
The Miracles Doctors in Creekside, Williston Have Witnessed
Sibling grief—the loss of a brother or sister—is often overlooked in a culture that focuses its grief support on spouses and parents. In Creekside, Williston, North Dakota, Physicians' Untold Stories speaks to siblings who have lost their lifelong companions. The physician accounts in Dr. Kolbaba's collection, which describe dying patients connecting with deceased siblings and other family members, offer bereaved siblings the same comfort they offer all who grieve: the possibility that the bond between siblings may persist beyond death, that the person who shared your childhood is not entirely gone.

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
Fingernails grow about 3.5 millimeters per month — roughly twice as fast as toenails.
Physician Burnout & Wellness Near Creekside, Williston
Physicians practicing in Creekside, Williston, North Dakota 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, Williston 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, Williston 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 human body has over 600 muscles, and it takes 17 muscles to smile but 43 to frown.
Faith, Medicine & the Unexplained in Creekside, Williston, North Dakota
Polish Catholic communities near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota 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, Williston, North Dakota—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.
Medical Fact
The discovery of DNA's double helix structure by Watson and Crick in 1953 revolutionized our understanding of genetics and disease.
Ghost Stories and the Supernatural Near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota
The Eastland disaster of 1915, when a passenger ship capsized in the Chicago River killing 844 people, created a concentration of ghosts that persists in medical facilities throughout the Midwest near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota. The temporary morgue established at the Harpo Studios building is the most famous haunted site, but the Eastland's dead have been reported in hospitals across the Great Lakes region, as if the trauma dispersed geographically over time.
Lake Michigan's undertow has claimed swimmers near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota every summer for as long as anyone can remember. The ghosts of these drowning victims—many of them children—have been reported in lakeside hospitals with a seasonal regularity that matches the drowning statistics. They appear in June, peak in July, and fade by September, following the lake's lethal calendar.
Did You Know?
Approximately 1 in 4 deaths worldwide is caused by infectious diseases — a rate that has declined dramatically in the past century.
Near-Death Experiences Reported by Physicians Near Creekside, Williston
Community hospitals near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota 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, Williston, North Dakota 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.
Near-Death Experience Features
Percentage reporting each feature (van Lommel et al., 2001)
Did You Know?
The human body can survive the loss of most of its liver, one kidney, one lung, the spleen, and 75% of the small intestine.
Watch Dr. Kolbaba Share These Stories
Did You Know?
Approximately 70% of the human immune system resides in the gut, making digestive health critical to overall immunity.
Medical Heritage in North Dakota
North Dakota's medical history is defined by the challenge of delivering healthcare across vast, sparsely populated prairie. The University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks, established in 1905, is one of the nation's leading programs for training rural physicians—more than half its graduates practice in communities of fewer than 25,000 people. Altru Health System in Grand Forks, originating from United Hospital founded in 1907, serves as the major referral center for the northeastern part of the state. Sanford Health, headquartered in Fargo with roots dating to St. John's Hospital founded in 1896 by the Sisters of St. Francis, has grown into one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the nation through the transformative $400 million donation from banker Denny Sanford in 2007.
North Dakota's Indian Health Service facilities, including the Quentin N. Burdick Memorial Health Care Facility on the Turtle Mountain Reservation, address some of the nation's most severe health disparities. The state pioneered the use of fixed-wing air ambulance services to connect remote communities to trauma care. During the 1918 influenza pandemic, North Dakota's mortality rate was among the highest in the nation due to isolated communities receiving medical aid too late. The state's commitment to rural medicine led to the RAIN (Rural Assistance Information Network) program, connecting isolated practitioners with specialists via early telecommunications.
About the Book
The book's success has demonstrated a significant public appetite for authentic, first-person accounts of the extraordinary in medicine.
Supernatural Folklore and Ghost Traditions in North Dakota
North Dakota's supernatural folklore is rooted in the harsh realities of prairie life and the spiritual traditions of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Lakota peoples. The White Lady of the Plains is a persistent legend across the state—drivers on lonely highways report seeing a spectral woman in white standing on the shoulder of the road, particularly along Highway 10 near Dickinson. She vanishes when approached, and some versions of the legend connect her to a young bride killed in a blizzard while trying to reach her homestead.
San Haven Sanatorium near Dunseith, built in 1909 as a tuberculosis hospital in the Turtle Mountains, is considered one of the most haunted locations in the state. Hundreds of patients died there over decades, and the abandoned complex is associated with reports of shadow figures in the windows, disembodied coughing, and the apparitions of patients in hospital gowns seen walking the grounds. The Assumption Abbey near Richardton, a Benedictine monastery established in 1899, has its own tradition of ghostly monks reported by visitors—a hooded figure seen in the cloister that dissolves when observed directly.
About the Book
The book has been praised for its balance — presenting extraordinary accounts without dismissing scientific skepticism.
Haunted Hospitals and Medical Landmarks in North Dakota
North Dakota State Hospital (Jamestown): The North Dakota Hospital for the Insane opened in Jamestown in 1885 and has operated continuously since. The older sections of the campus, some now decommissioned, are associated with reports of apparitions and unexplained sounds. Staff in the historic buildings have described doors slamming shut, lights turning on in sealed rooms, and the feeling of being watched in the corridors of the original patient wards.
San Haven Sanatorium (Dunseith): Built in 1909 in the Turtle Mountains as a tuberculosis hospital, San Haven treated hundreds of patients over its decades of operation. The abandoned facility, largely in ruins, has become North Dakota's most investigated haunted site. Visitors report the sound of coughing from empty buildings, shadow figures visible in windows, and cold spots that persist even in summer heat, attributed to the many TB patients who died within its walls.
Types of Phenomena in the Book
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Research Finding
Physicians who maintain strong peer support networks report 40% lower burnout rates than those who do not.
How This Book Can Help You
In North Dakota, where physicians at facilities like Sanford Health in Fargo and UND-affiliated clinics serve communities spread across hundreds of miles of open prairie, the intimate clinical relationships that characterize rural medicine create the conditions for the extraordinary experiences Dr. Kolbaba captures in Physicians' Untold Stories. A North Dakota family doctor who delivers babies, treats chronic illness, and sits at the bedside during final moments—sometimes as the only physician within a hundred miles—embodies the kind of comprehensive doctoring that Dr. Kolbaba, trained at Mayo Clinic just across the Minnesota border, describes as the context where unexplained phenomena most often emerge.
Emergency medical technicians near Creekside, Williston, North Dakota—the first responders who arrive at cardiac arrests in farmhouses, on roadsides, and in grain elevators—will find their own experiences reflected in this book. The EMT who performed CPR in a snowdrift and felt something leave the patient's body, the paramedic who heard a flatlined patient whisper 'not yet'—these stories are the Midwest's own, and this book tells them with the respect they deserve.

Research Finding
Regular aerobic exercise has been shown to increase hippocampal volume by 2% per year, reversing age-related volume loss.
Free Interactive Wellness Tools
Explore our physician-designed assessment tools — free, private, and educational.
Other Neighborhoods in Williston
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 1,510 words of unique content.