Miracles, Mysteries & Medicine in Deerfield, Lagos

The COVID-19 pandemic did not create physician burnout in Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve—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 Deerfield, Lagos's healthcare community a reason to believe that their work carries weight beyond what the crisis revealed.

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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"Chicken Soup for Doctor's Souls." — Mary Ellen M.

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Medical Fact

A daily dose of dark chocolate (1 ounce) has been associated with improved mood and reduced stress hormone levels.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Deerfield, Lagos

Physicians practicing in Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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 Deerfield, Lagos 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 Deerfield, Lagos 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 placebo effect is so powerful that it accounts for roughly 30% of the improvement in clinical drug trials.

Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Deerfield, Lagos

Midwest physicians near Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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 Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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.

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Medical Fact

The smallest bone in the human body — the stapes in the ear — is about the size of a grain of rice.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Deerfield, Lagos

The Midwest's ethic of reciprocity near Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve—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 Deerfield, Lagos 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 Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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.

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Did You Know?

The concept of "hospital rounds" originated in the 17th century when physicians would literally walk from bed to bed.

Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve

The Midwest's tradition of saying grace over hospital meals near Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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 Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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?

The oldest known surgical instruments — made of obsidian — date back approximately 10,000 years.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

The first successful organ transplant using immunosuppressive drugs was performed in 1962, opening the door to routine transplantation.

Lagos: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge

Lagos's supernatural culture is dominated by Yoruba spiritual traditions, which include a rich pantheon of orishas (deities) and a deep belief in the spirit world. The Egungun masquerade, where costumed figures represent ancestral spirits, is still performed in Lagos, and the orishas Oya (goddess of death and rebirth) and Iku (death personified) feature prominently in Yoruba cosmology. Nollywood, Nigeria's massive film industry based in Lagos, produces hundreds of films annually featuring supernatural themes—witchcraft, spirit possession, and traditional medicine—reflecting the society's complex relationship with the spiritual world. Traditional healers (babalawo) remain influential in Lagos, using Ifá divination to communicate with spirits and prescribe remedies. The city's rapid modernization has created a tension between traditional spiritual beliefs and contemporary life, but belief in the supernatural remains deeply embedded across all social classes.

Lagos's medical infrastructure serves one of the fastest-growing cities in the world, with over 20 million residents. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), established in 1962, is Nigeria's premier teaching hospital and has been at the forefront of medical education in West Africa. The city's medical history includes significant contributions to tropical medicine—Nigerian physicians have been leaders in research on malaria, sickle cell disease, and Lassa fever. During the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Lagos's rapid response—led by Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, who identified Nigeria's index case and enforced quarantine protocols at the cost of her own life—was credited with preventing a catastrophic spread of the virus in Africa's most populous city.

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About the Book

The book's central message — that there is more to human existence than what medicine can measure — resonates across cultural boundaries.

Notable Locations in Lagos

Igbo-Ora Road (Twin Town): While not haunted in the Western sense, the road to Igbo-Ora—the 'Twin Capital of the World' near Lagos—is surrounded by spiritual stories about the Yoruba tradition of venerating twins (ibeji), with shrines along the roadside where carved figures represent deceased twins.

Brazilian Quarter (Popo Aguda): This historic quarter in Lagos Island, settled by freed slaves returning from Brazil in the 19th century, is said to be haunted by the spirits of the transatlantic slave trade, with old buildings reputed to harbor restless souls.

Badagry Slave Port: This historic slave trade departure point near Lagos, where millions of Africans were loaded onto ships, is considered a deeply spiritual and haunted location, with visitors reporting overwhelming emotional experiences and supernatural encounters at the Point of No Return.

Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH): Established in 1962, LUTH is Nigeria's foremost teaching hospital and a center for medical education and research, serving a metropolitan area of over 20 million people with limited resources.

Lagos General Hospital: One of the oldest hospitals in Nigeria, Lagos General Hospital on Lagos Island has served the city since the colonial era and remains a critical healthcare institution despite the enormous challenges of serving Africa's largest city.

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About the Book

The Barbara Cummiskey case, featured in the book, is one of the most documented miraculous recoveries in medical history.

How This Book Can Help You

For Midwest physicians near Deerfield, Lagos, Algarve 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.

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

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Research Finding

A gratitude letter — writing to someone you're thankful for — produces measurable increases in happiness lasting up to 3 months.

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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