True Stories From the Hospitals of Southeast, Seoul

Not every book about death is depressing. Physicians' Untold Stories is, in many ways, a celebration—of human connection, medical integrity, and the possibility that the universe is more generous than we've been taught to believe. In Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan, readers are discovering that Dr. Kolbaba's collection lifts the weight of mortality rather than adding to it. With a 4.5-star Amazon rating and over 1,000 reviews, the book has demonstrated that there is a vast audience hungry for this kind of affirmation—not the empty kind, but the kind backed by credible witnesses and sincere testimony. This is a book that makes you feel more alive, not less.

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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"I shivered. I cried. I read some out loud to the spouse. Please write more." — Amazon Review

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Medical Fact

The diaphragm contracts and flattens about 20,000 times per day to drive each breath you take.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Southeast, Seoul

Physicians practicing in Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan 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 Southeast, Seoul 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 Southeast, Seoul 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 cochlea in the inner ear is about the size of a pea but contains roughly 25,000 nerve endings for hearing.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Southeast, Seoul

Midwest winters near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan impose a seasonal isolation that has historically accelerated the development of self-care traditions. Farm families who couldn't reach a doctor for months developed their own medical competence—setting bones, stitching wounds, managing fevers with willow bark and prayer. This tradition of medical self-reliance persists in the Midwest and influences how patients interact with the healthcare system.

Midwest medical students near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan who choose family medicine over higher-paying specialties do so with full awareness of the financial sacrifice. They're choosing to be the physician who delivers babies, manages diabetes, splints fractures, and counsels grieving widows—all in the same afternoon. This choice, driven by a commitment to comprehensive care, is the foundation of Midwest healing.

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Medical Fact

The optic nerve contains about 1.2 million nerve fibers that transmit visual information from the eye to the brain.

Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan

The Midwest's Catholic Worker movement near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan applies Dorothy Day's radical hospitality to healthcare through free clinics, respite houses, and accompaniment programs for the terminally ill. These faith-based healers don't distinguish between the worthy and unworthy sick—they serve whoever appears at the door, because their theology demands it. The exam room becomes an extension of the communion table.

Midwest funeral traditions near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan—the visitation, the church service, the graveside committal, the reception in the church basement—provide a structured healing process for grief that modern medicine's emphasis on individual therapy cannot replicate. The communal funeral, with its casseroles and coffee and shared tears, heals the bereaved through sheer social saturation. The Midwest grieves together because it has always healed together.

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Did You Know?

The most common last words spoken by dying patients, according to hospice workers, are "I love you" and "I'm ready."

Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan

Great Lakes maritime ghosts have a peculiar relationship with Midwest hospitals near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan. Sailors pulled from freezing Lake Superior or Lake Michigan were often beyond saving by the time they reached shore hospitals. These drowned men are said to return during November storms—the month the lakes claim the most ships—arriving at emergency departments with water dripping from coats, seeking treatment for hypothermia that set in a century ago.

The Midwest's meatpacking industry created hospitals near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan that treated injuries of industrial-scale brutality: amputations, lacerations, and chemical burns that occurred daily in the slaughterhouses. The ghosts of these workers—immigrant laborers from a dozen nations—are said to appear in hospital corridors with injuries that glow red against their translucent forms, a grisly reminder of the human cost of the nation's food supply.

Types of Phenomena in the Book

Distribution across 26 physician accounts

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Did You Know?

The first electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded by Willem Einthoven in 1903 — he won the Nobel Prize for this invention.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

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Did You Know?

Dr. Kolbaba's interviews revealed that emergency physicians were among the most likely to have witnessed unexplained phenomena.

Seoul: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge

Korean supernatural tradition is rich and deeply influential on modern pop culture. Gwisin (ghosts) in Korean folklore are most commonly female spirits in white—often women who died with han (a deep, unresolved grievance)—and their stories have fueled Korea's internationally acclaimed horror film industry. The concept of han is central to understanding Korean ghost stories: it is a uniquely Korean emotion combining grief, resentment, and longing that ties spirits to the mortal world. Shamanism (musok) remains surprisingly prevalent in modern Seoul, with mudang (shamans) performing gut rituals to communicate with spirits, placate the dead, and heal the living. Seodaemun Prison, where Japanese colonial authorities tortured Korean patriots, is considered one of Korea's most spiritually charged locations. The annual tradition of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) includes elaborate ancestor veneration rituals called charye.

Seoul's medical transformation is one of the most dramatic in modern history. In 1885, when American missionary physician Horace N. Allen founded the Gwanghyewon (now Severance Hospital), Korea had no modern medical infrastructure. Within a century, South Korea built one of the world's most advanced healthcare systems. Korean traditional medicine (hanbang), based on herbal remedies, acupuncture, and moxibustion, continues to be practiced alongside Western medicine and is covered by the national health insurance system. Seoul is now a global hub for medical tourism, particularly for plastic surgery, with the Gangnam district alone housing over 500 clinics. South Korea's rapid development of testing and contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic drew worldwide admiration.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba's medical career spans over 30 years of direct patient care in the Chicago suburbs.

Notable Locations in Seoul

Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital: This abandoned mental hospital in Gwangju, near Seoul, was named one of the 'freakiest places on the planet' by CNN Travel, with visitors reporting ghostly patients, slamming doors, and a pervasive sense of dread throughout the decaying building.

Yeongdeok Haunted House (Yeongdeungpo): Several abandoned buildings in Seoul's older neighborhoods are reputed to be haunted, with Korean ghost stories (gwisin) featuring prominently—the most common being female ghosts in white hanbok (traditional dress) with long black hair.

Seodaemun Prison: This colonial-era prison, built by the Japanese in 1908 and used to imprison and torture Korean independence fighters, is now a museum where visitors report hearing screams, seeing apparitions, and feeling intense emotional distress in the torture chambers.

Severance Hospital (Yonsei University): Founded in 1885 by American missionary Horace N. Allen as Korea's first Western-style hospital (Gwanghyewon), Severance is one of South Korea's most prestigious medical institutions and played a pivotal role in introducing modern medicine to Korea.

Samsung Medical Center: Opened in 1994, Samsung Medical Center is one of South Korea's largest and most technologically advanced hospitals, a leader in cancer treatment, organ transplantation, and robotic surgery.

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About the Book

Dr. Kolbaba's writing style has been praised for being accessible to both medical professionals and general readers.

How This Book Can Help You

For rural physicians near Southeast, Seoul, Seoul Metropolitan who practice alone or in small groups, this book provides something urban doctors take for granted: professional companionship. The solo practitioner who's seen something inexplicable in a farmhouse bedroom at 2 AM has no grand rounds to present at, no colleague down the hall to confide in. This book is the colleague, the grand rounds, the reassurance that they're not alone.

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

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been shown to reduce chronic pain intensity by 57% in fibromyalgia patients.

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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