
Where Science Ends and Wonder Begins in Heritage, Derry
Research on presentiment—the unconscious physiological response to future events—provides a scientific framework for some of the premonitions described in Physicians' Untold Stories. Dean Radin's studies at IONS, published in journals including the Journal of Scientific Exploration and Frontiers in Psychology, have demonstrated that physiological indicators (skin conductance, heart rate, pupil dilation) sometimes respond to randomly selected future stimuli before those stimuli are presented. For readers in Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire, this research means that the physician premonitions in Dr. Kolbaba's collection are consistent with laboratory findings—they are not isolated anecdotes but instances of a phenomenon that has been detected under controlled experimental conditions.

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 →A Marine Corps veteran, Mayo Clinic-trained internist, and Chicago Magazine Top Doctor — Dr. Kolbaba brings decades of credibility to these extraordinary accounts.
Medical Fact
Near-death experiencers score significantly higher on measures of concern for others and lower on fear of death than control groups.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Heritage, Derry
Physicians practicing in Heritage, Derry, 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 Heritage, Derry 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 Heritage, Derry 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
Dr. Bruce Greyson found that NDE depth correlates with subsequent positive personality transformation but not with prior religiosity.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire
Boston's medical district, one of the oldest in the nation, has accumulated centuries of ghostly lore that physicians near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire inherit whether they want to or not. The ether dome at Massachusetts General, where anesthesia was first publicly demonstrated in 1846, is said to echo with the moans of patients who went under and never fully came back—at least not in the conventional sense.
Civil War hospitals that served the Union cause left their mark across the Northeast, and facilities near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire occasionally unearth reminders. Construction projects have turned up surgical instruments, bone fragments, and—according to workers—the unmistakable copper smell of old blood. The subsequent ghostly activity tends to be auditory: the rhythmic sawing of a bone saw, the splash of a limb dropping into a bucket.
Medical Fact
NDEs in congenitally blind individuals include visual elements that the experiencer has never perceived in waking life.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Heritage, Derry
Emergency physicians in Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire are trained to focus on measurable outcomes: return of spontaneous circulation, neurological function scores, survival to discharge. But the NDE research emerging from Northeast institutions suggests an additional outcome that matters to patients—the quality of their experience during the liminal period when their hearts weren't beating. Medicine measures survival; patients measure meaning.
Psychiatric colleagues near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire are increasingly consulted when NDE experiencers present with post-experience adjustment difficulties. These patients aren't psychotic—they're struggling to integrate a transcendent experience into a life that suddenly seems flat and purposeless. The psychiatric literature on 'spiritual emergencies' is thin, and Northeast psychiatrists are writing new chapters in real time.
Did You Know?
The concept of "therapeutic presence" — a physician's calming influence on patients — has been measured in clinical studies.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Heritage, Derry
The recovery rooms of Northeast hospitals near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire are quiet theaters where small miracles occur daily. A stroke patient speaks her first word in weeks. A child takes a step after months in a wheelchair. A veteran, tormented by nightmares, sleeps peacefully for the first time in years. These moments rarely make headlines, but they are the substance of medicine's real purpose.
The mentorship traditions at Northeast medical schools near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire create chains of healing that stretch across generations. An attending physician who learned compassion from her mentor in 1980 teaches it to a resident in 2020, who will carry it to patients in 2060. Medicine's greatest discoveries may be pharmacological, but its greatest gift is the human-to-human transmission of the art of caring.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba's interviews revealed that physicians are more spiritual than the general public assumes — many pray before difficult procedures.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The concept of "evidence-based medicine" was only formally named in 1991 — meaning most of medical history operated without it.
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
Dr. Kolbaba conducted many interviews in person, believing face-to-face conversation was essential for capturing the physicians' full emotional impact.
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
Dr. Kolbaba donates a portion of book proceeds to charitable causes, including the Romanian orphanage supported by REMM.
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
Transcendental meditation has been shown to reduce blood pressure by 5 mmHg systolic and 3 mmHg diastolic in hypertensive patients.
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.
Healthcare workers near Heritage, Derry, New Hampshire who've experienced compassion fatigue may find in this book an unexpected source of renewal. The stories of physicians encountering something transcendent in their clinical work are reminders that medicine, at its most demanding, still contains moments of awe. In a profession that grinds people down, awe is a form of sustenance.

Research Finding
Forest bathing (spending time among trees) has been shown to reduce cortisol, blood pressure, and heart rate in multiple studies.
Free Interactive Wellness Tools
Explore our physician-designed assessment tools — free, private, and educational.
Other Neighborhoods in Derry
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, MD — 4.5 stars from 1018 readers.
Order on Amazon →This page contains approximately 1,461 words of unique content.