
What Doctors in Frontier, Clovis Have Seen That Science Can't Explain
The nurses in Physicians' Untold Stories deserve particular attention, because their premonitions often involve a quality of intimate, embodied knowing that physician accounts sometimes lack. Nurses who "just knew" a patient would code, who felt a physical sensation of wrongness when passing a patient's room, who woke from sleep with the certainty that a night-shift patient needed intervention—these accounts suggest that premonitive knowing may operate through the body as well as the mind. In Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico, readers are discovering that this embodied dimension of medical premonitions is one of the most fascinating and least understood aspects of the phenomenon Dr. Kolbaba documents.

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 human yawn lasts about 6 seconds, during which heart rate can increase by as much as 30%.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Frontier, Clovis
Physicians practicing in Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico 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 Frontier, Clovis 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 Frontier, Clovis 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
Approximately 1 in 10,000 people has a condition called situs inversus, where all major organs are mirror-reversed.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Frontier, Clovis
Traditional Diné (Navajo) healing near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico operates on the principle of hózhó—a concept that encompasses beauty, balance, harmony, and health. When a patient is out of hózhó, the healing ceremony restores it not through the addition of medicine but through the restoration of right relationship with the natural and spiritual world. Physicians who understand hózhó understand that their work is not to fix a body but to help a person find their way back to balance.
The Southwest's farmers' markets near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico function as community health interventions. The Navajo Nation's market programs, which accept SNAP benefits and provide nutrition education alongside locally grown produce, address food insecurity and diet-related disease through a culturally appropriate mechanism. Healing, in the Southwest, often begins at a folding table under a canvas canopy, with a basket of heirloom squash.
Medical Fact
The first wearable hearing aid was developed in 1938 — modern cochlear implants can restore hearing to profoundly deaf patients.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico
The Southwest's tradition of community prayer walks near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico—organized by churches, mosques, and interfaith groups to bless neighborhoods struggling with violence, addiction, or poverty—represents a faith-based public health intervention. The walk doesn't treat disease; it treats the social environment that breeds disease. A neighborhood that has been prayed over by its own residents becomes, if not healthier, then at least more hopeful—and hope, in medicine, is not a placebo. It's a prognostic indicator.
The Southwest's interfaith healing gardens near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico—landscaped with plants sacred to multiple traditions (sage, cedar, rosemary, lotus)—create spaces where patients of any faith can find spiritual refreshment. These gardens acknowledge the Southwest's religious diversity without privileging any single tradition, and their design reflects a theology of inclusion that the region's history of cultural conflict makes all the more necessary.
Did You Know?
Studies show that patients who bring a list of questions to their doctor's appointment receive significantly better care.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico
The legend of La Llorona—the weeping woman—persists in Hispanic communities near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico and occasionally manifests in hospital settings. Pediatric nurses report hearing a woman crying in empty hallways near the children's ward, and Hispanic families who recognize the sound respond with specific prayers and protective rituals. Whether La Llorona is a genuine spirit or a cultural anxiety given spectral form, her presence in hospitals is medically relevant because it affects patient and family behavior.
The Southwest's UFO culture near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico—centered on Roswell but extending across the region—occasionally intersects with hospital ghost stories in unexpected ways. Some patients who report near-death or visionary experiences during hospitalization describe encounters with beings that don't fit conventional ghost or angel categories—luminous, non-human entities that communicate through thought rather than speech. Whether these are ghosts, aliens, or something else entirely depends on who's interpreting.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Did You Know?
The average emergency department in the U.S. sees approximately 74,000 patients per year.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The first portable defibrillator was developed in 1965 by Frank Pantridge in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Medical Heritage in New Mexico
New Mexico's medical history is shaped by its tricultural heritage of Native American, Hispanic, and Anglo traditions. The state became a destination for tuberculosis patients in the late 19th century; the dry desert air was believed to be curative, and sanatoriums like the Valmora Industrial Sanatorium near Watrous (opened 1909) and St. Joseph Sanatorium in Albuquerque drew patients from across the country. The University of New Mexico School of Medicine, established in 1964, became a national leader in rural and Native American health, developing the Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) telehealth model in 2003 under Dr. Sanjeev Arora to bring specialist care to remote communities.
The Indian Health Service operates major facilities across New Mexico, including the Gallup Indian Medical Center and the Santa Fe Indian Hospital, serving Navajo, Pueblo, and Apache nations. Los Alamos National Laboratory, while primarily known for nuclear weapons development, has contributed significantly to radiation biology and medical physics research. Presbyterian Healthcare Services, founded in 1908 by the Presbyterian Church to serve Hispanic and Native American communities in remote areas, grew into the state's largest healthcare system. The state's curanderismo tradition—folk healing practiced by curanderos and curanderas—remains a vital complement to Western medicine in many New Mexican communities.
About the Book
Reader reviews frequently mention that the book provided comfort during their own illness, grief, or existential questioning.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in New Mexico
New Mexico's supernatural folklore is among the richest in the nation, blending Native American, Spanish colonial, and frontier traditions. La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, is perhaps the most pervasive legend in the state. In New Mexico's version, she is said to be a woman named Maria who drowned her children in the Rio Grande near Albuquerque or Santa Fe after being abandoned by her husband. Her wailing ghost is said to wander the acequias and riverbanks at night, searching for her children, and parents warn children to stay away from ditches after dark.
The KiMo Theatre in downtown Albuquerque, built in 1927 in Pueblo Deco style, is haunted by the ghost of Bobby Darnall, a six-year-old boy who was killed in 1951 when a water heater exploded in the theater's lobby. Performers and staff leave doughnuts on a shelf backstage as an offering to Bobby's spirit, believing that failing to do so will cause technical problems during shows. The Santuario de Chimayó in northern New Mexico, called the "Lourdes of America," is a pilgrimage site where the dirt from a small pit is believed to have miraculous healing powers—the church walls are lined with thousands of crutches, braces, and photographs left by those who claim to have been cured.
About the Book
Dr. Kolbaba's children's book, Clara's Magic Garden, won awards from the Beverly Hills International Book Awards.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in New Mexico
Fort Bayard Medical Center (Grant County): Fort Bayard began as a military fort in 1866 and became a tuberculosis sanatorium for soldiers in 1899, later serving as a VA hospital. Thousands of patients died of TB on the grounds, and the large military cemetery adjacent to the facility holds over 400 graves. Staff and visitors report apparitions of soldiers in outdated uniforms walking the grounds, particularly near the cemetery and the old TB wards.
Lovelace-Bataan Memorial Hospital (Albuquerque): Originally built as Bataan Memorial Methodist Hospital in honor of the New Mexican soldiers who survived the Bataan Death March, this facility carries deep emotional weight. Staff have reported the apparition of a man in a World War II military uniform seen in the corridors at night, believed to be one of the Bataan veterans who died at the hospital. Lights flicker unexplainably in the older wings.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
Physicians who read non-medical books regularly score higher on measures of empathy and communication skills.
How This Book Can Help You
New Mexico, where curanderismo healing traditions coexist alongside modern medicine at institutions like UNM Hospital, provides a cultural framework where the unexplained phenomena Dr. Kolbaba documents in Physicians' Untold Stories are viewed not as anomalies but as part of a broader understanding of the boundary between life and death. The state's Project ECHO telemedicine model connects physicians across vast distances, creating a network where doctors in remote clinics can share extraordinary clinical experiences much as Dr. Kolbaba, at Northwestern Medicine, gathered accounts from colleagues who had witnessed events that transcended conventional medical explanation.
Retirement communities near Frontier, Clovis, New Mexico where Southwestern sunsets and starlit skies already encourage contemplation of mortality will find this book a natural companion to the landscape. Readers approaching the end of their lives in the desert's vastness are already primed for questions about what lies beyond. This book doesn't answer those questions; it enriches them with the testimony of physicians who've glimpsed what their patients are approaching.

Research Finding
Music therapy in hospitals has been associated with reduced need for pain medication by 25% in post-surgical patients.
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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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