
The Miracles Doctors in Creekside, St. Louis Have Witnessed
In Creekside, St. Louis's hospitals, operating rooms, and emergency departments, physicians have experienced moments that they can only describe as guided. A surgeon who changes course mid-operation based on a feeling. An internist who orders an unnecessary test that reveals a hidden, lethal condition. A resident who stays late for no reason and catches a patient coding alone. These stories are not about luck. They are about something that the physicians themselves believe is intelligence, intention, and love.

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 →"I just read your book and was inspired, moved, entertained. I can't wait to share this book with premeds." — D.G., Ophthalmology Professor, University of Illinois
Medical Fact
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States in 1849.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Creekside, St. Louis
Physicians practicing in Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri 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 Creekside, St. Louis 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 Creekside, St. Louis 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
The term "bedside manner" was first used in the mid-19th century to describe a physician's demeanor with patients.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Creekside, St. Louis
Community hospitals near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri where physicians know their patients personally are uniquely positioned to document NDE aftereffects—the lasting psychological, spiritual, and behavioral changes that follow near-death experiences. A family doctor who's treated a patient for twenty years can detect the subtle shifts in personality, values, and life priorities that NDE experiencers consistently report. This longitudinal observation is impossible in large, rotating-staff medical centers.
The Midwest's public radio stations near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri have produced some of the most thoughtful NDE journalism in the country—long-form interviews with researchers, experiencers, and skeptics that treat the subject with the same seriousness applied to agricultural policy or education reform. This media coverage has normalized NDE discussion in a region where public radio is as influential as the local newspaper.
Medical Fact
The human body contains about 2.5 million sweat glands distributed across the skin.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Creekside, St. Louis
The Midwest's tradition of potluck dinners near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri has been adapted by hospital wellness programs into community nutrition events. The concept is simple: bring a dish, share a meal, learn about health. But the power is in the gathering itself. People who eat together care about each other's health in ways that isolated individuals don't. The potluck is preventive medicine served on paper plates.
Midwest medical marriages near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri—the partnerships between physicians and their spouses who answer phones, manage offices, and raise families in communities where the doctor is always on call—are a form of healing infrastructure that deserves recognition. The physician's spouse who brings dinner to the office at 9 PM, who fields emergency calls at 3 AM, who keeps the household functional during flu season, is a healthcare worker without a credential or a salary.
Did You Know?
The human heart begins beating approximately 22 days after conception — before the brain has fully formed.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri
Polish Catholic communities near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri maintain healing devotions to the Black Madonna of Czestochowa—a tradition brought across the Atlantic and sustained through generations of immigration. Hospital rooms in Polish neighborhoods sometimes display replicas of the icon, and patients who pray before it report a comfort that transcends its artistic merit. The Black Madonna heals homesickness as much as physical illness.
Christmas Eve services at Midwest churches near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri—candlelit, hushed, with familiar carols sung in harmony—produce a collective peace that spills over into hospital wards. Chaplains report that Christmas Eve is the quietest night of the year in Midwest hospitals: fewer call lights, fewer complaints, fewer codes. Whether this reflects the peace of the season or simply lower census, the effect on those who remain in the hospital is measurable.
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Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba found that physicians who had experienced the death of a close family member were more open to discussing unexplained phenomena.
St. Louis: Where History, Medicine, and the Supernatural Converge
St. Louis's most famous supernatural story is the real exorcism that inspired William Peter Blatty's 'The Exorcist.' In 1949, Jesuit priests from Saint Louis University performed weeks of exorcism rituals on a teenage boy (known as 'Roland Doe' or 'Robbie Mannheim') at a house in Bel-Nor and at Alexian Brothers Hospital. The case was documented by attending priest Father Raymond Bishop in a detailed diary. The Lemp Mansion, where four members of the once-mighty Lemp brewing dynasty took their own lives, is consistently ranked among the most haunted houses in America, with paranormal investigators documenting full-body apparitions, objects moving, and voices. Life Magazine featured the mansion in a 'most haunted' list. Zombie Road, a isolated path along the Meramec River, has generated decades of ghost stories involving shadow figures, orbs, and disembodied voices, making it a pilgrimage site for paranormal enthusiasts.
St. Louis is a titan of American medical research, primarily through Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which together have produced more Nobel Prize winners than almost any other medical institution in the country. Notable laureates include Carl and Gerty Cori (glycogen metabolism, 1947), Earl Sutherland (cyclic AMP, 1971), and Daniel Nathans (restriction enzymes, 1978). The medical school's tradition of excellence dates to 1910, when Abraham Flexner's landmark report on medical education held Johns Hopkins and Washington University as the models for reform. St. Louis was also a significant center for the development of the polio vaccine, and Barnes-Jewish Hospital has been at the forefront of cancer immunotherapy, organ transplantation, and genomic medicine. The city's medical heritage also includes significant contributions to the understanding of infectious diseases through the city's public health infrastructure.
Did You Know?
Hippocrates described over 60 diseases in his writings — many of his clinical observations remain accurate today.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba donates a portion of book proceeds to charitable causes, including the Romanian orphanage supported by REMM.
Notable Locations in St. Louis
Lemp Mansion: This 1868 mansion, home to the Lemp brewing family who suffered four suicides within the house between 1904 and 1949, is considered one of the most haunted houses in America, now operating as a restaurant and inn.
The Exorcist House: A house in the nearby suburb of Bel-Nor is where the 1949 exorcism actually took place that inspired the novel and film 'The Exorcist,' after the case moved from Maryland to St. Louis where Jesuit priests at Saint Louis University performed the ritual.
Zombie Road (Lawler Ford Road): This isolated two-mile path along the Meramec River in Wildwood is considered one of the most haunted locations in the St. Louis area, with reports of shadow people, Native American spirits, and ghostly figures.
Barnes-Jewish Hospital: Consistently ranked among the top ten hospitals in the United States, this is the primary teaching hospital for Washington University School of Medicine and has produced numerous Nobel Prize winners in medicine.
Saint Louis University Hospital: Affiliated with the nation's second-oldest medical school west of the Mississippi (founded 1836), this Jesuit university hospital played a central role in the 1949 exorcism case that inspired 'The Exorcist.'
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba has been featured in local and national media discussing the intersection of medicine and the unexplained.
Medical Heritage in Missouri
Missouri's medical history is anchored by two world-class institutions in St. Louis. Washington University School of Medicine, founded in 1891, consistently ranks among the top five medical schools in the nation and is home to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, one of the country's premier academic medical centers. The university produced numerous Nobel laureates, including Dr. Carl Ferdinand Cori and Dr. Gerty Cori, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947 for discovering how glycogen is broken down in the body—Gerty was the first American woman to win a Nobel in science. St. Louis Children's Hospital, affiliated with Washington University, became a national leader in pediatric medicine.
The University of Missouri School of Medicine in Columbia, established in 1872, trained physicians for the state's rural communities and was home to the first school of journalism's health reporting program, bridging medicine and public communication. In Kansas City, the Truman Medical Centers served the underserved population, and St. Luke's Hospital became a major cardiac care center. Missouri was also the birthplace of osteopathic medicine: Dr. Andrew Taylor Still founded the first osteopathic school, the American School of Osteopathy, in Kirksville in 1892, establishing an alternative approach to medicine that emphasized the musculoskeletal system and now produces a significant percentage of America's primary care physicians.
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Research Finding
Forest bathing (spending time among trees) has been shown to reduce cortisol, blood pressure, and heart rate in multiple studies.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in Missouri
Missouri's supernatural folklore reflects its position as the gateway to the West, with ghost stories from the riverboat era, Civil War, and frontier settlement. The Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, home to the Lemp brewing dynasty, is considered one of the most haunted houses in America—four members of the Lemp family died by suicide in the home between 1904 and 1949, and the mansion, now a restaurant and inn, reports apparitions, phantom footsteps, and glasses flying off tables. The ghost of the 'Lavender Lady' (Lillian Lemp) is seen on the main staircase, and the ghost of Charles Lemp appears in the attic.
The Zombie Road (Lawler Ford Road) in Wildwood, a two-mile path along the Meramec River, is named for legends of shadow people and spectral figures that emerge from the woods—the path runs past an old insane asylum and Native American burial grounds. Pythian Castle in Springfield, built in 1913 and used as a military prison during World War II to hold German and Italian POWs, is haunted by both prisoners and the building's fraternal lodge members. In Hannibal, the Mark Twain Cave where Tom Sawyer's adventures were set is reputedly visited by the ghost of a girl who became lost and died in the cave's passages in the 1800s. The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes, the most powerful in American history, generated legends of the dead rising from their graves along the Mississippi.
Research Finding
Journaling about stressful experiences has been shown to improve wound healing by 76% compared to non-journaling controls.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in Missouri
Old Insane Asylum of Missouri (Fulton): The Missouri State Hospital No. 1 in Fulton, established in 1851, was the state's first psychiatric institution and operated for over a century. The original Kirkbride-plan building, with its imposing Victorian architecture, treated patients through the full spectrum of 19th and 20th-century psychiatric practices. Staff and visitors have reported the sound of screaming from the old hydrotherapy room, doors that swing open on their own, and a male figure in a straitjacket seen standing at the window of the former restraint ward.
St. Louis State Hospital (St. Louis): Also known as 'Arsenal Street Asylum,' this psychiatric facility operated from 1869 onward and was one of Missouri's primary institutions for the mentally ill. The oldest sections, built with thick stone walls and iron-barred windows, housed patients through decades of overcrowding and harsh treatments. Former staff describe hearing weeping from the old women's ward, encountering a patient in a hospital gown who walks through locked doors, and the persistent smell of disinfectant in areas that have been unoccupied for decades.
“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
Missouri's medical culture, shaped by the twin pillars of Washington University's world-class research and Dr. Andrew Taylor Still's founding of osteopathic medicine in Kirksville, represents both the cutting edge of scientific medicine and an alternative tradition that has always honored the body's own healing capacity. This duality makes Missouri physicians particularly receptive to the themes in Physicians' Untold Stories. Dr. Kolbaba's documentation of unexplained recoveries and bedside phenomena bridges the conventional and the mysterious—a bridge that Missouri medicine, with its unique combination of academic rigor and osteopathic holism, has been building since Still challenged medical orthodoxy in the 1890s. The state's physicians, from Barnes-Jewish Hospital to rural Ozark clinics, carry this openness to the full spectrum of medical experience.
The Midwest's culture of humility near Creekside, St. Louis, Missouri makes the physicians in this book especially compelling. These aren't doctors seeking attention for extraordinary claims; they're clinicians who'd rather not have had these experiences, who'd prefer the tidy certainty of a normal medical career. Their reluctance to speak is itself a form of credibility that Midwest readers instinctively recognize.

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“Sometimes all we need to do is believe. — From the introduction to Physicians' Untold Stories”
— Physicians' Untold Stories
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Physicians' Untold Stories by Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
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