
Real Physicians. Real Stories. Real Miracles Near Plantation, Poughkeepsie
The impact of near-death experiences on the physician's own worldview is a theme that runs throughout Physicians' Untold Stories and one that is rarely discussed in the medical literature. When a physician hears a patient describe events that occurred during cardiac arrest with perfect accuracy — events the physician knows the patient could not have perceived through normal sensory channels — the physician faces a choice: dismiss the report as coincidence or accept that their understanding of consciousness may be incomplete. Many of the physicians in Dr. Kolbaba's book chose acceptance, and the consequences were profound. They describe becoming more attentive to patients' spiritual needs, more open to discussions of meaning and purpose, and more at peace with the limits of their own mortality. For Plantation, Poughkeepsie readers, these physician transformation stories offer a model of intellectual humility and emotional courage.

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 →"What an inspirational time… I was gratified by the unusually good turn-out and the comments received afterwards." — D.H., Presbyterian Minister
Medical Fact
A full bladder is roughly the size of a softball and can hold about 16 ounces of urine.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Plantation, Poughkeepsie
Physicians practicing in Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York 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 Plantation, Poughkeepsie 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 Plantation, Poughkeepsie 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 first use of rubber gloves during surgery was at Johns Hopkins in 1890, initially to protect a nurse's hands from harsh disinfectants.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York
Northeast teaching hospitals pride themselves on evidence-based medicine, which makes the ghost stories from Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York all the more compelling. These aren't tales from credulous laypeople; they come from residents, attending physicians, and department chiefs who have no professional incentive to report seeing a transparent figure adjust a patient's IV line before dissolving into the wall.
The 1918 influenza pandemic hit the Northeast with particular ferocity, overwhelming hospitals near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York that were already strained by World War I. The pandemic's ghosts are different from other hospital spirits—they appear in groups, not singly, as if death came so fast that the dead didn't realize they'd left the living behind. Mass hauntings for a mass casualty event.
Medical Fact
Taste buds have a lifespan of only about 10 days before they are replaced by new ones.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Plantation, Poughkeepsie
The Northeast's pharmaceutical industry, concentrated along the I-95 corridor near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York, has shown a surprising interest in NDE research—not out of spiritual curiosity, but because NDE experiencers often report permanent changes in medication response. Antidepressants work differently, pain thresholds shift, and some patients report a lasting alteration in their relationship with their own bodies.
Chaplains at Northeast hospitals near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York often serve as the first point of contact for NDE experiencers, hearing accounts that patients are reluctant to share with physicians. These chaplains have noticed a pattern: the most transformative NDEs often occur in patients with no prior religious belief. The experience doesn't confirm existing faith—it creates something entirely new, something that doesn't fit any catechism.
Did You Know?
Dr. Kolbaba found that physicians who acknowledged their unexplained experiences reported greater professional satisfaction.
Physician Wellness, Grief & Finding Meaning Near Plantation, Poughkeepsie
The Northeast's medical humanities programs near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York have produced physicians who understand that the arts and medicine are not separate disciplines. A doctor who reads poetry is better equipped to hear the metaphors patients use to describe their pain. A surgeon who paints understands that the body is not merely a machine to be repaired but a canvas of lived experience.
The Northeast's medical libraries near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York—from the grand reading rooms of academic centers to the modest shelves of community hospitals—contain more than information. They contain hope. Every journal article represents someone's attempt to solve a problem that causes suffering. Every textbook is a promise that knowledge, carefully applied, can push back against disease. The library is medicine's cathedral.
Physician Burnout by Specialty
Percentage reporting at least one symptom (Medscape, 2024)
Did You Know?
The word "physician" comes from the Greek "physis" meaning nature — a physician was originally one who understood the nature of things.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
The word "doctor" comes from the Latin "docere," meaning "to teach" — a physician was originally a teacher of health.
Medical Heritage in New York
New York has been the epicenter of American medicine since the colonial era. The Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, established in 1767 as the medical faculty of King's College, is the oldest medical school in the state. Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, tracing its origins to 1736, is the oldest public hospital in the United States and pioneered America's first ambulance service in 1869, first maternity ward, and first cardiac catheterization. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, formed by the 1998 merger of Columbia-Presbyterian and New York Hospital-Cornell, consistently ranks among the top hospitals in the world.
The state's contributions to medicine are staggering in scope. Dr. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine at the University of Pittsburgh but was born and educated in New York City, and the first mass polio vaccinations took place in New York in 1955. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, founded in 1884, became the world's preeminent cancer hospital. The New York Blood Center pioneered modern blood banking. Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, was one of the first hospitals to accept patients regardless of race, religion, or ability to pay. Upstate, the University of Rochester Medical Center and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo have made foundational contributions to ophthalmology and oncology respectively.
About the Book
Kirkus Reviews called the book "a feel-good book of hope and wonder."
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in New York
New York's supernatural folklore spans from the colonial legends of the Hudson Valley to the urban ghost stories of Manhattan. Washington Irving's 1820 tale of the Headless Horseman was inspired by real Dutch colonial ghost stories from Sleepy Hollow (then called North Tarrytown), and the Old Dutch Church and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery remain pilgrimage sites for those drawn to the legend. The Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights, Manhattan's oldest surviving house (built 1765), is reportedly haunted by Eliza Jumel, whose ghost has been seen in a violet-colored dress; students from a nearby school fled in 1964 after reportedly seeing her apparition.
The Dakota apartment building on the Upper West Side, where John Lennon was murdered in 1980, has a long pre-existing reputation for hauntings dating to its construction in 1884. Residents including Lennon's widow Yoko Ono have reported seeing Lennon's ghost in the building's hallways. In the Adirondacks, Skene Manor in Whitehall—built in 1874 by Judge Joseph Potter—is haunted by the ghost of his wife, whose body he reportedly kept sealed in a vault beneath the house for years after her death. Rolling Hills Asylum in East Bethany, originally a county poor house opened in 1827, is considered one of the most haunted locations in the Northeast, with over 1,700 documented deaths on the property.
About the Book
Many physicians told Dr. Kolbaba that they had never shared their stories before — not even with spouses.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in New York
Old Bellevue Hospital Morgue (Manhattan): Bellevue Hospital's old morgue in the basement of the original 26th Street building processed thousands of bodies over more than a century. Morgue workers over the decades reported bodies that appeared to shift position overnight, unexplained temperature drops, and the sound of whispered conversations in the cold storage rooms when no living person was present.
Kings Park Psychiatric Center (Long Island): Kings Park operated from 1885 to 1996 on over 800 acres of Long Island. At its height, it housed over 9,000 patients. Building 93, a towering 13-story structure, is the most investigated site—paranormal teams have recorded shadow figures, disembodied voices, and inexplicable cold drafts in the abandoned wards. The facility's history of lobotomies and insulin shock therapy contributes to its dark reputation.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
A daily 15-minute laughter session has been shown to improve vascular function by 22% in patients with cardiovascular disease.
How This Book Can Help You
New York, home to the greatest concentration of hospitals and physicians in the nation, from Bellevue to Memorial Sloan Kettering, is a place where the sheer volume of clinical encounters makes the kind of unexplained phenomena Dr. Kolbaba describes in Physicians' Untold Stories statistically inevitable. The intensity of New York medicine—where residents at institutions like NewYork-Presbyterian see more death in a month than many rural doctors see in a year—creates conditions ripe for the extraordinary experiences Dr. Kolbaba, trained at Mayo Clinic and practicing at Northwestern Medicine, has carefully documented from physicians who dare to share what they've witnessed.
For medical students near Plantation, Poughkeepsie, New York, this book offers something their curriculum doesn't: permission to take seriously the experiences that fall outside the biomedical model. The Northeast's medical education is superb at teaching what is known. This book addresses what isn't known—and argues that the unknown deserves the same intellectual rigor as the known.

Research Finding
A study in Psychosomatic Medicine found that optimism is associated with a 35% lower risk of cardiovascular events.
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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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