What Doctors in Brookside, Portland Have Seen That Science Can't Explain

In Brookside, Portland, Maine, the story of Barbara Cummiskey's recovery from multiple sclerosis has become a touchstone for anyone who believes that healing can transcend medical explanation. Bedridden, on a ventilator, with documented brain lesions visible on MRI, Cummiskey rose from her bed and walked — her neurological damage simply gone. Dr. Scott Kolbaba includes this case and many others like it in "Physicians' Untold Stories," not to promote any particular belief system but to honestly reckon with what physicians have witnessed. For readers in Brookside, Portland, Cummiskey's story is a reminder that even in an age of advanced diagnostics and precision medicine, the human body retains the capacity to astonish the very professionals trained to understand it.

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!

Order on Amazon →

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

🔬

Medical Fact

A single human hair can support up to 3.5 ounces of weight — an entire head of hair could support roughly 12 tons.

Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Brookside, Portland

Physicians practicing in Brookside, Portland, Maine 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 Brookside, Portland 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 Brookside, Portland 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

Surgeons wash their hands for a minimum of 2-5 minutes before surgery — a practice pioneered by Joseph Lister in the 1860s.

Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Brookside, Portland, Maine

Lighthouse keepers along the Northeast coast often doubled as first responders, and the keeper's quarters near Brookside, Portland, Maine have a medical history that blends seamlessly with the supernatural. The keeper who set broken bones by candlelight and stitched wounds with sailmaker's thread is said to still climb the spiral stairs on stormy nights, lantern in hand, looking for ships that will never come.

The grand psychiatric institutions that once defined Northeast mental healthcare have mostly closed, but their influence reaches Brookside, Portland, Maine. Former patients and staff from places like Danvers State Hospital describe encounters with entities that seemed to feed on suffering. Modern psychiatric nurses in the region carry these stories as cautionary tales about the thin line between clinical observation and the unexplainable.

🔬

Medical Fact

The first use of ether as a surgical anesthetic was by Crawford Long in 1842, four years before the famous public demonstration.

Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Brookside, Portland

The Northeast's tradition of medical journalism—from the New England Journal of Medicine to Scientific American—has slowly expanded its coverage of NDE research near Brookside, Portland, Maine. What was once relegated to the 'curiosities' section now appears in peer-reviewed case reports and editorial commentaries. The academic gatekeepers haven't opened the gate, but they've stopped pretending it isn't there.

The debate over whether NDEs represent genuine perception or neural artifact has particular intensity in the Northeast's academic culture near Brookside, Portland, Maine. Skeptics invoke the endorphin hypothesis, the temporal lobe seizure model, and the hypoxia theory. Proponents counter with veridical perception cases—patients accurately reporting events during documented flatline periods. The data is inconvenient for both sides.

💡

Did You Know?

Approximately 10% of the world's population is left-handed — and surgeons who are left-handed face unique challenges in the operating room.

Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Brookside, Portland

Nurses near Brookside, Portland, Maine are the backbone of Northeast healthcare, and their role in healing extends far beyond medication administration. They are translators—converting medical jargon into plain English, converting patient fears into clinical information, converting institutional coldness into human warmth. The best hospitals in the region know that nursing excellence is not a support function but the core of the healing mission.

Hospice care in the Northeast near Brookside, Portland, Maine has evolved from a reluctant last resort to a sophisticated practice of comfort and dignity. The region's hospice nurses have learned something that curative medicine often misses: there is healing that goes beyond physical recovery. Helping a family say goodbye, facilitating a last conversation, easing a passage—these are acts of healing in their purest form.

Physician Burnout by Specialty

Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)

💡

Did You Know?

The average physician sees patients for about 4,000 hours per year — the equivalent of two full years of non-stop work.

Portland: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge

Portland's most famous supernatural sites are the Shanghai Tunnels—a network of underground passages beneath the city's Old Town district that were allegedly used from the 1850s to the early 1900s to kidnap ('shanghai') intoxicated men through trapdoors in saloon floors and sell them as forced labor to ship captains. While historians debate the extent of shanghaiing, the tunnels themselves are real, and tours through the cramped, dark passages report encounters with ghostly presences. The White Eagle Saloon, a rough working-class bar since 1905, has been investigated by numerous paranormal groups and featured on multiple ghost-hunting television shows. Portland's progressive culture has also spawned a thriving community of psychics, mediums, and alternative spiritual practitioners—the city hosts one of the largest annual paranormal conferences in the Pacific Northwest.

Portland's medical history reflects the Pacific Northwest's frontier heritage and progressive public health culture. Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, founded in 1875, was one of the earliest hospitals in the region, serving a rapidly growing population drawn by the timber industry and railroad. Oregon Health & Science University, perched dramatically on Marquam Hill and accessible by aerial tram, has become a nationally recognized research institution, particularly through the Knight Cancer Institute, which received a transformative $500 million donation in 2013. Portland was among the first US cities to establish death-with-dignity legislation—Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (1997) was the first such law in the United States, allowing terminally ill patients to request physician-prescribed medication to end their lives, sparking a national debate about end-of-life autonomy that continues today.

💡

Did You Know?

The concept of "informed consent" was not legally established until the 1957 Salgo v. Leland Stanford Jr. case.

Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories

📖

About the Book

The book has been recommended by Dr. Jeffrey Long, a leading NDE researcher, as an important contribution to the literature.

Notable Locations in Portland

Shanghai Tunnels (Portland Underground): A network of underground tunnels beneath Old Town Chinatown reportedly used for 'shanghaiing'—kidnapping men and selling them as unpaid laborers to ship captains—are said to be haunted by the spirits of those who were drugged, captured, and died underground.

White Eagle Saloon: This 1905 bar and hotel in the industrial northeast was a former brothel and opium den, reportedly haunted by a former prostitute named Rose and by the ghosts of Chinese and Polish immigrants who died on the premises.

Pittock Mansion: This 1914 French Renaissance-style estate overlooking the city is said to be haunted by its original owners, publisher Henry Pittock and his wife Georgiana, with visitors reporting the scent of roses and ghostly footsteps.

Oregon Health & Science University Hospital (OHSU): Perched on Marquam Hill overlooking the city, OHSU is Oregon's only academic medical center, known for pioneering work in genomics and as a major center for cancer research through the Knight Cancer Institute.

Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center: Founded in 1875, it is one of the oldest hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and has served Portland's community for nearly 150 years.

📖

About the Book

The book has generated thousands of reader letters and emails, many sharing personal experiences that mirror the physicians' accounts.

Medical Heritage in Maine

Maine's medical history reflects the challenges of providing care in a rural, geographically isolated state. The Maine Medical Center in Portland, founded in 1874, grew into the state's largest hospital and a Level I trauma center serving the northern New England region. Bowdoin College's Medical School of Maine, which operated from 1820 to 1921, trained physicians for the state's rural communities; its most famous graduate was Dr. Isaac Lincoln, who practiced frontier medicine in the state's northern lumber camps.

The Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor (now Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center) served the vast rural expanses of northern Maine. Dr. Israel T. Dana, a Civil War surgeon who later became dean of the Maine Medical School at Bowdoin, was instrumental in modernizing medical education in the state. Maine's long coastline and maritime industry produced specialized maritime medicine, with the U.S. Marine Hospital in Portland treating sailors and fishermen. Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, founded in 1929, became one of the world's foremost genetics research institutions, playing a critical role in the development of mouse models for cancer research and contributing to the Human Genome Project.

Reader Ratings Distribution

Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings

📊

Research Finding

A study in the British Medical Journal found that compassionate care reduces hospital readmission rates by up to 50%.

Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Maine

Maine's supernatural folklore draws from its harsh coastal environment, dense forests, and the literary imagination of Stephen King, who has set dozens of horror novels in fictionalized versions of Maine towns. The real Maine is equally rich in ghost lore. Seguin Island Lighthouse, built in 1795, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a lighthouse keeper's wife who went mad from isolation and was murdered by her husband with an axe—visitors report hearing piano music drifting across the water. Wood Island Lighthouse near Biddeford Pool is haunted by the ghost of a lobsterman who killed a tenant and then himself in 1896.

The town of Bucksport is home to the 'Witch's Foot' legend: Colonel Jonathan Buck, the town's founder, is said to have been cursed by a woman he sentenced to death for witchcraft—a leg-shaped stain has appeared and reappeared on his tombstone despite repeated cleanings. Fort Knox (Maine's, not Kentucky's) in Prospect is considered one of the most haunted military installations in New England, with reports of soldiers' ghosts, disembodied voices, and cold spots throughout the casemates. In the North Woods, legends of the Specter Moose—an enormous, ghostly white moose—have been reported by hunters and loggers since the 1800s.

📊

Research Finding

Storytelling as therapy — narrative medicine — has been adopted by over 200 medical schools worldwide.

Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Maine

Fort Popham Hospital Station (Phippsburg): The Civil War-era fort at the mouth of the Kennebec River included a hospital station for injured soldiers. The unfinished granite fort, combined with the harsh Maine coastal weather, creates an atmosphere of foreboding. Visitors report hearing the sounds of men in pain, seeing spectral soldiers walking the parapets, and encountering cold spots in the casemates that served as hospital wards.

Augusta Mental Health Institute (Augusta): Originally the Maine Insane Hospital, established in 1840, this facility treated the mentally ill for over 160 years. The Kirkbride-plan building, designed by Thomas Story Kirkbride himself, housed patients through eras of restraints, ice baths, and lobotomies. The underground tunnel system connecting the buildings is said to be the most haunted area, with former staff reporting disembodied voices, shadowy figures, and a pervasive sense of dread. A cemetery on the grounds holds hundreds of unmarked patient graves.

Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 of the most miraculous experiences of their careers, chronicled in one book.

Physicians' Untold Stories

How This Book Can Help You

Maine's medical community—where physicians at Maine Medical Center and in rural practices serve communities spread across a state nearly the size of the other five New England states combined—creates the kind of intimate, isolated practice settings where the experiences in Physicians' Untold Stories feel most genuine. The state that inspired Stephen King's fictional horrors also produces real physicians who encounter the medically inexplicable in their daily practice. Dr. Kolbaba's documentation of miraculous recoveries and deathbed phenomena resonates in Maine, where physicians often serve as the sole medical provider for remote communities, building the deep patient relationships that make witnessing the unexplainable both profound and unavoidable.

For clergy near Brookside, Portland, Maine who serve as hospital chaplains, this book bridges the gap between pastoral care and clinical medicine. The physician accounts it contains give chaplains a vocabulary for discussing these experiences with medical teams—translating spiritual phenomena into clinical language that physicians can engage with without abandoning their professional framework.

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

Reader Ratings Distribution

Based on 1,018 Goodreads ratings

Sometimes all we need to do is believe. — From the introduction to Physicians' Untold Stories

Physicians' Untold Stories

Free Interactive Wellness Tools

Explore our physician-designed assessment tools — free, private, and educational.

Other Neighborhoods in Portland

Nearby Cities

Explore Other Countries

Related Reading

Frequently Asked Questions

Discover the Stories Medicine Never Says Out Loud

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

Order on Amazon →

This page contains approximately 1,914 words of unique content.

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