
What Doctors in Lakewood, Conway Have Seen That Science Can't Explain
Dr. Scott Kolbaba did not set out to write a book about miracles. He set out to write a book about honesty — about what happens when physicians tell the truth about what they have seen, without filtering their accounts through the lens of professional respectability or scientific convention. The result, "Physicians' Untold Stories," is a collection that resonates deeply with readers in Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire precisely because of its authenticity. These are not polished parables or embellished anecdotes. They are raw, detailed, clinically specific accounts of events that happened to real patients in real hospitals — events that the physicians involved have carried in silence, sometimes for decades, until Kolbaba gave them the space and the permission to speak.

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 →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 Lakewood, Conway
Physicians practicing in Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire 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 Lakewood, Conway 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 Lakewood, Conway 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 Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire
Lighthouse keepers along the Northeast coast often doubled as first responders, and the keeper's quarters near Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire 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 Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire. 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 Lakewood, Conway
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 Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire. 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 Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire. 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 Lakewood, Conway
Nurses near Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire 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 Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire 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.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The concept of "informed consent" was not legally established until the 1957 Salgo v. Leland Stanford Jr. case.
Medical Heritage in New Hampshire
New Hampshire's medical history stretches back to the founding of Dartmouth Medical School in 1797, making it the fourth-oldest medical school in the United States. Located in Hanover, it was established by Dr. Nathan Smith, who envisioned training physicians for rural New England. Smith himself performed one of the first ovarian tumor removals in American history in 1821. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, the state's only academic medical center, grew from these roots and today serves as the tertiary referral hospital for much of northern New England. Dr. Albert Surgeon General Gallatin, a New Hampshire native, contributed to early public health measures in the state.
The New Hampshire State Hospital in Concord, opened in 1842, was one of the earliest state psychiatric institutions in New England and became known for its progressive approach to mental health care under superintendent Dr. Jesse Bancroft. Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, founded in 1893 through a bequest from Hiram Hitchcock in memory of his wife, became the teaching hospital for Dartmouth Medical School. The state's rural character has driven innovations in community health; the Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, founded in 1975 in the White Mountains, became a model for federally qualified health centers serving isolated mountain communities.
About the Book
The book has been recommended by Dr. Jeffrey Long, a leading NDE researcher, as an important contribution to the literature.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in New Hampshire
New Hampshire's supernatural legends are woven into its colonial history and rugged mountain landscape. The tale of "Ocean Born Mary" is one of the state's most enduring ghost stories: Mary Wallace, born aboard a ship off the coast of New England in 1720, allegedly grew up to live in a grand house in Henniker, New Hampshire, built for her by a reformed pirate named Don Pedro. Her ghost is said to haunt the house, appearing as a tall red-haired woman in colonial dress, and the legend has drawn curiosity seekers to Henniker for generations.
Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast at 6,288 feet, has a long history of fatal weather events and ghostly encounters. Hikers have reported seeing the apparition of Lizzie Bourne, a young woman who died of exposure near the summit in 1855—she was one of the first recorded hiking fatalities on the mountain. The Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, site of the 1944 international monetary conference, is famously haunted by the ghost of its builder, Joseph Stickney, whose wife Caroline remarried a French prince after his death. Staff report seeing Stickney's ghost in the dining room and hearing piano music from empty ballrooms.
About the Book
The book has generated thousands of reader letters and emails, many sharing personal experiences that mirror the physicians' accounts.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in New Hampshire
New Hampshire State Hospital (Concord): Operating since 1842, the New Hampshire State Hospital has a troubled history that includes overcrowding and patient deaths. The older buildings on campus are said to be haunted by former patients, with staff reporting unexplained screaming from empty rooms, doors that lock and unlock themselves, and the figure of a woman in a white hospital gown seen staring from upper-story windows at night.
Laconia State School (Laconia): The Laconia State School, which operated from 1903 to 1991 as an institution for people with intellectual disabilities, was the subject of abuse investigations and documented mistreatment. The abandoned campus has become a site for paranormal investigations, with visitors reporting shadowy figures, children's laughter in empty buildings, and an overwhelming sense of sadness in the dormitory halls.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
A study in the British Medical Journal found that compassionate care reduces hospital readmission rates by up to 50%.
How This Book Can Help You
Physicians' Untold Stories by Dr. Scott Kolbaba speaks to the kind of intimate medicine still practiced in New Hampshire's rural communities, where Dartmouth-trained physicians serve patients across generations in small towns from the White Mountains to the Connecticut River valley. The state's medical tradition, rooted in Nathan Smith's vision of training doctors for underserved areas, produces the kind of deep clinical relationships where physicians witness the full arc of life and death—the same setting in which Dr. Kolbaba, working at Northwestern Medicine after his Mayo Clinic training, encountered the unexplained deathbed phenomena he documents in his book.
For clergy near Lakewood, Conway, New Hampshire 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.

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