prague
The COVID-19 pandemic did not create physician burnout in Southwest, Prague, Bohemia—it simply made the invisible crisis impossible to ignore. Healthcare workers who had been quietly drowning for years suddenly found themselves applauded as heroes while being denied adequate PPE, forced to ration ventilators, and confronted with mass death on a scale that no training could have prepared them for. Post-pandemic surveys show that burnout rates climbed above 60 percent during peak surges and have yet to fully recede. Dr. Kolbaba's "Physicians' Untold Stories," though written before the pandemic, has found renewed relevance in its aftermath. These extraordinary accounts remind physicians that even in medicine's darkest hours, moments of inexplicable grace occur—offering Southwest, Prague's healthcare community a reason to believe that their work carries weight beyond what the crisis revealed.

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.

Physicians' Untold Stories
by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD • 4.5 stars (1018 reviews)
Miraculous experiences doctors are hesitant to share with their patients, or ANYONE!
Order on Amazon →"Chicken Soup for Doctor's Souls." — Mary Ellen M.
Medical Fact
The human brain uses 20% of the body's total oxygen supply, despite being only about 2% of body weight.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Southwest, Prague
Physicians practicing in Southwest, 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 Southwest, 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 Southwest, 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)
Medical Fact
Charles Drew, an African American surgeon, pioneered large-scale blood banks in the 1940s and saved countless lives.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Southwest, Prague
Midwest physicians near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia who've had their own NDEs—during cardiac events, surgical complications, or accidents—describe a professional transformation that the research literature calls 'the experiencer physician effect.' These doctors become more patient-centered, more comfortable with ambiguity, and more willing to sit with dying patients. Their NDE doesn't make them less scientific; it makes them more fully human.
Midwest emergency medical services near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia cover vast rural distances, and the extended transport times create conditions where NDEs may be more likely. A patient in cardiac arrest who receives CPR in a cornfield for forty-five minutes before reaching the hospital has a different experience than one who arrests in an urban ED. The temporal spaciousness of rural resuscitation may allow NDE phenomena to develop more fully.
Medical Fact
Human teeth are as hard as shark teeth — both are coated in enamel, the hardest substance in the body.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Southwest, Prague
The Midwest's ethic of reciprocity near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia—the expectation that help given will be help returned—creates a healthcare safety net that operates entirely outside the formal system. When a farmer near Southwest, Prague pays for his neighbor's hip replacement with free corn for a year, he's participating in an informal economy of care that has sustained Midwest communities since the first homesteaders needed someone to help pull a stump.
Physical therapy in the Midwest near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia often incorporates the functional movements that patients need to return to their lives—lifting hay bales, climbing into tractor cabs, carrying feed sacks. Rehabilitation that prepares a patient for the actual demands of their daily life is more motivating and more effective than abstract exercises performed on gym equipment. Midwest PT is practical by nature.
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba found that military physicians returning from combat zones were particularly likely to report spiritually transformative experiences.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Southwest, Prague, Bohemia
The Midwest's tradition of saying grace over hospital meals near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia seems trivial until you consider its cumulative effect. Three times a day, a patient pauses to acknowledge gratitude, connection, and hope. Over a week-long hospital stay, that's twenty-one moments of spiritual centering—a dosing schedule more frequent than most medications. Grace is medicine administered at meal intervals.
The Midwest's German Baptist Brethren communities near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia practice anointing of the sick with oil as described in the Epistle of James—a ritual that combines confession, communal prayer, and physical touch in a healing ceremony that predates modern medicine by two millennia. Physicians who witness this anointing observe its effects: reduced anxiety, improved pain tolerance, and a peace that medical interventions alone cannot produce.
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Did You Know?
Approximately 15% of hospital admissions involve adverse drug reactions, making medication safety a critical concern.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The human body can distinguish between at least 5 types of taste — sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
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.
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba is a lifelong resident of the Chicago area and deeply rooted in the community he serves.
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.
About the Book
The book was written over three years of evenings and weekends while Dr. Kolbaba continued to see patients full-time.
How This Book Can Help You
For Midwest physicians near Southwest, Prague, Bohemia who've maintained a private practice of prayer—before surgeries, during codes, at deathbeds—this book legitimizes what they've always done in secret. The separation of faith and medicine that professional culture demands is, for many heartland doctors, a performed atheism that doesn't match their inner life. This book says what they've been thinking: the sacred is present in the clinical, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Reader Ratings Distribution
Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings
Research Finding
Medical students who engage with humanities and storytelling demonstrate better clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction.
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Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud
Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
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